Celebrating the 75th anniversary, 1933-2008

Friday, 13 June 2008

7.30pm Philip Moore & Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano duet

Showpieces including Mathias’ Suite Parisienne, premièred at Gregynog in 1954

‘Live music given the kind of oomph and presence you just don't get from a disc . . .

20 fingers of steel’ THE INDEPENDENT

Saturday, 14 June 2008

10.00am – 4.00pm Heritage Day

10.00 Dr David Jenkins, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

From Draentewion to Barry: the creation of the Davies family’s wealth

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Dr Rhian Davies, Artistic Director, Gŵyl Gregynog Festival

‘Master of Gregynog Music’: Henry Walford Davies & the first Gregynog Festivals

2.00 Gwenan Gibbard, voice & harp

Illustrated presentation on Dora Herbert-Jones who assisted Holst & Vaughan Williams with folksong arrangements for the Gregynog Choir

3.15 Tea with ices in the style of the 1930s Festivals

7.30pm Andrew Kennedy, tenor, & The Badke Quartet

Vocal chamber music inspired by Mid Wales & the Borders, including

Vaughan Williams, On Wenlock Edge, & Warlock, The Curlew

‘Kennedy, rapt, ecstatic and offering us a brief vision of paradise’ THE GUARDIAN

Sunday, 15 June 2008

10.30am Meditation

A sequence of words & music including Holst, O spiritual pilgrim (‘For Gregynog’)

12 noon Alan Gibbs

Holst, Gregynog and some English-Welsh connections

1.00 Festival lunch (70 places maximum)

2.00 Pre-concert talk by Hilary Tann

The Festival’s commissioned composer introduces her new work Paradise

3.00pm Tenebrae & Sarah Williamson, clarinet

Choral music written for performance at Gregynog including

Walford Davies, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (‘To all Gregynog Festival singers’);

Holst & Vaughan Williams, Welsh folksong arrangements; &

Hilary Tann, Paradise (commissioned by the Festival & Welsh Music Guild, world première)

‘Is there any finer chamber choir in Britain today?’ THE INDEPENDENT

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

7.30pm Alison Balsom, trumpet, & Tom Poster, piano

One of classical music’s hottest properties gives her only recital in Wales this year

‘It’s the roar of her talent that makes her stand out . . . Olympian agility’ THE TIMES

Friday, 20 June 2008

7.30pm ‘A Joyous Jimboree’:

Siân James, voice & harp, & Robin Huw Bowen, triple harp

Wales’ leading folk musicians highlight the traditions unique to Montgomeryshire

Saturday, 21 June 2008

9.30am – 4.00pm Discovery Day

9.30 David Vickers, Controller, Gwasg Gregynog

The Press at Gregynog

10.30 Coffee

11.00 Undeg Griffiths, National Screen & Sound Archive of Wales, Aberystwyth

Screening including rare archive footage of Gwendoline & Margaret Davies

12.15 Newtown Silver Band

1.30 Professor M. Wynn Thomas, Department of English, Swansea University

The Herbert family of Montgomery

2.15pm Elin Manahan Thomas, soprano, & David Miller, lute

The Classic FM artist & Baroque specialist sings Dowland, Purcell & Schubert, interspersed with solos from the lute book of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury

‘Hugely listenable . . . haunting clarity’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

4.00 Cutting of the 75^th anniversary cake

7.30pm Pascal Rogé, piano

20^th-century French repertoire to complement the Davies sisters’ art collection

‘A supreme technician and deeply sensitive musician’ GRAMOPHONE

Sunday, 22 June 2008

7.00pm Strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Lesley Hatfield, director

Music by composers with Gregynog & Montgomeryshire connections:

Bartók, Divertimento; Britten, Prelude & Fugue in 18 parts; Elgar, Elegy;

Mathias, Prelude, Aria & Finale; Purcell, transcr. Britten, Chacony in G minor;

Vaughan Williams, Five Variants of ‘Dives & Lazarus’;

Warlock, Serenade for Frederick Delius on his Sixtieth Birthday;

Walford Davies, An Angelus (written at Gregynog in 1940, world première)

‘Very occasionally in life you enjoy a classical music concert that’s faultless.

This performance by the BBC NOW was one such occasion’ WESTERN MAIL

Box Office from 1 April 2008: 01686 625007

Information line: 01686 640533 www.gwylgregynogfestival.org

The Directors reserve the right to modify the programme

The Festival gratefully acknowledges sponsors including Arts Council Wales, Colwinston Charitable Trust, Davies Charities, Holst Foundation, Laura Ashley Foundation, Peter Warlock Society, Powys County Council & RVW Trust