Nicola Lisle talks to founder Em Marshall-Luck about this year's English Music Festival
Em Marshall-Luck doesn’t usually go in for themes when it comes to planning the English Music Festival.
But for this year’s festival — the eighth — the First World War centenary was, she admits, difficult to avoid. So on the opening night there is a pre-concert talk by Andrew Neill on music and art from 1914-18, while the Saturday and Monday night concerts feature settings of war poems by composers such as Elgar, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Bridge, Gurney, Butterworth and many more.
All this is balanced by some lighter elements — such as the New Foxtrot Serenaders, who proved such a hit at the 2013 festival that Em has invited them back this year for Keep the Home Fires Burning, a selection of songs by the likes of Noël Coward, Sandy Wilson, Flanagan and Allen, and many more.
“They were just fantastic last year,” Em says. “There was a little old lady sitting in the front row and she literally had to be restrained by her neighbours from standing up and dancing! We’ve probably got more of a lighter element this year than usual because we’ve got the BBC Elstree Concert Band as well, and we’ve got pianist Paul Guinery doing a late-night recital the previous day, Music for Stage and Screen, so there’s a lot of soul music, a lot of light music.”
Most importantly, though, there’s the usual selection of world premieres, which have become the festival’s trademark. At the launch concert tomorrow night, there are no fewer than four premieres — two landscape pieces by Vaughan Williams, Burley Heath and Harnham Down, Sir Arnold Bax’s Variations for Orchestra and the symphonic poem Troilus and Cressida by Rutland Boughton.
The concert — featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates — also includes Parry’s Jerusalem and Moeran’s Violin Concerto (with soloist Rupert Marshall-Luck), and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Martin Yates will conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra
Naturally, Em is delighted to be putting on this quartet of world premieres, especially with one of the UK’s most prestigious orchestras.
“I think I’m most excited about the Bax Variations for Orchestra, because this is a really big, substantial work, and there aren’t that many Bax premieres left.
“We’re very lucky that the BBC has supported us right from the beginning, but the orchestra members themselves really like coming. It’s a chance to get out of London, and they really enjoy playing this music. It’s a new repertoire for them, in a place where they feel very welcome, and the Friday opening concert is always very special because everyone’s so happy to be there.”
The Sunday morning recital features another Bax premiere, Sonata movement in F major, performed by Robert Plane (clarinet) and Sophia Rahman (piano), alongside works by Howells, Ireland, Gibbs and Holbrooke.
Other highlights include recitals by the Brodowski Quartet and the Goldfield Ensemble, while the Orchestra of St Paul’s bring the festival to a rousing finale.
“I think the last night is going to be great fun,” says Em. “Again, it’s got a bit of the lighter element with Rawsthorne’s Light Music for Strings and the Waltz in E Minor by William Lloyd-Webber, Julian Lloyd-Webber’s father.
“But again that’s balanced by Dyson’s Concerto da Camera for string orchestra and the Bliss Music for Strings, which is pure English music — romantic and lush.”
English Music Festival
Dorchester Abbey
Tomorrow, until Monday
Visit englishmusicfestival.org.uk
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