Five Churches Festival 2024 Review
by Helen Gimson & Wyatt Earp
What a wonderful Festival we had, ably organised by Stephen Cottee (Festival Manager) and Brenda Blewett (Artistic Director). Thank you for your inspiration and foresight to make this such a success. Many thanks must also go to the Sponsors, the Friends of the Festival and the performers. There were also numerous volunteers in the lead up to and during the Festival, without whom the Festival could not have taken place – thank you!
Chatting to someone on the Saturday, who had come over from Dereham, she said that the reason she was attending the festival was that it was offering something different to all the other local festivals this summer. How right she was!
All the photographs are the copyright of Hanne Siebers.
Wednesday
Drinks Reception
Mark & Rachel Davenport very kindly invited the Sponsors and Friends of the Festival to a lovely reception at their home in Wiveton. There were also speeches from Stephen & Brenda in excited anticipation of the events to follow. Thank you for your hospitality, Mark & Rachel, and to the team who made and served the refreshments.
The King’s Men
Wiveton Church were the hosts for the first concert featuring The King’s Men. Five choral scholars of the choir of King’s College, Cambridge serenaded us with a programme from classical to popular music.
They started with my favourite piece of this concert – Robert Parson’s Ave Maria and I found myself lost in the ethereality of the performance. Two madrigals followed, the second of which was The Silver Swan by Orlando Gibbons. It illustrates the myth that swans are silent until just before their death.
Then we had The Oak and the Ash, an English folk song arranged by Gordon Langford.
With thoughts of England competing in the Euro semi-finals that evening we had a rendition of Swing Low, Sweet Chariotand then Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho.
Living by the sea we were then treated to two sea shanties including The Wild Rover. They said it was new to them. I did let them know later about our local sea shanty group and said we could have sung it for them…
The first half finished with an arrangement of Oh, Danny Boy.
In the second half, we were firmly in the 20th Century for some popular arrangements from The Beach Boys to Barry Manilow. It included some audience participation for Minnie the Moocher.
Thank you, gentlemen, for an entertaining start to our Festival.
Thursday
I was unable to be there for Thursday’s concerts, so Wyatt Earp has kindly written the next two reviews.
Making Musicians
Cley’s regular Thursdays@Three featured the showcase recital by two young artists who have been winners of this year’s Norfolk Young Musician competition. Under the expert guidance of Brenda Blewett who accompanied both soprano Alice Platten and violinist Tristan McCardel, the performance of these young players simply astonished their audience by their poise, musicality and proficiency. It was difficult to believe such maturity of sound could emerge from an 18-year-old, let alone someone at 16!
Alice sang her French songs by Fauré and Chausson with sensitive phrasing and a beautifully controlled sound which effortlessly filled the large space of the church. The Britten song cycle On This Island Op 11 is a more challenging work, yet she was able to embrace the variety of styles and moods which Britten employs to match Auden’s words.
Tristan McCardel tackled the late sonata by Debussy – again not an easy work to play. Indeed it was amazing to realise just how young this man is as he performed much of the technical virtuoso material, seemingly without effort. This was even more true of the popular Saint-Saens Havanaise that followed, in which he skilfully retained a delicacy of tone when the notes entered a stratospheric upper register.
However, it was particularly in the two pieces by Mozart and Strauss which book-ended the recital when both artists joined forces (all part of the clever programming) that we heard how well these two had learnt the art of ensemble playing. How moving it was to end with Morgen too, which caught the mood of this heart-stopping piece, holding us spell-bound and not wanting its final notes to end! As many people said afterwards, these were certainly two stars in the making with a great future ahead of them if they want to pursue a musical career. It was a real delight to be there!
Homelands
The smaller, more intimate space of Letheringsett Church provided the perfect venue for the first of several welcomed appearances by Chaos Collective in a programme featuring string quartets by composers with an Eastern European background.
The familiar Notturno movement from Borodin’s Quartet No 2 began the evening, setting a distinctive Russian flavour with its use of folk melody. This was followed by something certainly interesting on first hearing by the veteran Serbian composer Dejan Despić– his Homage to Stevana Mokranjca Opus 132b. A satisfying effect of such good programming meant we experienced the Serbian perspective on folk song themes before hearing a Russian take with the Shostakovich String Quartet No 8. Chaos Collective showed their skill as an ensemble, playing with dedicated commitment and professionalism, which drew us right into the emotional turmoil which this moving work embodies – one of the many benefits that a live and energised performance such as this can bring.
Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet No 12 gave us the Czech view on largely American folk themes seen through Bohemian eyes, and it was well-chosen to counterbalance the earlier more sombre Shostakovich mood. Dvořák really knew how to write a sunny tune and how to playfully share it between the four parts. Chaos Collective certainly made the most of a chance to interpret the joy and fun in this score through the sensitive interaction of their playing.
The concert ended with a modern arrangement of an old Norwegian folk tune Folketone fra Sunnmøre which provided a moving encore firmly in keeping with the concert’s main thematic idea. Altogether we had been treated to a wonderfully satisfying musical experience!
Friday
Mikeleiz-Zucchi Duo
We went to the intimate setting of Glanford Church on Friday night. This is the first time I have heard the combination of a soprano saxophone and an accordion which marry well due to the accordion’s slightly reedy tone. David Zucchi and Iñigo Mikeleiz-Berrade delighted us with unique arrangements the music.
Mainly known as a composer of church music, Praetorius also collected secular music from several European countries although Terpsichore was the only one published. Of the 312 dances, we heard an arrangement of six.
We then off then Spain for Andaluza from Granados’ Spanish Dances with its catchy nostalgic melody typifying the music of the region.
The eeriness of the Northern Lights took us to Scotland for a performance of the Mirrie Dancers by contemporary composer Aileen Sweeney, commissioned for this duo. It was as magical as watching the shimmering dancing sky.
The first half ended with Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel. This was originally written for solo piano before being orchestrated and we heard the duo’s own arrangement. Each movement is dedicated to friends of Ravel who died in the First World War.
For the second half we started in England with Thomas Adès and his overture from Powder her Face travelling then to Hungary for excerpts from Bartok’s Dance Suite.
Water Butt: Lovers, Snorkel is the title of Alan Paxton’s piece. Described as an eccentric trombonist by Zucchi, Paxton was commissioned this piece for the duo. Apparently, the title had nothing to do with the music. I beg to differ, as I just about got there if the water butt was a plunge pool and the lovers were doing synchronised swimming with snorkels that had caps on the top to stop the water going in – that made the high pitched notes.
We finished by dancing our way around Argentina with the gloriously jazzy tango rhythms of Piazzolla’s Escualo.
Jazz and Pizza
Feeling somewhat hungry we then descended on Glandford Barns for Jazz and Pizza. It was a chilly and wet evening, but somehow most of us managed to cram together inside with a few hardy souls having to brave the outside, eventually finding room inside to remove their thermals!
Most importantly the Chris Cooper trio managed to fit themselves, a keyboard, a bass guitar and a small drum kit into the remaining space to entertain us for a couple of hours with relaxing jazz music.
The pizzas kept arriving and the drinks were flowing. Thank you Glandford Deli for hosting us.
Saturday
In Conversation – Francine Stock and Rev Richard Lawry
Many of you will remember Francine Stock, the acclaimed journalist and broadcaster from at least one of the following – Newsnight, The Antiques Roadshow, Front Row, The Film Programme and various other radio and television broadcasts. In addition to this she is a novelist and has also written In Glorious Technicolor: a Century of Film and How it Has Shaped Us. Three signed copies of the latter were available for a donation to Festival Funds.
Richard and Francine have known each other for over 35 years from when they were both living in London and both share a love of films. Using the themes from Francine’s book, Richard guided the conversation through many aspects of the film industry. Films can shape our lives, our politics, our social fabric; they can galvanise us, shock us, comfort us. Music plays an important part in this. There are of course many themes that have been “borrowed” from composers through the ages, but we also have many successful film music composers which include giants Hans Zimmer, John Williams and John Barry. Composition is not only about the main recognisable theme but there is much incidental music and the success of that is often down to the fact you don’t notice it, rather than you do.
Music from the Movies
With some of us having had an excellent meal at The Three Swallows, we entered a transformed Cley Church complete with mood lighting, decorations, fizz and popcorn! Well done to Hannah and her team.
It was time for our resident quartet, Chaos Collective, to take us through a wonderful selection of film music with compere and guest vocalist Ella McCready. One of the things I enjoyed about this performance was seeing the emotional temperature of the music wonderfully shown in the expressions on Ivan, the cellist’s, face.
“2001: A Space Odyssey” with Richard Strauss’ famous Also Sprach Zarathustra started the evening. Even if you’ve not seen the film you still know it!
Who knew string players could emulate creaking floorboards when the suite from “Pirates of the Caribbean” started? This was the first of several contributions from Hans Zimmer, considered by the performers as their favourite film composer.
The evocative Time from “Inception”, another composition by Hans Zimmer followed.
