Nicola Lisle talks to the English Music Festival founder about this year's line-up

Leafing through this year’s brochure for the English Music Festival, it’s hard to decide which are the highlights, simply because there are so many goodies on offer.

In the opening concert, there are two premieres: the UK debut of Arnell’s The New Age Overture and a world first for Butterworth’s lost Fantasia for Orchestra, the latter having been completed and orchestrated by conductor Martin Yates.

Add to that the fact world-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch will play Finzi’s much-loved Cello Concerto and the concert can’t fail to please.

Then at the end of the festival, you have the immensely popular Roderick Williams making his EMF debut, which should be another delight.

“That’s particularly special for me, having Roderick with us for the first time,” says Em Marshall-Luck, who founded the festival in 2006.

“And I’m particularly looking forward to hearing the Finzi, which is a poignant and powerful piece. Those two concerts are selling well and should be really good events.”

There is a nod to the First World War centenary in a recital by violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck, who will play the Gallipoli sonata by Frederick Septimus Kelly, an Australian-born composer who was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.

“He wrote this sonata in a tent during the Gallipoli campaign and tragically was killed on the Somme the following year,” explains Em. “But the piece is about the English countryside that he loved and the way of life that he knew was going to disappear, or at least change, after the war.”

There are lots of lighter moments in the festival, with the return of the popular New Foxtrot Serenaders and some early music concerts that include music by Henry Purcell and his relative, Daniel Purcell, as well as music by other lesser-known early English composers.

As always, the emphasis is on the early 20th century, known as the Golden Renaissance of English music. It saw the creation of a huge body of works that have since disappeared from the mainstream repertoire.

Em says: “In my teens, I became aware of all these composers who wrote this wonderful music, which was then beginning to come out on disc.

“I was very aware that you couldn’t hear it live. That’s what made me want to start the festival, to make this music accessible.”

So does Em feel she has made a difference to the classical landscape?

“I wouldn’t want to speculate too much,” she says, cautiously, “but people have said to me that I’ve made a tremendous amount of difference, because there is a huge amount more English music out there now.

“We get people coming to the festival saying they’ve encountered new composers at the EMF that they didn’t know existed. Even among people who generally like English music, we’re still raising awareness of new names, which is entirely what we’re about.”

English Music Festival
Various venues
May 22-25
Free tickets for children. Email em.marshall-luck@englishmusicfestival.org.uk 
Details and tickets: englishmusicfestival.org.uk