Five Churches Festival 2025 Review
by Helen Gimson
For the third year running we have been treated to a musical extravaganza with styles to suit every taste. Artistic Director, Brenda Blewett, put together a varied, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable programme of concerts over five days in all the five churches of the Glaven Valley Benefice. Whilst doing all this, she also managed to find the time to rehearse with many of the musicians to provide seemingly faultless and fitting accompaniment in the performances.
Brenda was very ably assisted by Festival Manager, Stephen Cottee, and his team, who ensured rehearsals could take place, the programmes were written and printed, the refreshments were organised and many other things to ensure the Festival ran smoothly.
Thank you also to the Sponsors, Donors and Friends of the Festival, without whose generosity the Festival could not have taken place.
To all involved in whatever way – thank you very much for a wonderful five days of music-making!
All the photographs are the copyright of Hanne Siebers.
Wednesday
Drinks Reception
Rachel & Mark Davenport were our generous hosts again for the launch of the Five Churches Festival on Wednesday evening. Sponsors & Friends gathered in their garden on a beautiful summer’s evening for drinks & nibbles and much chat.
Many thanks to Rachel & Mark for hosting and to the catering team.
Time Stands Still
The first concert of the Festival was in Wiveton Church with a very varied and enjoyable programme performed by the mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and the guitarist Dimitris Soukaras.
Betts-Dean is a versatile and entertaining performer, switching effortlessly between a variety of musical styles from the sweetness of sixteenth century love songs to earthy jazz sounds.
Soukaras brought three guitars with him which he played with considerable mastery. The replica romantic acoustic guitar accompanied the Dowland songs. Drake played on a mahogany guitar and Soukaras christened his brand-new mahogany steel-strung at this concert.
The first half was a fascinating marriage of two composers, two centuries apart. John Dowland, a lute player, was composing during the English Renaissance – his melancholy songs were very popular, with their dark and wistful melodies, with much ornamentation. Soukaras performed these seemingly effortlessly on a replica romantic guitar, with Betts-Dean bringing depth and expression to the mainly melancholic lyrics. Nick Page, an acoustic guitarist, started composing and performing in the 1960s and is also known for his guitar techniques, using non-standard tunings and cluster chords to produce emotionally resonant and atmospheric music. Soukaras is more than a match for these techniques giving vibrancy and depth on his brand-new mahogany steel strung guitar (Page’s guitar was also mahogany).
Quotations about both musicians were interspersed between the songs.
Dowland’s “Come again, sweet love doth now invite” was followed by Drake’s “River Man” – I found myself visualising a lone ferry man going to collect a woman from a jetty and the conversation they then had.
Two more Dowland songs conveyed the depths of his melancholy “Can she excuse my wrongs” and “Weep you no more sad fountains”.
Drake’s “Things behind the sun” shows some of his depressive state, which was followed by the more positive and energetic “Northern Sky”.
“Time Stands Still”, also the title of the concert is a Dowland song – one of the most poignant of love songs.
The first half ended with two more Drake compositions “Pink Moon” and “Place to be”.
The mood changed for the second half with Soukaras on his classical guitar. We were spanning centuries and styles with a carefully choreographed programme from Bacharach to Cardoso. Betts-Dean was able to show her adaptability in her vocal timbre.
We also had a guitar solo of a Cardosa composition that Soukaras’ father used to play to him and a performance of “And I love her” which he arranged for his wedding two weeks previously.
The duo are releasing an album in September “Everything which you’ve ever lived” – a mix of genres, styles and eras, based on childhood and musical memories. Most of the second half’s music was from this album.
The concert was kindly sponsored by Blakeney Garage – “the most beautiful garage in the whole world.”
Thursday
Making Musicians
Making Musicians aims to develop the very best musical talent at Norwich School and beyond. Singers, instrumentalists and composers from both within the School and the wider community participate in an annual series of workshops, lectures, visits, masterclasses and recitals designed to nurture young musicians.
The Artistic Director of this Festival, Brenda Blewett, is involved in this scheme and brought three very talented young men to perform to us in Cley Church.
