THE EIGHTEENTH ENGLISH MUSIC FESTIVAL
Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire OX10 7HH
23 – 26 May 2025
For more information click here
The eighteenth annual English Music Festival (EMF) returns to Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire from Friday 23 May until Bank Holiday Monday 26 May 2025. The opening concert, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Martin Yates, features the long-awaited world première performance of the Symphony No.2 by the unjustly neglected composer Stanley Bate together with a rare performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue’ and the Cello Concerto of Sir Arthur Bliss performed by celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch – a highlight of the commemorations for the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, alongside works by William Alwyn and Frederick Delius. Orchestral, chamber, choral concerts and recitals continue throughout the weekend.
The English Music Festival celebrates the brilliance, innovation, beauty and rich musical heritage of Britain with a strong focus on unearthing overlooked or forgotten masterpieces of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century.
‘Each year we are able to build upon the success and popularity of the previous year’s EMF and this year is no exception’, says Em Marshall-Luck, Founder-Director. ‘Audience numbers were greatly increased last year and we were overjoyed that for the first time, they exceeded pre-pandemic levels. We anticipate that this year’s thrilling and attractive programme will draw even more music-lovers than ever, and from even further afield. We are extremely excited and honoured to be able to stage the world première performance of an important symphony, as well as a number of intensely-beautiful chamber works; we are delighted to welcome the Royal Ballet Sinfonia to join us at the EMF for the first time for a Warlockian-inspired concert, and we are overjoyed to be presenting musicians of the calibre of Hiroaki Takenouchi, Simon Callaghan and the Excalibur Voices at what promises to be possibly the most exhilarating EMF thus far.’
WORLD PREMIERES AND FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
Opening Concert – Friday 23 May, 7.30pm – Dorchester Abbey
BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA / MARTIN YATES / RAPHAEL WALLFISCH
William Alwyn – The Innumerable Dance: An English Overture
Frederick Delius – The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Sir Arthur Bliss – Cello Concerto
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue
Stanley Bate – Symphony No.2 WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
(5.15pm Dorchester Village Hall – Pre-Concert Talk by Lewis Foreman)
There have been many significant first performances at the English Music Festival’s opening concert over the years and this year sees the BBC Concert Orchestra give the much-anticipated world premiere of the Symphony No.2 by Stanley Bate (1911-1959); another outstanding student from the Royal College of Music, whose teachers included Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob, and Arthur Benjamin.
Stanley Bate’s prolific but vastly neglected output is overdue for re-evaluation and his works although being gradually recorded have yet to find a place in the concert hall. Symphony No.2, Op.20, was completed in the spring of 1939, but the work appears to have been withdrawn by the composer without ever having achieved a performance.
Bate’s wife and fellow-composer, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, claimed her husband wrote a dozen or more symphonies and thirty or so piano sonatas. Often writing ‘en voyage’, Bate’s idiom can be dramatic and turbulent contrasting with interludes of beauty and lyricism.
‘A MUSICIAN OF GREAT SKILL AND POWER’: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue’ is a student work dating from 1901; the year of the composer’s first published composition, ‘Linden Lea’. Originally intended as a Symphonic Rhapsody in three parts, Vaughan Williams referred to it as his ‘trombone piece’. Drawing praise from his teacher Charles Villiers Stanford who, according to the composer’s wife Adeline, chose the title for the piece, the work was put aside while the composer was finding his own voice and unheard until a revival by the recording label, Dutton.
‘The scoring is evidence of an experienced hand, writes Lewis Foreman; ‘a distinctive piece in the British music of its time’, to which critics of the day concurred; The Times describing the Elegy as ‘a really valuable addition to modern English music – Mr Vaughan Williams is obviously a musician of great skill and power’, and another critic describing the piece as ‘a masterly expression of restrained emotion’.
BLISS CENTENARY: The 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) this year is providing an opportunity for re-evaluation of some of the composer’s works from his large output that continually fall under the radar. ‘50 for 50’ is a project co-ordinated by The Arthur Bliss Society which aims to secure at least 50 performances of the composer’s works worldwide during 2025.
For the EMF’s opening concert the BBC Concert Orchestra, will give a rare performance of the composer’s Cello Concerto featuring one of today’s leading exponents of the instrument and champion of British music, Raphael Wallfisch, who has previously recorded the work with the orchestra.
Dedicated ‘To Mstislav Rostropovich with admiration and gratitude’, the concerto is scored for small orchestra with the addition of harp and celesta. Heroic in character with ‘Quixotic’ flourishes and a soulful slow movement; according to Bliss, ‘There are no problems for the listener – only for the soloist!’
