Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the annual English Music Festival held in Oxfordshire has been cancelled. However, there will now be an online festival in its place which will be streamed on the EMF YouTube channel.
Stanford is well represented at this year’s festival with the following works being programmed alongside that of his contemporaries and students:
Friday 22 May
Spirited: The BBC Concert Orchestra – 19:30
Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.162
Stanford’s second violin concerto was composed in the summer of 1918 but only survived in short score until orchestration by Professor Jeremy Dibble. It was premiered in Durham Cathedral with Durham University Orchestral Society in March 2012 under the direction of Calum Zuckert.
Saturday 23 May
Duncan Honeybourne Live in Lockdown: A Recital of British Piano Music from Duncan’s Home in Dorset – 14:30
Ballade in G minor, Op.170
Forgotten Orchestral Treasures by Holst and Stanford – 19:30
Mass in G minor, Op.46
Stanford’s Mass in G minor started life as a commission from Thomas Wingham, the Musical Director of the Brompton Oratory in 1891, but due to other commitments such as The Bard, it wasn’t completed until late in 1892. The work was premiered by the Bach Choir on 23 January 1894 after being dedicated to Thomas Wingham who sadly died on 24 March 1893.
Sunday 24 May
All The Flowers of Spring – 14:30
The Blue Bird, Op.119 No.3
The Blue Bird is perhaps one of Stanford’s best known secular works. Composed in 1910 when much of her unpublished work was made available, it is a setting of Mary Coleridge’s ‘L’oiseau bleu’ that Stanford included in his collection of Eight Part-songs Op.119.
The full programme of the virtual English Music Festival (and how to buy tickets and watch/listen) can be found on the EMF website at the following LINK.