Isaac Schaad, the youngest of the three at fourteen, was the first to take the stage with a delightful performance of Brahms Scherzo in C minor “Sonatensatz”. This talented young man brought the much-needed energy to the piece but also had delicacy of touch when it mattered.
I have always found George Butterworth’s “A Shropshire Lad” song cycle a moving work and this was no exception. Benjamin Griffiths brought to Houseman’s poetry a poignancy to the themes of nostalgia for lost youth, with the beauty of the English countryside and the impending doom of the First World War. This seventeen-year-old tenor has crystal clear diction and brought an innocence of voice to the “Lad”, ably coping with the changes in emotional temperature.
Tristan McCardel, performed at last year’s Festival. He is now studying at the Purcell School and won the Norfolk Young Musician competition in January. His first piece, the Romance No 2 in F major by Beethoven,brought out a richness of tone in the long soaring phrases and had much delicacy in the ornamentation. This was followed by Elgar’s “La Caprapricieuse” – a popular encore item for violinists.
Griffiths took to the stage again. He showed a clear talent for singing songs from the musicals with his clear diction and his animation of upper body and face while standing perfectly still! His rendition of “Maria” from Bernstein’s “West Side Story” had me imagining him as Tony on stage. “Dear Evan Hansen” is not a musical I know, but in “Words Fail” I could imagine the pain of the truth facing his character.
“Tzigane” by Ravel has Hungarian overtones with a high degree of technical difficulty especially in the opening elongated cadenza, which McCardel mastered well. He conveyed all the earthy energy of the Hungarian traditions along with beautiful haunting melodies.
Our encore was a rendition of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” sung beautifully by Griffiths with McCardel now in an accompanying role along with the piano.
Glaven Rhapsody
Rachel Stacy (viola) and Ivan McCready (cello) took us on an audio-visual journey around the villages in the Glaven Valley Benefice with two performances in Glandford Church.
Images on the screen of the villages, the coastline, the countryside and the flora and fauna showed us our journey accompanied by the music. Some of the parts were recorded which helped with the depth of sound and the live cello & viola made the music come alive.
As we watched the River Glaven rippling away, we had the evocative “Spiegel im Spiegel” by Arvo Part. “The Keel Row” and “Pop goes the Weasel” were played as we went through the harvest season.
The music was interspersed with evocative prose about the villages mainly written by Stacy and McCready but including a poem by Cameron Self.
There were also various musical sound effects to enhance the experience – creaking boats, splashing water, the roar of the sea, birdsong, to name but a few. Some of these were enabled using electronic versions of their instruments.
The piece ended with a rendition of “Eternal Father, strong to save”, a fitting conclusion for this coastal community.
Both performances were kindly sponsored by Ascot Lloyd and Lovewell Blake.
Summer Evening Jazz
We were then straight off to Bayfield Hall, courtesy of Roger and Caroline Combe, who generously let us use the grounds for a jazz picnic.
Fortunately the weather was much kinder to us than last year. It was a warm sunny evening as we listened to Barbar and the Black Sheep.
Babar Gough and the Chris Cooper are well-known in Norfolk jazz circles and brought to us some classic jazz swing standards, blues and ballads. There was some dancing too!
The event was kindly sponsored by Bedfords.
Friday
Schhh…
“Stunning”, was a word I heard a lot at the end of Friday night’s programme of Schubert and Schumann in Blakeney church and so it was. We were all completely bowled over by the skill, the techniques, the depth of tone, the sometimes raw emotion and the sensitivity where it mattered.
Robert Cohen is one of the leading cellists of our time and a professor of cello at the Royal Academy of Music. The first half was for solo cello and piano. He opened with the “Arpeggione” Sonata by Schubert. As he said himself, “it is incredibly difficult to play”. Cohen made it seem achievable with a beautiful lyrical start as he danced across the strings and was sensitive to the emotional changes in temperature bringing out the tonal quality of his instrument. The second movement was beautifully and sensitively played enhanced by the resonance of the instrument’s lower range. The final Allegretto movement spun us along with great vigour through the long flowing phrases.
Clara Schumann’s charming “Three Romances” had everything from dramatic melodies to musical soliloquys and eventual joy. The story was told superbly.
