The 19th International Malcolm Arnold Festival 2024
Director, Paul Harris
Refer to the website for further information including the full programme, click here
Saturday 19 October – Live in Northampton
11:00 St Peter’s Church, Mare Fair, Northampton NN1 1SW
14:30 All Saints Church, George Row, Northampton NN1 1DF
18:00 Guildhall, St Giles’ Square, Northampton NN1 1DE
Sunday 27 October – Online Day (FREE live-stream)
One of England’s most colourful and charismatic composers – Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) – is to be celebrated at the 19th International Malcolm Arnold Festival; an annual programme of events centred around the multi-faceted composer and his music. The composer’s hometown of Northampton will host a day of live music-making on Saturday 19 October, and a specially procured programme to attract listeners from around the world will live-stream on Sunday 27 October.
SATURDAY 19 OCTOBER – LIVE MUSIC CONTINUNES ALL DAY
Continuing his successful presentations in both live and digital formats, Festival Director Paul Harris is extending the reach of Malcolm Arnold’s music to listeners everywhere, with live concerts and a short Symposium hosted in the composer’s hometown, and a specially conceived live-stream day, presenting recorded performances and talks, this year with a particular focus on Arnold’s songs and choral works – a relatively little-known area of the composer’s output.
ST PETER’S, NORTHAMPTON TO RE-OPEN AS A PERFORMANCE SPACE
Paul Harris says: ‘This year we are offering three concerts within central Northampton (Malcolm’s birthplace), all in walkable distances from each other. We are delighted that Saturday’s launch concert will take place at St Peter’s, marking the reopening of the church as a performance space.’
Launched by composer, Matthew Taylor, at 11:00 St Peter’s, Mare Fair, listeners will be able to enjoy a programme of rousing music for brass, one of Malcolm Arnold’s most popular genres as a renowned trumpet player himself, performed by Spectacle Brass Quintet lead by Nick Budd, in which Sir Malcolm’s own trumpet will be making an appearance!
Following this there will be a performance of the composer’s second String Quartet performed by students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Live music continues throughout the day, transferring to All Saints’ Church, George Row at 14:30, just a short walk away, with music for choir and organ to include the composer’s psalms and part songs, a rare performance of The John Clare Cantata, and ‘Turtle Drum’; familiar to many from school days. Also featured will be Arnold’s Organ Variations: five variations by living composers and one new variation written especially by Jonathan Whiting for this year’s Festival.
The poetry of the nineteenth-century Northamptonshire Peasant Poet John Clare was greatly admired by Malcolm Arnold. The John Clare Cantata was written for mixed choir and piano duet in 1956 for the Dartington Summer School of Music. The five sections present Clare’s evocative responses to the effects wrought by the different seasons on the rural landscape: Winter; Snow Storm; March; Spring; Summer; Autumn; Epilogue.
NMPAT PLAYERS HEADLINE GALA CONCERT – Demonstrating the exuberance of Arnold’s works and some of his finest and most popular tunes, the Festival’s Gala Concert takes place at 18:30 Northampton Guildhall, St Giles’ Square and will be performed by the Northamptonshire County Youth Concert Band and Orchestra (NMPAT) who are regular guests at the Festival. Prior to this there will be a short Symposium hosted by Matthew Taylor discussing all things Arnold, from 18:00.
HOW TO BOOK – Tickets are £10 per concert or £25 for a day ticket which allows admittance to all three, available at the door or book in advance via the website. Students and under 18s are admitted FREE of charge.
ONLINE DAY (FREE live-stream) – SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER – FREE-to-view and presented live by Director Paul Harris, the Festival’s complimentary digital live-stream day will take place on Sunday 27 October and features performances of some of Malcolm Arnold’s greatest solo, chamber and orchestral music as well as talks, lectures and exclusive interviews.
Paul Harris says, ‘The day is structured around the years that have their anniversary this year; 1934, 1944, 54, 64, 74 …etc. and what Malcolm was writing and doing in those years. We are also featuring all of his wonderful songs as the central theme performed by Claire Thompson and Scott Mitchell – Malcolm is not well-known for his vocal writing and our programme will give a fascinating insight into this genre. Also a host of Arnold specialists will be contributing through their knowledge and enthusiasm to bring together another fascinating and engaging day of music making.’
Harris himself will give a talk on Malcolm Arnold at the Royal College of Music, and there are further talks by Arnold authorities including Dr. Timothy Bowers, Dimitri Scarlato, Eleanor Fox, Gus Woodward, and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster and long-time Arnold enthusiast, Martin Handley.
Amongst the assortment of Malcolm Arnold’s chamber works will be historic recordings and specially recorded performances by students from Chethams’ School and the Royal College of Music. Soloists taking part, who will also introduce their pieces, include soprano, Claire Thompson, pianists Scott Mitchell and Lynn Arnold, and oboist Ewen Millar.
Amongst those pieces featured will be Kensington Gardens for Oboe, a piece by Arnold’s fellow composer at the Royal College of Music, Ruth Gipps, known affectionally to Malcolm as ‘Widdy’. Written for Gipps’s own instrument and piano, this is an engaging short suite of three pieces named Elfin Oak, Fat Pigeon and Chestnut Trees. Alongside Arnold’s songs from his own Kensington Gardens are his William Blake Songs, which were hailed by Gipps as ‘the real Malcolm’.
Both dramatic and playful in tone, the Sinfonietta No.3, Arnold’s third ‘Little Symphony’ completed in September 1964, extends the scope of his two earlier essays in this form and is scored for a classical chamber orchestra, demonstrating all the usual hallmarks of the composer’s inventiveness in smaller scale.
From the same year, the celebratory Water Music was commissioned by the National Trust for the opening of the Stratford Canal. In three movements, the piece was written for wind and percussion to be played on a raft moored on the River Avon, and later transcribed by the composer for full orchestra.
HOW TO VIEW – Live-stream FREE to view. Refer to the website for further information including the full programme, click here.