Oundle International Virtual Festival

While we were not able to meet together this year in real space and time, that does not stop us being in virtual space and time to enjoy the 2020 Oundle International Virtual Festival! New material was posted over five days but now all the videos remain on this web page for you to enjoy again and again.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous supporter, I was able to commission some of our performers to record videos especially for the Virtual Festival, while others have generously provided new or existing recordings for us all to enjoy.

The Price of a Bed for the Night What is a story worth? When you’re down on your luck and all spent out, a story or a song might be all you have... but it is worth its weight in gold. And, as one traveller finds out, to have no story to tell can lead to a night spent out in the cold! Come join us as we wander into the strange world of folk and fairytale, where, under the light of the moon and in the flicker of the firelight, not everything is as it seems. As you listen, fill your pockets with stories... you never know when you might need one. Each day a new episode of a continuing story, and an activity to try at home! Suitable for family audiences, 5+

In Episode One, three travellers arrive at a strange old house on a stormy night and begin to tell their stories...

In Episode Two, the first traveller finishes his tale of mystery, magic and transformation, while the second traveller readies himself to begin his tale... the night passes...

In Episode Three, we follow silly Jack as he makes his way through the world... and discover that one of the travellers has no story to tell, and so faces a forfeit!

In Episode Four, the man who has no story finds himself entering another land...

In Episode Five, we find out what happens to the man who had no story... and his companions left behind in that strange old house of stories...

Recorded in the Great Hall of Boughton House, Northamptonshire, Schubert’s Ständchen (Serenade) as arranged by that piano prodigy, Franz Liszt. Liszt could not resist arranging wonderful Schubert songs so that he himself could play them on the piano alone so no-one else got the limelight. The Serenade has three verses and for each verse, Liszt uses a different register of the piano.

Melvyn Tan’s international career has seen him perform at many of the world’s leading concert halls, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Vienna Konzerthaus to London’s Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls and New York’s Lincoln Center. You will feel like a treasured guest in the magnificent surroundings of Boughton House with an unique opportunity to hear one of the world’s truly great pianists.

A video montage of photos provided by those who would have opened their gardens during the Oundle International Festival 2020's Oundle on Show weekend, and those of some other friends. The images are accompanied by two of The Orgelbüchlein Project pieces, based on chorale melodies, and played by William Whitehead on the organ of Lincoln's Inn, London.

The first (which we hear twice) is a sort of 'wonky tango' from Roderick Williams on Ich weiss ein Blümlein hübsch und fein (I know of a little flower, fine and pretty), and the calm, minimalistic Nun ruhen alle Wälder (Now all the woods are sleeping) from Dutch composer Jacques van Oortmerssen.

Ayana says: "I was shocked and extremely grateful when I won the Oundle Young Musician 2019 title at the age of 15. Having competed for many years in the Oundle Festival of Music and Drama, winning the competition seemed very surreal but once again, I was amazed at the excellent standard of the other fantastic musicians.

I have participated in the Britten Sinfonia Academy and all my school music groups this year, as well as preparing for my Piano ARSM Diploma in December which I passed! Playing both the piano and violin has allowed me to meet a lot of new people and also extend my repertoire thanks to my wonderful teachers!

Over the next few years, I will be preparing for my music GCSE (as well as the other subjects!). I hope to take A Level Music in 6th Form to help me extend my knowledge and understanding.

The Lark was originally one of a group of twelve songs by Russian composer Mikhail Glinka entitled Farewell to St Petersburg. Mily Balakirev was inspired to start composing by Glinka and his transcription of The Lark succeeds in retaining the beautiful melody while dazzling us with its virtuosity.

Northamptonshire born and bred, a previous Oundle Young Musician of the Year (2009), Elizabeth Bass is one of the leading British harpists of her generation. She has performed with many of the UK’s leading orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and performed as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square.

William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. The Fancie is one of the 42 pieces in My Ladye Nevells Booke which, together with the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, is one of the most important collections of Renaissance keyboard music.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote Six Brandenburg Concertos which he presented to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedtin 1721. They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era. The most important thing to note about the No 5 is that this was the first time ever that the harpsichord had been used in a concerto for anything other than the continuo.

Recently acclaimed by the Arizona Daily Star as “a rock star on the harpsichord,” Guy Whatley enjoys a diverse international career as a harpsichordist and organist, performing as a soloist, collaborative artist, and ensemble director. Had we been able to go ahead this year, he would have been a tutor on our Oundle for Organists course.

Of his compositions, local Oundle musician Nick Penny says: " On 21 April 2020 lockdown was preventing me visiting the local bluebell woods I loved. I longed to go up there, but then realised that there were a few bluebells growing at the bottom of my garden. So I played my handpan piece near those instead. My conservatory has a lovely warm acoustic, and when I was playing my harp there one day it started raining. The sound of the rain falling gently on the roof inspired me to write this piece, which I called raindrops. One April morning during lockdown the rain once again inspired me to put the two sounds together."

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2 is popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata. It was completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. It is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano, and a popular favourite even in his own day. The name Moonlight Sonata comes from remarks made by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beetho-ven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.

Xiaowen Shang is studying with Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she recorded her contribution during lockdown. She started playing the piano at home in China when she was four years old. She is a versatile musician, interested in early and contemporary music as well as classical repertoire. In 2018, she obtained a full En-trance Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and recently received the First Prize in the WCOM Harriet Cohen Bach Com-petition in Royal Academy of Music in 2019.

The BCO was established by British composer and violinist Christian Garrick in 2009. Led by Christian, they play a blistering barrage of traditional folk and gypsy-flavoured music from across the Balkans and Russia, Klezmer laments, Romanian Doinas, Hungarian Czardas and their own unique re-imaginings of some of the biggest pieces ever written by the greats.

Christian Garrick violin, darbuka
Eddie Hession button accordion
Adrian Zolotuhi guitar, saz, domra, tambourine
Kelly Cantlon double bass

Anna Chalmers plays each movement of Bach's First Cello Suite in G major, BWV 1007, at different church in the Oundle area. The Prelude, mainly consisting of arpeggiated chords, is the best known movement from the entire set of six suites and is regularly heard on television and in films.

For a number of years the Oundle International Fesitval has programmed a Bach walk and concerts to commemorate the 500 mile round trip J S Bach made in his early twenties to hear the great organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude play the organ. Our much shorter walk takes in the churches of St Peter's Oundle (Prelude), St Leonard's Glapthorn (Allemande), St Andrew's Cotterstock (Courante), St Mary and All Saints Fotheringhay (Sarabande), St Mary's Warmington (Minuets 1 & 2), and St Mary's Woodnewton (Gigue).

Tenor, Magnus Walker, currently in his third year at the Royal Academy of Music, sings Frühlingsglaube (Faith in Spring), Lachen und Weinen (Laughter and tears) and An die Musik (To music), accompanied by his father Frikki Walker. Recorded during Lockdown in St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow where Frikki Walker is Director of Music.

Recorded on the organ of Queen's College Chapel, Cambridge by Anna Lapwood, who would have been a tutor on the Oundle for Organists course this year. She is Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was previously the first female organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. A trailblazing musician, as a broadcaster she is regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and hosts a live, weekly classical music show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. This year she made her TV presenting debut, hosting BBC Four's coverage of BBC Young Musician 2020. Alongside her work as a conductor, Director of Music and public speaker, she performs an extensive number of organ recitals on some of the greatest instruments across Europe each season.

Dominic Ferris and Martin Milnes performed their debut show in 2015. Later that year they premiered their original medley 33 Sondheim Numbers In 5 Minutes at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in Stephen Sondheim’s 85th Birthday Gala Hey, Old Friends! They have made a special appearance in Live At The Tower! at The Tower of London, and performed four years consecutively at West End LIVE in Trafalgar Square.

Mozart received a commission for three quartets in 1785 from the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister who thought this quartet too difficult for amateurs and that the public would not buy it, so he released Mozart from the obligation of completing the set. Surprising to us now, that assessment accords with a view widely held of Mozart in his own lifetime, that of a greatly talented composer who wrote very difficult music. Almost a mini-piano concerto, the third movement of this quartet is utterly joyous and it is hard not to smile.

The members of the Kenley Quartet all study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where they created their ensemble. It is made up of two players who began their musical journey locally to Oundle with the others from Portugal and Bulgaria. Last year the Quartet were fortunate enough to collaborate with Carnegie Halls affiliate ensemble, the Decoda Ensemble from New York.

Made specially for us during lockdown, each member of the quartet had to record their part separately and very far apart: Joana in Setúbal, Portugal, James in Northampton, Benedict in Stamford and Ivelina in Plovdiv, Bulgaria!

A Virtual Festival bonus track! Always good to discover something new. This was suggested by our friends at the Nene Valley Brewery and Tap & Kitchen, where Mike Evin appeared last year.