Robert Schumann’s “Widmung” (“Dedication”) is a love song to Clara. Brenda read us the words which, she admitted, she copied out onto pink paper and had on her bedroom wall at university. Cohen has transcribed this for cello, and you could still imagine the composer singing this to his true love.
After being bowled over by the first half, we recharged ourselves ready for what was to come – Schubert’s String Quintet in C major.
Completed just two months before the composer’s death, it is unusual in its scoring with two cello parts. It is widely considered as one of the all-time masterpieces of this genre and the plaintive mood of the second movement makes it popular for pensive or nocturnal scenes on screen, a notable example being “Inspector Morse”.
The first movement is considerably longer than the others and has some unexpected harmonic turns with the rising and soaring themes. The addition of an extra cello gives the piece a more symphonic sound and depth along with the percussive element of the pizzicato. And yet they are more delicate moments which were also ably and wonderfully mastered by these players.
We had tranquillity at the start of the second movement with the theme on the violin, reassured by the delicate pizzicato of the second cello before the first cello takes over the melody. The turbulent middle section had considerable energy before we were back to the peace.
The scherzo brought about the feeling of instrumentation on a much larger scale with full sonorous sound. Then into the final exuberant movement feeling as if you were dancing on the village green, before it became more elegant and refined. The drama builds and off we were, dancing again.
Stunning, mind-blowing, breathtaking…
The concert was kindly sponsored by The Tannery.
Saturday
In Conversation
Having fortified ourselves with coffee and croissants, we settled down to hear a conversation between Brenda Blewett and Stephen Threlfall. Stephen was the Head at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester while Brenda was Head of Accompaniment. They worked together for 24 years. Stephen began his career as sub-principle cellist in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra before a change of direction brought him into the teaching world.
He gave us some insight as to why in how he started his conducting journey by being interested in the scores and what was going on in other parts of the orchestra that then, when brought together, brought the music alive. He had to be versatile in accepting engagements as they were offered which all helped in his learning experience.
Funding is often a struggle in the Arts and with Chetham’s being part of the Music and Dance Scheme, a considerable number of students not paying any fees. Opportunity for other students can vary, especially in rural locations. The teachers have to be located where the need is, but it can be difficult to ascertain the demand. Schools have limited budgets and it is often aspects of the Arts that lose out with a school having fulfilled a curriculum requirement so cannot then justify further exploration down that avenue. Workshops do help in bringing musicians together, which can take many forms including bringing a section of an orchestra into a school. Musical tours whether in the UK or abroad are often transforming for young musicians.
Festivals are another good way of bringing musicians and music lovers together, but you have to be geographically aware, be able to gain the trust of your audience to introduce unfamiliar elements, not to do too much celebratory casting and to try and think of all the practicalities surrounding the event.
Stephen went on to talk about the role of English music. There is a great lineage of modelling on earlier composers – Britten can be very Purcellian – and from composer to pupil. There has been much film music composed in England eg Vaughan William’s “Sinfonia Antarctica” for the film “Scott of the Antarctic”. There is also a great wealth of music being written now. Church music and hymns are also a rich part of our heritage. The Europeans have a different rhythmic tradition and different tonality.
As to his current conducting roles, Stephen said it was initially important to study the score and see who is involved at which point. He has found that being a string player has helped as it is easier to see the colours in the music. Signs and directions are needed, but it is also important to give a soloist time to breathe. Everything has to be conveyed through your hands, imagining that the players do not speak your language. If you need to shout at your players, then you have lost them. You also have to consider different levels of aptitude in your approach.
Brenda thanked Stephen for an enjoyable and informative morning.
Brass in Time
London Central Brass is the first brass quintet we have had at the Festival and they did not disappoint! Brass music is not so familiar in North Norfolk (I’d love to have more of it), so most of their programme was new to the audience. I was delighted to hear the comments afterwards with many being unexpectedly impressed and having thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
The ensemble was formed in 2022 by students from the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music and they have been winning major prizes and toured in both the UK and Europe. We had Holly Clark and James Nash on trumpet, Beatriz Vila on French horn, