Coffee, Cake & Music

The Festival is over but the music isn’t and we like to keep you up to date with other musical offerings in our area.

Viol player Susanna Pell (a Festival regular) is giving a very informal recital in Easby church on Sunday 15 June from 10.30am – 1.00pm. Just drop in, bring a book, read the papers, meet friends and have a cup of coffee and some home made cakes (Easby has a fearsome reputation for the quality of the home-made cakes there) all while Susanna plays some delightful C18 music.

Donations are requested rather than an admission fee and proceeds will be shared between Easby church and the National Autistic Society.

Susanna hope to do a series of these informal concerts for good causes – usually the less well-known ones – so we’ll try and let you know about them as they come up.

Coffee concert poster 150614

What was your 2014 Festival highlight?

Of course it depends on your musical taste. We have had rave reports of Brass Jaw, and The Hut People were as popular as ever again but for me it had to be Trio Apaches plus Emma Johnson playing Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time composed in 1940 and first performed in 1941 when the composer was incarcerated in Stalag-VIIIA. The ensemble available in the camp comprised four instruments – piano, violin, cello and clarinet so that was what it was composed for.

It is one of those works that one knows of but rarely hears and the Festival performance in Askrigg church was a performance to remember. Thomas Carroll’s wonderfully resonant cello and Emma Johnson’s amazing clarinet in the two movements where those two instruments have a solo line, were particularly memorable. The rest was similarly moving with the excellent programme notes providing a lucid explanation of the meaning of each movement – so important in much of Messiaen’s music with its deeply religious inspiration.

Swaledale Festival audiences are noted for their deep appreciation of the music (you rarely get coughers inflicting themselves on these audiences) and at the end of Quartet for the End of Time there was an awestruck silence lasting about 7 seconds before the rapturous applause began.  How often have I been at a concert where that magic silence, and the moment with it, has been shattered by someone starting to clap loudly as soon as the violinist had moved the bow from the strings.

The trio also gave a memorable performance of Sally Beamish’s trio transcription of Debussy’s La Mer. Amazing – probably as near the sound of a full symphony orchestra as you will get from a piano trio. The Liszt Vallee d’Obermann was also well-played but was not, for me, as memorable as the other two works.

If you’s like to tell us what was your Swaledale Festival memorable moment please feel welcome to use our blog to do so.

Didn’t they do well?

Well, actually it wasn’t us that ‘did well’. It was 100 children from Dales schools at Gunnerside, Reeth and Arkengarthdale and Catterick Garrison schools Le Cateau and Wavell that did well along with Michael Thomson and his team at Gayle Mill near Hawes, artists Margaret Murphy and Jill Eagle, music teacher Rosi Keatinge with musicians Gary Hammond and Sam Pirt, better known to Festival audiences as the Hut People, along with their musician colleagues in Forro Porro.

They did so well in the Percussion Project organised by the Festival between October last year and the concert on 6 March this year that we were nominated for the Prime Minister’s Big Society Award. (See the full description of it elsewhere on our site)
There is a very rigorous vetting procedure for these awards and the final say on who gets them rests with the PM himself. It was, coincidentally, the day that The Hut People were appearing at this year’s Festival that the news came through so we were able quickly to bring a few of the children who took part to the concert and make the big announcement then. See Big Society web page

We should also remember Paul Knowles and Margaret Murphy who spent many hours finding the funding so that this project could be delivered at no cost to the schools involved. Thanks also to NYMAZ-North Yorkshire Music Action Zone, Youth Music, the Co-operative Community Fund, the Charles and Elsie Sykes Trust and the MoD Community Covenant Scheme who actually provided the funding.

The Big Society Award has huge kudos for the Swaledale Festival. Malcolm Creese, Artistic Director said:

“Winning a Big Society Award means an enormous amount to the team at Swaledale Festival, and to all the people who made the Percussion Project such a memorable event. I am particularly thrilled for the one hundred children who took part; I can’t wait to tell them the good news.”

Well done children. You didn’t just ‘do well’, you did brilliantly.

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We’ve already had several very complimentary emails about this year’s Festival. If you’d like to let us know what you thought of it you can either email us with specific comments (including constructive criticism) or fill in our audience survey for a more general opinion. We’d love to hear from you.

2014 Festival over – long live the 2015 Festival

A word of warning – if you know a Festival Board member, don’t say anything like “Well, the Festival’s over.I suppose you’ll be taking a break now”. You are likely to induce a fit of apoplexy, especially if you finish that sentence with “for a few months.”. We are already well into the planning for the next Festival with some high profile acts booked, along with some lesser known but excellent ones; next year’s ‘Last Night’ looks set to be one to remember!
So, block off 23 May – 6 June in your diary and await the publication of the programme early in the New Year. In the meantime, have you thought of becoming an official sponsor of the Festival? That way you will get to know what’s on the programme even earlier as you will have the chance to choose which concert you’d like to put your name to. Have a look at the Supporting the Festival section of the site to see which is most appropriate for you or your business.

Last night, and The Last Night

Last night (Thursday) we enjoyed a wonderful concert in Bedale. The sun streamed through the windows; the Navarra Quartet was on top form; and Emma Johnson, resplendent in red, was terrific in Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.

And tomorrow (Saturday) is the Last Night of the 2014 Festival, with the two Martins – Taylor and Simpson – bringing this season to a rousing finish. We (the management team) hope you’ll be there. We think it’s been a good Festival. What do you think? Please take a minute or two to complete our Audience Survey – thanks.

A perfect concert

Everything was spot-on perfect for yesterday’s concert by Pellingmans’ Saraband, at Easby Church: a lovely venue; good weather; strawberry teas on offer (thank you, church people!); a full and appreciative audience; a genuinely good children’s choir (with some very small members); and three excellent professional musicians. Several of us walked out to the concert along the banks of the Swale. It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon, and a real credit to the festival’s engagement with the community.