The Three Choirs Festival 2025
The Three Choirs Festival has just announced the full programme for this year; by rotation, the Festival will be staged in Hereford between 26 July and 2 August.
A few days after the formal launch of the programme, I heard a short speech by the recently-appointed CEO of Three Choirs, David Francis. He has joined the organisation after a lengthy career as a music administrator, most recently in Australia. Listening to him, it was evident, though, that he already has a great respect for the Three Choirs tradition, although he is rightly keen that the tradition should evolve with the times. He particularly referenced the Festival’s community focus and its long and proud track record in commissioning and/or giving the first performances of new works as well as reviving neglected music. He also spoke with pride about the Festival’s continuing relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra. One aspect of his address that particularly intrigued me was his reference to the work that he and the Board are currently doing to develop a ‘framework’ to deepen the association between the Festival and living British composers; that framework is being designed, it seems, to go beyond the commissioning and performing of new pieces. I mention all this because these traits are all apparent in the programme which Artistic Director Geraint Bowen has devised for the 2025 Three Choirs Festival.
As you would expect, Bowen has included some works which are pillars of the choral/orchestral repertoire. These include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which will be the closing concert (2 August) and the Fauré Requiem, which will be the main work in the Three Choirs Festival Voices concert (1 August). But there will be more unfamiliar fare as well, most notably a revival of a full-length oratorio, The Atonement by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. This was commissioned by and premiered at the 1903 Three Choirs (in Hereford) but has since fallen into complete neglect. Geraint Bowen will give a twenty-first century audience the chance to experience it when he conducts the performance to mark the 150th anniversary of Coleridge-Taylor’s birth (31 July). At the opening concert, Bowen will revive This World’s Joie by the Welsh composer, William Mathias. There is a recording of the work, made many years ago by Sir David Wilcocks but I have only ever heard it once in live performance and that was as long ago as 1978 (also conducted by Willcocks) so I am keen to hear it again (26 July). Thankfully, opportunities to hear Howells’s great masterpiece Hymnus Paradisi come around a little more often but they are not to be missed. So, the performance to be conducted by Adrian Partington is an attractive proposition, all the more so since at the same concert the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss will be marked by a rare performance of his cantata Mary of Magdala in which the soloist will be Dame Sarah Connolly, who has made a fine recording of the work (30 July).
There will be plenty of new music to experience. David Hill will conduct the premiere of a Festival commission in the shape of Richard Blackford’s The Black Lake (27 July). Blackford has based his work on the 1951 Welsh novel Un Nos Ola Leuad (One Moonlit Night) by Caradog Prichard. He has scored his new work for two narrators, soprano solo (Elizabeth Watts), chorus and orchestra. Appropriately, the orchestra on this occasion will be the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; that will give the Philharmonia a well-deserved night off. Other premieres include Bob Chilcott’s Mass for Peace and Reconciliation, which the Festival Youth Choir will perform under the direction of Samuel Hudson (28 July), and a new work by Roderick Williams which will form part of the morning concert by the National Youth Choir (2 August).
Many distinguished musical guests will be appearing. Among them, in order of appearance, will be the American choir VocalEssence conducted by Philip Brunelle, with soloist Roderick Williams (27 July); Stile Antico in a programme of mainly Renaissance music (28 July); the great French organist Olivier Latry (29 July); James Gilchrist in recital with pianist Anna Tilbrook (30 July); and The King’s Singers (31 July).
Young musicians will be well to the fore. In addition to the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir and the National Youth Choir, there will be appearances by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales (1 August) and the National Youth String Orchestra (2 August).
This preview gives just a flavour of a few of the many and varied events on offer at this year’s Three Choirs Festival. Details of the full programme can be found here. In his aforementioned speech, CEO David Francis pointed out that in 2028 the 300th Three Choirs Festival will be staged – also in Hereford. On the evidence of the 2025 programme, despite the many uncertainties facing the Arts in the UK at the moment, Three Choirs is approaching that major milestone in a confident fashion.
General booking for the 2025 Festival opens on 14 April. For booking information click here.
John Quinn