Festival 2010

Following its 75th anniversary celebrations in 2008 and an exploration of composer anniversaries and their associations with Wales and the Borders in 2009, the 2010 Gregynog Festival took a new aspect of the Hall’s heritage as the inspiration for its programming in 2010 by focusing on the subject of Pleasure Gardens.

We welcomed some of the world’s finest early music groups and performers to the delightful garden setting of Gregynog in June to recreate music inspired by gardens of the past. Dame Emma Kirkby and the London Handel Players presented music written by Thomas Arne for the Vauxhall Gardens; the Academy of Ancient Music played Handel and Corelli, the Musicians of the Globe played music inspired by an Elizabethan Garden, and The Tallis Scholars sang Renaissance settings of the Song of Songs.

Extending the garden theme, star international pianist Noriko Ogawa created a special programme of Romantic and contemporary repertoire to evoke a Japanese garden. A recital by the ‘Queen of Harps’, Catrin Finch, featured music by John Parry, Parri Ddall, the ‘Celebrated Blind Harper of Ruabon’ who was associated with London’s Ranelagh Gardens.