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Telegraph
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Cheltenham Music Festival closes with an uproarious raspberry from Malcolm Arnold
Eighty years old this year, the Cheltenham Music Festival decided to salute its own illustrious past in a closing concert from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales that was celebratory, nostalgic and madly rumbustious, all at once. There was plenty to celebrate, not least the fact that the Cheltenham Music Festival must be the only one in Britain if not the world to give birth to its own musical genre. After it was founded in 1945 the Festival became an indefatigable commissioner of new works, many of which were symphonies of a challenging, modernist kind. Cheltenham was determined to put itself on the map culturally, and nurturing an ever-growing body of 'Cheltenham Symphonies' as they became known was a very good way to do it. Alas most of them have not survived the test of time. But as last night's performance of Malcolm Arnold 's Fifth Symphony proved, the test of time isn't always fair. In 1961 when this symphony was premiered the fashion was for deeply serious modernist symphonies, and Arnold's symphony was simply too badly behaved. It's got tunes, for one thing – really good ones, that sound like a cross between Mahler and Rachmaninov with a bit of 'filmic' sentimentality thrown in. There's also what sounds like a car-chase from an Ealing comedy, and a madly cheerful menagerie of military pipes, all mixed up with aggressively modernist dissonance, which is surely Arnold blowing a raspberry at the po-faced 1961 musical establishment. All this was led with appropriate gleeful relish by conductor Gergely Maduras, and played with uproarious energy by BBC NOW. It was madly entertaining, but the most shocking thing was the desolate ending, which gave a sense of existential dread lurking behind the motley parade of different moods. Alongside this 64-year-old festival commission was a brand-new one, SoundingsDancesEchoes, a Fanfare for Cheltenham by the young British composer Anna Semple. It began with faint percussive sounds like distant thunder which groped upwards and burgeoned first into notes and harmonies and then into glowing, wheeling brass chords. Just as it seemed the music was going to become properly celebratory it deflated and dissipated into stray sounds. Semple was clearly determined not to write a conventional fanfare, and the result certainly had a poetic suggestiveness. But like many 'atmospheric' pieces it was dogged by a lack of momentum. There were two more salutes to Cheltenham Festival's past. The first of them was the Four Sea Interludes from Britten's Peter Grimes, conducted by the composer himself at the very first Cheltenham Festival. It's one of those pieces that's in danger of becoming worn smooth from over-familiarity, but here its wild, untamed quality came across vividly. The other salute was Elgar's Enigma Variations, also played on that far-off day in 1945. Here the beefy vividness in the orchestral playing that worked so well for Arnold and Britten was a disadvantage. The performance seemed lacking in finesse and brass-heavy, though it was redeemed by some lovely solo playing, above all from the principal cellist and violist.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Music lover has enjoyed town festival for 80 years
A woman who attended the first edition of a long-running music festival has said it is "enormously important" to the community as it celebrates its 80th anniversary. Elizabeth Jacobs was 12 years old when she went to Cheltenham Music Festival with her parents in June 1945, and still attends now, aged 92. The line-up for Cheltenham Music Festival 2025 has included workshops for children, a BBC Concert Orchestra performance honouring 80 years of spy movie soundtracks, and free events in various cafes, bars, and shops. Jack Bazalgette, the festival's artistic director, said its history and audience, and the town of Cheltenham itself, is what makes the event, which runs until Saturday, so special. More news stories for Gloucestershire Listen to the latest news for Gloucestershire Ms Jacobs still has the flyer for the first Cheltenham Music Festival 80 years ago. "The planning would have happened before hostilities finished," Ms Jacobs said. "[I was] really fortunate in that my parents were music lovers and, when the music festival arrived, they took me as a young teenager. "I sat with them in Cheltenham Town Hall listening to big orchestral sound." "I think [the festival] is enormously important," Ms Jacobs added. "It heartens me and particularly the opportunities that get offered, for instance, when there's big orchestral pieces, that require a children's choir." A collection of photographs taken by Ms Jacobs at Cheltenham Music Festival throughout the years has been turned into a book. Mr Bazalgette said looking back at programmes from past events and seeing names who have performed over the years is "inspiring". "With that comes an audience who really know their stuff and are keen to explore new things," he said. "But I think there's something so special about Cheltenham. It's a beautiful place to come in the summer... the town is just well set up for a music festival. "We're going strong - we'll be here in the next 80 years, no doubt." Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Artists announced for Cheltenham Music Festival Arts charity to celebrate 80 years of festivals Cheltenham Festivals
BBC News
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Artists announced for 80th Cheltenham Music Festival
Cheltenham Music Festival has announced the artists scheduled to perform at the 2025 its 80th anniversary, the festival will take place across the town from 4 to 12 include the BBC Concert Orchestra, Britain's Got Talent stars Braimah and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Seckou Keita and Dames Sarah Connolly DBE and Imogen Cooper Bazalgette, the festival's artistic director, said: "Over the last 80 years it's created crazy, bonkers and beautiful music every year and we're continuing to take that tradition into 2025 and beyond." Mr Balzalgette said: "It's music that has really always tried to push the furthest boundaries of what you can have while also giving people the classics and the big range of stuff but always vibrant, always a bit out there."This includes an emphasis on new work, and we have commissioned beautiful music from Deborah Pritchard and Anna Semple for 2025 to open and close the Festival."We're renewing our legacy in 2025 with a birthday party to be proud of." Large-scale orchestral concerts will take place at Gloucester Cathedral and Cheltenham Town Hall, while guitarist Alexandra Whittingham and trumpeter Aaron Akugbo will also perform.A programme of free performances will take place across the town's venues, organisers celebration of the festival's 80 years, the event's parent charity, Cheltenham Festivals, is pledging to give 80,000 children access to the arts throughout the year - including special concerts for children and families with additional needs.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Arts charity to celebrate 80 years of festivals
An arts charity hopes to reach a record number of children as it celebrates its 80th anniversary with a string of events. Cheltenham Festivals was founded in 1945 and has expanded from initially offering three classical music concerts in Pittville Pump Rooms, to now hosting popular literature, music, jazz, and science festivals at venues across the town. As well as festivals, the charity offers outreach programmes in schools and hopes to introduce 80,000 children to the arts with a year-round programme of events to mark its anniversary. Ali Mawle, co-CEO of Cheltenham Festivals, said the charity "works tirelessly... to give young people access to arts and culture". The charity began as a post-war art festival movement and its founding event was Cheltenham Music Festival. FameLab, set up by the charity in 2005 to bring together young people with a keen interest in science, and the FameLab Academy, set up in 2015, also celebrate anniversaries this year. This year's FameLab competition, which involves participants sharing their scientific research with the public, will include heats in Antarctica. The charity hopes its campaign will "spark a lifelong curiosity" for literature, music and science. Ms Mawle told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "It is an amazing heritage that Cheltenham has in these festivals... It is extraordinary when you think about it, and the fact [Cheltenham Music Festival] was one of the first festivals ever." She added the charity is "more than 36 festival days a year", and reaches 20,000-30,000 children annually through the festivals themselves. "We have an excellent relationship with our local schools and it's about enabling those young people to come to the festival site," she said of an aspect of the outreach programme, adding there would be "special events" for the Music Festival, which cannot be disclosed yet. Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2025 is the first of the four annual festivals and will be held between 30 April - 5 May, with the science festival following in June, the music festival in July and the literature festival in October. Together, the events attract more than 225,000 visitors a year. Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Charity music studio 'transforming' young lives Music charity buys permanent home after 40 years Artists announced for Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2025 Cheltenham Festivals
