More from behind the scenes… a Shetlander at the Music Festival

2 months
1 week ago

Music Festival Intern Hannah Ross writes about being a Shetlander, the Music Festival, The Sound of Music, and everything in-between…

As a Shetlander, coming to work at the Cheltenham Music Festival is a bit of an adventure, and I don’t expect to find too many reminders of home (even if we Shetlanders have a habit of turning up all over the globe), but a reminder of home I did find, slap bang in the middle of the festival brochure (hooray!). Catriona McKay, while not a Shetlander herself, wrote The Swan LK243 when on board the newly restored Fifie boat The Swan LK243 with internationally renowned Shetland fiddle group Fiddlers Bid. I’d be hugely surprised to find the Bid on the line up for a classical music festival, but I think Catriona’s piece will make pleasing contrast to rest of programme by Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, which also features works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Piazzolla, and a selection of contemporary classical composers.

Accordians and family gatherings

After spotting Catriona’s piece in the brochure (and having also come across in the office, a score by Judith Weir setting a traditional Shetland fiddle tune ‘Sleep Soond ida Mornin’) I wondered if perhaps I could find a Shetland strand running through this year’s programme, but it simply wasn’t there (I’ll carry on suggesting it as an idea for next year!…). What I found, instead, was a whole host of concerts which are personally relevant to me, the things I’ve done and the places I’ve been. For instance, growing up in Shetland, folk music was prevalent — I’d go as far as to say it’s the life blood for many of us — and several family members play the accordion — every New Years Eve, a gathering of local amateur musicians would come together in our house and the accordion was always at the centre of it. An alternative to the folk/traditional use of the accordion can be found in another of our Parabola Rush Hour concerts, given by the Dutch accordion duo TOEAC. Their programme includes works by Bach and Grieg, a selection of Tangos by Piazzolla, and new work specially composed for accordion duo.

The other Dutch group, the Calefax Reed Quintet, will be playing another piece inspired by experiences at sea — Mendelssohn’s Overture The Hebrides. Here, I’d beg some of you to note that this is not a link to Shetland — I have lost count of the number of times I’ve had to explain that Shetland is the furthest north group of islands, and nowhere near the Western Isles (and nor is it located within a box just off Aberdeen!)… Calefax’s programme comprises a similarly varied soundscape of styles.

A serious fan

Folk music was not my only love as a child, and perhaps one of the festival concerts I am looking forward to the most is the Rodgers and Hammerstein Gala as I am a serious fan of The Sound of Music. I say ‘serious’… I have yet to don a nun costume and go to a sing-along screening! But I could speak/sing along to pretty much the whole film, and I will freely admit that I fall for Christopher Plummer as the Captain just a little bit more every time I watch it! I’d be surprised to see Christopher Plummer, or indeed Julie Andrews, at the concert on 3rd July (especially as I’ll be hidden back stage directing the live video feed to the big screen above the stage), but I’m sure Brent Barrett and Kim Criswell will do a fine job.

As I grew up, I began playing piano, double bass and singing, and several works from this year’s festival are pieces I have played/sung — for instance, my 6th year music class played Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in various groupings, from a group of electric guitars, to the school orchestra, and myself playing Bydlo as a solo. Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra will play the full set in Ravel’s orchestrated version.

Norway, choirs and Tewkesbury Abbey

While at school, I went to Norway with my choir, and I’m interested to see what memories the recital/talk/film event A Load of Ole Bull revives, as we had a day trip to Ole Bull’s Villa — a beautiful, fairytale house situated on its own little island.

Also in Norway, I bought a souvenir for my mum — a piano version of Grieg’s Holdberg Suite, which appears twice in the festival — played by the Festival Academy Strings on Wednesday 7th, and also by the TOEAC accordion duo.

In my gap year, I joined the Shetland Choral Society, and our first performance included Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, which will be performed by Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum in the Abbey on Thursday 8th.

Edinburgh and Choral Week

In 2006 I started university in Edinburgh (no Edinburgh thread to be found here either, as far as I can tell), and a highlight of my first term was the annual Choral Week, where all four year groups get together for a week of rehearsals, culminating in an informal concert for friends and family. In first year, our theme was opera choruses, and most of the numbers we learned (and continue to break into on buses, nights out, any time there is a dull moment really…) will be sung by the Festival Chorus, the Opera Gala Finale with Alfie Boe. Again, I’ll be backstage directing our camera operators, but if you hear the odd snippet of alto lines drifting down the corridors, you’ll know who it is…

University and living in Edinburgh provided me with a much wider range of musical stimuli, and provided me with many opportunities to page turn for friends and lecturers — most recently in a performance of Schumann’s wonderful Piano Quintet in E flat, which can be heard in Isserlis and Schumann 1.

Powerplant, James Rhodes and Twitter

I started working at The Queen’s Hall, where I have been seriously impressed by performances by Joby Burgess, percussionist extraordinaire, who brings his Powerplant collaboration to the Parabola Arts Centre on Saturday 10th.

Friends at the Queen’s Hall got me into Twitter, which is where I first came across pianist James Rhodes — and his programme recalls parts of my final year, having written a motivic analysis of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata, and used Busoni’s arrangements of Bach’s music as points of reference from which my dissertation on Kenneth Leighton’s piano music grew. Being a pianist by first study, I also performed Beethoven’s Sonata Quasi una Fantasia which Alfred Brendel chose as part of his farewell recital series, and I’m sure that if I have the chance to meet him or indeed Imogen Cooper, I will be just as much of an excited fangirl as when I met Angela Hewitt at last year’s festival.

A ‘Brahmsamaniac’?

The final thread for me ties into a key thread of the festival itself — if Steven Isserlis describes himself as a Schummaniac, it would be fair to say I am turning into the equivalent fan of Schumann’s friend Brahms — a Brahmsamaniac? A Brahmaniac? Whatever name you give it, I’ll be happy to take it — the 4th Symphony pulled me through some difficult times in second year, the Seven Fantasies Op. 116 formed the other part of my final recital, and the first concerto is on my To Learn list. None of these pieces appear in this year’s festival, but you can hear his Violin Sonata in G played by Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Tiberghien; his Piano Quintet in F minor by the Schubert Ensemble; his Clarinet Quintet performed by the Solstice Quartet and David Campbell; and various pieces, including the Piano Quartet in C minor, in Isserlis and Schumann 3, which tells the story of the Schumanns and Brahms, with a script by written by Steven Isserlis, and musical interludes by a star line up of artists.

We’ve tagged this post with Alfie Boe, Alina Ibragimova, Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, Brent Barrett, Calefax Reed Quintet, Catriona McKay, Cedric Tiberghien, David Campbell, Festival Academy, Hannah Ross, Imogen Cooper, Joby Burgess, Kim Criswell, music, norway, Ole Bull, Parabola Arts Centre, Powerplant, Robert Schumann, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Shetland, Solstice Quartet, Steven Isserlis, Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, The Sound of Music, TOEAC on Wednesday 30 June 2010.