THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL WORCESTER 2021 24 JULY – 1 AUGUST 01452 768 928 3choirs.org ABOUT US Welcome One of the most wonderful powers of the arts is to respond. The great American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein once said that ‘music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable’. The events of the last year very possibly fall into both of those categories, and have sent shockwaves through just about every nation and community on earth. In 2021, after the first Samuel Hudson © Michael Whitefoot year without a Three Choirs Festival since the Second World War, we hope to be able to respond, to give expression to the prevailing 2021 is an important year for Worcester, national and global sentiment, and with the as the city celebrates the 400th anniversary healing power of music, to start to rebuild. of its Charter. Music with particular Worcester While the pandemic made a festival in 2020 connections can therefore be found threaded impossible, it also makes a festival in 2021 through the week as we celebrate this difficult to define and plan. As I write, there milestone in the life of our ‘faithful city’. is still uncertainty about which restrictions One such piece is the Solemn Prelude by will still be in place, and therefore what our Anglo-African composer Samuel Coleridge- 2021 festival will look like. In any case, it is my Taylor, whose music was extremely popular at hope that you will be able to come to a concert, the Three Choirs Festival in his time, after a a service, or a talk, and that those events will commission was recommended by none other feel reassuringly familiar. Of course, we will than Edward Elgar. Solemn Prelude had its be guided by the advice in force at the time, premiere in Worcester at the Festival in 1899 – and are committed to the safety of all our staff, the same year as Elgar’s Enigma Variations. performers, and audience. With all of this and our exciting series of You will see in the following pages some late-night concerts, daytime performances, echoes of the 2020 festival programme. and talks, I know you will find plenty to enjoy. The themes of journey and exploration seem I hope to see you at the Three Choirs Festival even more appropriate this year, as we look in Worcester this summer. You are very to the new horizons of a post-pandemic welcome to join us on our voyage! world. Elgar’s The Music Makers also seems eloquently fitting – we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. Our Festival Commission by Gabriel Jackson, The World Imagined, is also not to be missed, for which it will be a pleasure to welcome guest conductor David Hill. Samuel Hudson, Artistic Director All details, programmes and artists published in this brochure are correct at the time of going to press but may be subject to alteration. Registered OfficeThe Three Choirs Festival Association Ltd, 7c College Green, Gloucester GL1 2LX Registered Company No 00580176 Registered Charity No 204609 2 ABOUT US Three Choirs Festival Orchestra in Residence The festival is an annual, week-long The Philharmonia Orchestra creates celebration of choral and orchestral thrilling performances for a global concerts, recitals, talks, family events, audience. cathedral services, theatre, exhibitions Founded in 1945, in part as a recording and more, rotating each summer orchestra for the growing home audio between the beautiful cathedral cities market, the Philharmonia has always of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. pioneered the use of technology to reach Having celebrated its 300th anniversary broader audiences for orchestral music. in 2015, it is the world’s longest-running During the coronavirus pandemic, it classical music festival of its kind. has continued to create outstanding The centrepiece of the festival is a series performances, experienced online by of spectacular evening concerts in the listeners on five continents. cathedral, featuring the Three Choirs The orchestra’s home is Southbank Festival Chorus or the Cathedral Choirs Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (resident where it has been Resident Orchestra at the festival since 2012), alongside since 1995. In addition to its annual world-class soloists. A busy schedule appearance at the Three Choirs Festival, of daytime events is augmented by a it is also resident at Bedford Corn growing programme of community and Exchange, De Montfort Hall in Leicester, outreach projects, taking place in the The Marlowe in Canterbury, Anvil run-up to and during the festival. The Arts in Basingstoke and Garsington heart of the activity is in the Festival Opera. Central to all its residencies is a Village, where you can be sure of a Learning & Engagement programme that friendly, welcoming atmosphere. empowers people to engage with, and Each year, the festival nominates a participate in, orchestral music. charity