"New Blood" - St. Endellion Festival - 58th season

This year's summer classical music festival is one of "new blood", as some of the regular participants are not here. Nevertheless the level of music-making is up to its usual exceptional standard. Kudos to our artistic director, tenor Mark Padmore, who put together a stellar group of vocal soloists and chose interesting pieces for the concerts. A shout out to all the "fixers" who assembled a fine orchestra and chorus.

The festival takes place every summer for two weeks in North Cornwall at the Collegiate Church of St. Endellion (near Port Isaac) in late July/early August. It draws participants mainly from the UK (with a few Yankees thrown in). 

The highlight each year for me as a performer is always the semi-staged opera at the end of the festival. This year we are performing "Gloriana" by Benjamin Britten. It was commissioned for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and is about Queen Elizabeth I in her final years of reign. 

Many intriguing events fill the plot - primarily Queen Elizabeth's relationship with the Earl of Essex and its consequences. The queen is gloriously sung by Susan Bullock, who has performed here before and is known for her portrayal of the queen in the Royal Opera House's production of "Gloriana" a few years ago. The queen's nastiness is particularly clear in her performance. Her supporting cast is outstanding, especially the Earl of Essex played by Andrew Tortise. The opera is full of song and dance, "musical interludes" that stall the plot but are delightful. This year we are missing some of the usual opera stars (Roderick Williams and Pamela Helen Stephen), but are enjoying the performances of the newbies Graeme Danby and Andrew Tortise. TBD the opera next summer. Hopefully it will be announced in the next few days. Can't wait!

Every summer there is also one major choral work programmed for performances at the church here and in the Truro Cathedral. I always enjoy this collaboration with the chorus. This year we played Berlioz's "L'enfance du Christ". It is about Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus and their flight into Egypt.

A highlight of the piece is the performance by a  trio of two flutes and harp as they entertain Joseph and his family arriving at Sais in Egypt. This was beautifully performed by our flutists Daniel Pailthorpe (co-principal flute of the BBC Philharmonic) and Roger Manasse (freelancer and sub with the Bournemouth Symphony). Our orchestra harpist Olivia Jageurs accompanied them very well. The vocal soloists and chorus were outstanding.  I liked the bit where the women of the chorus sang as angels to Joseph and Mary from outside the church door at St Endellion and from the depths of the quire in Truro Cathedral. On both occasions delightful birds chimed in with the angels' singing (although in Truro it was a performance by noisy seagulls). 

Here are a few photos of the inside of Truro Cathedral.

Our "stage".

The quire where the angels sang (behind our stage).

The rose window above the main doors of the cathedral.

 

This space is rather "boomy"(live), so it is a challenge to perform in. The setting however is stunning.

I should mention our wonderful principal conductor, Martyn Brabbins, who is with us for the second year in a row. He is a gem. He is calm, cool and collected during performances (our steady rock). He totally gets the circumstances of the festival (putting together music very quickly for concerts) and rolls with it. His sense of humor makes rehearsals enjoyable, yet he can also be very businesslike when necessary. Our regular conductor, Ryan Wigglesworth, was not able to join us as he is under the strain of composing an opera commissioned by the English National Opera ("A Winter's Tale", based on the Shakespeare text).

Another feature of the festival is the chamber music performed some evenings by festival participants. 

Britten's Phantasy quintet with two violas, Schubert's Trout Quintet and Schubert songs have been performed already. Mark Padmore's (tenor) interpretation of Schubert's final songs "Schwanengesang" ("swan songs") was amazing. He was able to show the contrasting moods with ease. We are fortunate to have such a fine singer/festival director here. This week several of the opera singers collaborated on a program "A Little Night Music". It was a collection of songs loosely connected by the theme of nighttime. There was a lot of variety with show tunes and more serious classical songs. Humorous songs from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" and by Tom Lehrer were a contrast to songs about death. I was impressed by the singers' abilities to sound "American" in some of the American popular songs. I would not have guessed they were Brits imitating Americans from listening to them. They sounded truly "American".

Our first concert of the season was purely orchestra and featured our co-principal cellist Tim Gill on the Walton concerto and our fine chorus on Handel's "Dixit Dominus". Tim's exquisite playing drew my attention to a piece I did not know. It is a piece with stunning colors and instrumental acrobatics for all, especially the soloist. Tim made it sound effortless. No wonder he is the principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic.  The Handel work I have played before. An energetic performance was achieved. I learned that the piece has a nickname over in England, "Brexit Dominus". Bad joke, I know. Thanks to our associate conductor Aidan Oliver who coined the term we had a good laugh.

The final late night chamber music concert featured our trusty head administrator Tom Hickox, who is best known outside of this festival as a very talented singer/songwriter. I could not miss this opportunity to hear him perform. He was backed by a "band" consisting of musicians from the festival (violins, viola, cello, trumpet, bass and harp). Tom sang and played the piano. All the compositions were original - either from an earlier CD or one that is about to be released. The best word to describe his style is "soulful". The lyrics are thought provoking. The music created the mood. I particularly liked the two historical songs he set. One was about the "Lisbon Maru", inspired by an event during World War II where a Japanese boat full of American and other Ally POWS was mistakenly bombed by American forces. Most on board did not survive. Those who did had to swim in bloody waters to dry land, only to be rescued later. Apparently this story made the newspapers 50 years after the event thanks to a persistent survivor trying to get the word out and a journalist who took notice. This survivor had been telling the story for years to anyone who would (or would not) listen. It took a long time to get the story told. The other historical tale was a Cornish one from 1698. This song was written especially for this festival concert. It tells the story of a terrible storm at sea where all the males of Port Quin perished. The village was left with widows and children who left Port Quin and were taken in by the people of Port Isaac. Really a tragic story. Perhaps I preferred these songs as they had direct and not esoteric lyrics. I would highly recommend catching a concert of Tom Hickox. He does tours. If not, grab a copy of one of his CDs.

Here is a photo of the Collegiate Church of St. Endellion from this year. The view is from a side road. The church tower peeks through the trees across a field of hay.

High praises for this festival on this northern Cornish coast. It is most definitely a highlight of my year. 

I encourage you to come and attend some festival concerts. You will be amazed!