Ella then joined the quartet to sing Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from “A Star is Born”.
The hauntingly beautiful theme from “Braveheart” – For the Love of a Princess by James Horner was next.
The soundtrack for “Love Actually”, that film almost everyone has seen, directed by Richard Curtis and featuring a star-studded cast, was written by little known Glaswegian composer Craig Armstrong. We heard the Glasgow Love Theme.
Disney fans then had their moment – We don’t talk about Bruno from “Encanto” by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and then we travelled back to 1940 to hear When you wish upon a Star and then the main theme for “ET” written by John Williams.
No evening of film music would be complete without 007 and John Barry. Diamonds are Forever ended the first half, sung by Ella.
Fortified by more popcorn we settled down to the second half in a Roman amphitheatre as we listened to a suite from “Gladiator” – Hans Zimmer again…
It was the turn of the comic book heroes – we had the themes from “The Dark Night”(Zimmer) and “Wonder Woman” (Gregson-Williams).
Ella said if we hadn’t watched “La La Land” then we’d been living under a rock. Ella, I’ve gone back to my rock and it’s quite a large one as several others are there with me… However, we all enjoyed your performance of City of Stars.
One of my all-time favourite movies is “Forrest Gump”. We heard the Feather Theme composed by Alan Silvestri.
Back to our comic book heroes in the March from “Superman” by John Williams.
“Who do you call?”, asked Ella. “Ghostbusters!”, we all replied. Ray Parker Jnr wrote the music for the Ghostbusters to tackle the paranormal in New York.
Many of us knew La Vie en Rose immortalised by Edith Piaff. It is in both “Wall-E” and “Ratatouille” and several other films including the one of the same name which is a biopic of Piaff’s life
You will remember the opening ceremony of London 2012 when our late Queen apparently parachuted in with Daniel Craig. The second half closed with Ella singing the theme tune from “Skyfall” by Thomas Newman.
Our encore was the James Bond Theme by Monty Norman.
Sunday
Festival Praise
We were in Blakeney church for a “Songs of Praise” celebrating creativity, the arts and music.
Was your favourite hymn amongst these chosen by the congregations of the five churches?
Praise my soul, the King of heaven
Dear Lord and Father of mankind
How shall I sing that majesty
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The Lord’s my shepherd
Amazing grace
Love divine
They were accompanied by Patricia Alexander on the organ, Brenda Blewett on the piano, Wyatt Earp on the flute & Hannah Bostock on the violin supported by Blakeney Church Choir.
We were also delighted to have two songs from Angel Voices, the Blakeney Community Children’s Choir directed by Rev Sarah de Bats. They looked resplendent in their red cassocks as they sang We are the Light and Benediction Song.
Festival Finale
A wonderful concert, very fitting for the close of the Festival.
Brenda Blewett had gathered some of the musicians she has worked closely with over the past five years, and we had two premieres!
We started with the first performance of “Resound” by Sarah Rodgers who was in the audience to hear it. All the instrumentalists were involved – Chaos Collective, Geraldine Allen on clarinet and Brenda Blewett on piano. It’s a piece of echoes and resonances, joyful and reflective with even a bell sound as it reached its final climax.
The Finzi Trust had kindly sponsored the next item which was a combination of his Five Bagatelles for clarinet and the song cycle Let us Garlands Bring. This programming worked extremely well as we alternated between Geraldine on the clarinet and Julian Godlee singing the song cycle, both accompanied by Chaos Collective.
After the interval it was time for another premiere. Susannah Self was the soloist for her own composition All Shall be Well. This was inspired by the writings of Julian of Norwich, a particular favourite writer of Rev Richard Lawry and as he retires this summer, Susannah felt this to be a fitting tribute.
The haunting melodies of Chausson’s Chanson Perpétuelle were sung by Susannah accompanied by Chaos Collective and Brenda. It tells of a woman who sinks into the depths of despair having been abandoned by her lover.
It was suitably followed by Geraldine and Chaos Collective performing Pavane pour une Infante Défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess). Was this the same woman that Susannah had sung about…? This was an arrangement by Rob Buckland especially for this festival.
Brenda was listening to Debussy’s Piano Trio while on a train speeding through the French countryside. She knew immediately that she wanted to perform this and Ivan and Fran fortunately agreed! It is a piece full of lilting romantic melodies and contrasting moods.
Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World was the final piece in the concert involving all eight of the musicians. This arrangement was by Olly Wood. It received rapturous applause and was a fitting end to a glorious festival.
More next year please!!!