to receive a share of collections The Philharmonia is a registered charity taken at the Opening Service. This and relies on income from a range of year, we are partnering with Headway sources to deliver its programme. It is Worcestershire, a local and independent proud to be generously supported by Arts charity supporting people affected Council England. by acquired brain injury across Worcestershire. They offer specialist philharmonia.co.uk support, information and services to brain injury survivors, their families and carers, as well as to professionals in the health and legal fields. The Three Choirs Festival is a registered charity, relying on generous support from a range of funders to achieve its aim of sharing music-making opportunities and the finest musical experiences with the widest possible community. Philharmonia © Benjamin Ealovega 3 We want to say a huge THANK YOU Your support puts musicians on stage. to our supporters, who continue to Your support commissions the music give so generously, especially after the of tomorrow. cancellation of the 2020 festival. Your support has been essential in sustaining Your support connects young people with vital opportunities. the festival through what has been such a challenging year for all. Achieving our vision to give expression for every voice through extraordinary We wouldn’t be here without you! music-making requires your help. We cannot do it alone. This 8-day festival costs £1 million to put on each year, but ticket sales account Please donate now at: 3choirs.org/donate for just half of our income. Charitable If you would like to find out more about donations enable us to do more than just the difference your support could make, cover our costs; your support helps us please get in touch with Grace, our to thrive, and secures the future of the Development Manager, on 01452 768933 Three Choirs Festival for years to come. or at [email protected] A MAGICAL PLACE Discover 250 years of colourful stories through Severn Street, Worcester WR1 2ND the world’s largest collection of Worcester porcelain www.museumofroyalworcester.org @TheMoRW T: 01905 21247 Make your visit special – book a guided tour and refreshments on Royal Worcester china Choose from our group visit experiences or enjoy our unique setting for your event ‘Royal Worcester’ and the C51 crown device are registered by and used under kind permission from Portmeirion Group UK Ltd to whom all rights are reserved. 4 Bygones 1/2 page ad.qxp_Layout 1 05/03/2021 09:16 Page 1 Cathedral Square Worcester 01905 25388 w Antiques Objets d’Art Eccentricities A VOCAL SCORE OF THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS DEDICATED TO AND ANNOTATED BY ELGAR’S DAUGHTER, CARICE. EX COLLECTION OF CARICE ELGAR BLAKE Burger Shop Worcester is a relaxed burger joint, utilising quality ingredients to make delicious burgers, sides, and more - all from scratch. Burger Shop Worcester Arch 46 WR1 3BH t. 01905 613498 e. [email protected] w. www.aruleoftum.com Instagram + Facebook @burgershop_worc 5 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS Bold Adventures The festival restarts by celebrating the Families can join in the adventure with wonder of exploration and travel. From a series of travel-themed events for all Beethoven’s sea voyage and Vaughan ages. Drift across the Atlantic with your Williams’s wanderer (p11) to Roderick tiny tots or go on a great British holiday Williams in the role of sixteenth-century with White Socks Theatre Company. conquistador (p17), tales of adventure Follow the stories of three airborne will guide you through the festival. explorers with the Goldfield Ensemble Gabriel Jackson looks to the heavens or enjoy an accidental adventure on a in The World Imagined (p15) while London bus with Gaspard the Fox. For St Nicolas’s escapades are recounted by some fun-filled festival events, turn to Worcester Cathedral Choir (p35). The pages 40 & 41 and map your journey... epic tale of Odysseus can be found in Armstrong Gibbs’s Choral Symphony (p23) and a modern retelling of the story by Christopher Kent and Gamal Khamis (p22). More nautical fables shape the late-night poetry and music of The Becoming (p34) while Tennyson’s tale of the shipwrecked Enoch Arden is told in Strauss’s evocative setting (p24). 6 Charter 400: Today’s Voices Celebrating Worcester Since the festival’s very beginning, each new This autumn, Worcester celebrates the generation of composers has made their mark 400th anniversary of the 1621 charter, on audiences, and this year’s festival celebrates which permitted the city’s first mayor. the music of over fifty living composers To mark this occasion, BBC Radio 3 will record writing in a wide range of styles. the festival's Choral Evensong with Worcester Our major festival commission is The World Cathedral Choir, featuring music linked Imagined, for tenor, chorus and orchestra by to the cathedral.