There are probably few villages more quintessentially English than Dorchester-on-Thames with its ancient abbey and narrow, twisting main street lined with olde worlde houses and pubs. So it makes the perfect setting for the English Music Festival, established in 2006 to showcase the very best of English music, old and new. Festival founder and director Em Marshall-Luck is particularly keen to unearth long-forgotten gems and restore them to the mainstream repertoire. So it’s no surprise to find that this year’s programme includes the usual handful of world premieres, as well as many pieces that were popular in their day but have since faded into obscurity.

The opening concert, by the BBC Concert Orchestra, features no fewer than three world premieres – Vaughan Williams’ Serenade in A Minor and The Solent, and Walford Davies’ second symphony, which was discovered and completed by conductor Martin Yates.

“Martin has done a huge amount of work unearthing manuscripts and completing them in a very sympathetic manner,” says Em. “So it will be great. And the Vaughan Williams Serenade is absolutely gorgeous, so I’m really looking forward to hearing that live.”

In a neat piece of symmetry, the final concert will also include world premieres, but this time of works that have been specially commissioned by the English Music Festival. Commissioning new English music is another of Em’s passions, and the festival finale will feature music by well-known contemporary composers such as Richard Blackford, Philip Lane, David Owen Norris and Ben Palmer, who will also conduct.

“This new commissions concert is the thing that’s really exciting me, possibly more than anything else,” said Em. “It’s come about partly from one that we did back in 2008, and the reason I did that was to try to show that there is a particular style of English music, and composers who are still writing in the English tradition.

“It’s accessible music; it’s not atonal or anything like that. Yes, it is very individual and characteristic, and it’s not pastiche by any means, so it was wanting to showcase English music that continues within the English tradition while having its own voice.”

Another highlight of the festival is a rare performance of Sullivan’s The Golden Legend, featuring Oxford-based tenor Daniel Norman as well as soprano Elena Xanthoudakis, mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby and bass Grant Doyle, with the English Symphony Orchestra, Harpenden Choral Society and conductor John Andrews.

“It has always been a work that I’ve loved,” says Em. “It was so incredibly popular during its day and it’s just completely disappeared, so it will be wonderful to enable people to hear what is a really beautiful work again.”

There is also a concert of patriotic music celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, a violin recital by Rupert Marshall-Luck, Music for a May Evening (with music by Elgar, Delius, Mackenzie and Sullivan) and much more.

Inevitably, there is a fair smattering of Britten throughout the festival in a nod to his centenary, as well as the usual fringe events, pre-concert talks and late night concerts – in short, a cocktail of English music delights.

 

English Music Festival
 

  • Dorchester-on-Thames
  • May 24 to 27
     
  • Various venues and prices
     
  • Details and booking englishmusicfestival.org.uk