There will be a number of additional world premiere and first public performances during the Festival, including chamber works by Norman O’Neill, Alan Rawsthorne and Herbert Howells, when South African pianist Peter Cartwright returns to the EMF to join violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck.
CHORAL AND VOCAL CELEBRATIONS: The riches of the British choral repertoire are regularly showcased at the EMF and this year The Godwine Choir conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton bring audience favourites to Dorchester Abbey in a programme entitled ‘The Golden Skein’ named after the words of William Blake set to music by Edgar Bainton.
In ‘Nights Bright Days’ tenor Ben Alden accompanied by pianist Dr Andrew Plant present a programme of song to include Vaughan Williams’s ‘The Sky Above the Roof’, Howell’s ‘King David’ and John Ireland’s ‘The Land of Lost Content’.
‘My Spirit Sang all Day’ is a programme devised by Excalibur Voices directed by Duncan Aspden and featuring works by composers Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Alan Rawsthorne, Robin Milford, John Ireland, Edgar Bainton, Herbert Howells and Edward Elgar.
WIND, KEYBOARD AND STRINGS: John Andrews raises the baton for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in ‘Peter Warlock’s English Ayres’; a dance-inspired programme featuring works by composers from Dowland to Peter Warlock, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and Robin Milford.
St Cat’s Ensemble take their name from St Catherine’s Hill in Winchester, near to where they are based. A Platinum award-winner at the 2023 National Concert Band Finals, they are the inaugural wind band to perform at the EMF. Their programme includes the UK premiere of Martin Ellerby’s ‘Wessex Dances’, as well as other British compositions for wind band from the late-nineteenth century onwards.
Showcasing rarely heard works, ‘The Butterfly and the Toad’ is a programme of piano works by Dyson, Armstrong Gibbs, Lord Berners, Thomas Pitfield, Doreen Carwithen, and a surviving Sonata by Caroline Reinagle, performed by Hiroaki Takenouchi; a pianist and recording artist with an interest in the music of lesser-known British composers.
Further piano works follow when the Berkeley Ensemble is joined by Simon Callaghan for a programme entitled ‘Dorothy Howell’s World’. The Berkeley Ensemble has long championed the music of Dorothy Howell (1898-1982) and their recital programme explores her music alongside works by her teachers at the Royal Academy of Music, Tobias Matthay and John Blackwood McEwen, and that of Elgar whose grave she tended in the Malvern Hills. Known as the ‘English Richard Strauss’, following the success of her symphonic poem, ‘Lamia’, Howell’s work is becoming better-known and she has recently featured as BBC Radio 3’s ‘Composer of the Week’.
RELAXED LISTENING: Always a popular fixture, late-evening recitals are a special feature of the EMF with the ancient warmth of Dorchester Abbey providing the perfect setting for audiences to relax in and enjoy a performance from classical guitarist Jack Hancher in a programme taken from his new album of English works entitled ‘The Memory Garden’ which features composers from John Dowland to Cyril Scott, John Gardner, Benjamin Britten and Dani Howard.
Singer/composer and fantasy-weaver, Stef Conner has researched back to the very beginnings of music and song. She combines scholarly interpretation of historical materials with sonic reveries shaped by her deep knowledge of contemporary classical music, folksong, and ancient poetry. In her evocative programme, ‘All in a Green Willow’, Stef sets mediaeval lyrics, folksongs, ballads and poems from Britain’s deep past which speak of empathy, connection, love and loss.
FESTIVAL TALKS: Informative talks include those on composers Peter Warlock, Benjamin Britten, Cyril Scott and John Foulds, while author and music specialist Lewis Foreman remembers fifty years of researching and recording British music, illustrated with recordings and session pictures from his recent book entitled ‘Recording British Music’ (Vocalion Books).
FURTHER INFORMATION AND HOW TO BOOK
Tickets will be on sale online via the website and by means of a postal booking form.
Booking for EMF Friends will open on 1 March and general booking from 15 March.
Tickets for individual concerts will also be available on the door, subject to availability. Full Festival and Day Passes will also be available.
Dorchester Abbey is the venue for the duration of the long weekend with talks taking place in the Village Hall as well as a Festival Lunch (pre-booking required). A dedicated mini-bus shuttle operates to/from Didcot Parkway rail station – bookings must be made via the website when the timetable is published.
Further information including the programme is available on the EMF website click here.