Music Festival

The Hagley Music Festival 2011 - Friday 6 May to Sunday 15 May

After nearly two years in the planning the sixth Hagley Music Festival began on the 6th May with a piano recital by local international pianist Mark Bebbington.  Mark included in his varied programme John Ireland’s London Pieces and music critic David Hart wrote in The Birmingham Post, “Bebbington’s beautifully judged and affectionately elegant approach to these colourful miniatures elevated them to serious tone-poem status, especially the ruminative Chelsea Reach and wonderfully impressionistic Soho Afternoons.”  David Hart gave Mark a 5-star rating for his recital.

For the second festival running, a lunchtime jazz concert was held at St Saviour’s Church and Richard Leach’s “Clubhouse 5” Ensemble obviously had a number of regular followers in the audience. There was a great atmosphere and many members of the audience also enjoyed a lunchtime glass of wine.

On the Saturday evening saxophonist Christian Forshaw and The Sanctuary Ensemble brought into St John’s a different audience with music played by a wonderful combination of saxophone, organ, soprano and percussion.  This was music that had to be heard “live” to fully appreciate it and their programme included “Unknown Love” – based on the hymn “My Song is Love Unknown”, but words and music sung and played backwards. The first half of the programme included “Fear No More”, a piece Christian Forshaw had been commissioned to write and perform at the unveiling of the Hyde Park memorial to the London bombing victims. An incredible piece of music.

Local pianist, Michael Jones, gave a recital on the Sunday afternoon in front of an audience of more than a 100 people.  It was a wonderfully varied programme with music ranging from Bach to songs from operetta and musical shows from Central Europe to America via England.  Tea and cakes were enjoyed by the audience after the recital.

It has always been the aim of the music festival to include a performance by children from the local primary school and on Monday evening the church was full of children from Hagley Primary School.  During the day David Lawrence had held a singing workshop for all the pupils in Year 5 and in the afternoon two members of the CBSO’s Berkley Salon Ensemble ran a workshop with Year 5 instrumentalists and produced a short performance piece which they played in the evening.  The CBSO Berkley Salon Ensemble performed a short programme in the evening and the evening concluded with the pupils singing eight songs from “Past and Present” by Rebecca Lawrence which they had been learning during term time. In the Stourbridge Chronicle, Julie Higginson, Hagley Primary School Music Teacher said, “It has been lovely and the pupils have all enjoyed themselves.”

On the Wednesday evening once again Haybridge Community Orchestra, comprising local musicians, gave a concert which included a “Suite for Orchestra” by local musician and composer Andrew Downes.  Earlier in the festival students in Years 7-10 at Haybridge High School and Sixth Form had given an informal music recital to people attending the weekly coffee morning at Hagley Free Church.  The recital included pieces for flute, bassoon, piano, cello, violin, viola, cello and voice and one student sang unaccompanied as unfortunately the CD player, which had her accompaniment on had broken.

On the Friday evening Australian guitarist, Craig Ogden, returned to Hagley to give a recital in Hagley Hall.  He played to a sell-out concert and received a wonderful ovation at the end of the evening. Wine and canapés were served in the interval.

The final concert was cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, who performed the Haydn C major Cello Concert to a sell out audience, with The Orchestra of the Swan directed by David Curtis.  According to The Express and Star this concert was the main highlight of the ten day long music festival, judged to have been the “best yet” in a decade of the biennial events.

The Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir with their conductor, Christopher Allsop, sang Choral Evensong at St John’s Church on the Sunday evening which was a fitting climax to ten days of music making.

For a small village like Hagley it is a privilege to be able to attract international stars to its music festival.

For information on future musical events at Hagley Churches please see the church diary.