01686 625007
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
Artistic planning for the 75th anniversary Festival has been driven by original research to identify a wealth of previously undocumented materials in public and private collections about Gregynog’s rich musical life. All events have been created especially to honour Gwendoline and Margaret Davies as patrons and practitioners of the arts, and the programme offers an unique opportunity to enjoy a feast of rare repertoire in the setting for which it was written.
Music by major composers known to have visited Gregynog and Montgomeryshire will feature throughout the Festival, notably Peter Warlock (1921-24), Béla Bartók (1922), Edward Elgar (1924), Gustav Holst (1931 and 1933), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1932), William Mathias (1954), Arthur Bliss (1959) and Benjamin Britten (1972).
Compositions with Gregynog connections will receive their world première performances (two Welsh folksong arrangements by Vaughan Williams, Gan mlynedd i ‘nawr and Tros y môr, and An Angelus for strings by Walford Davies), and two scores dedicated to the original Gregynog Choir are being revived (Walford
Davies’ The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Holst’s O spiritual pilgrim).
William Mathias’ Suite Parisienne for two pianos, premièred in the Music Room by the composer and his friend D. Hugh Jones while both were still Aberystwyth undergraduates, will also be heard again; and to extend the practice of the past, new work has been commissioned from Hilary Tann (a setting of George Herbert’s Paradise, scheduled for first performance by the outstanding choral
group Tenebrae on 15 June) and Menna Elfyn (a residency culminating in a sequence of poems written in response to Gregynog, the sisters and the experience of attending this year’s Festival).
Siân James and Robin Huw Bowen join forces to highlight the unique folk traditions of Montgomeryshire (20 June) and Pascal Rogé echoes the Davies collection of Impressionist art in recital of 20th-century French piano music (21 June).
The Strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, directed by Lesley Hatfield, create a fine finale for the anniversary programming with a sequence of music by contemporary composers with Gregynog and Montgomeryshire connections.
Throughout the Festival, leading commentators will create a context for the performances with presentations and pre-concert talks, while specially-curated exhibitions, archive films, and printing and bookbinding demonstrations at the world-famous in-house Press will all help bring the heritage of the Hall alive.
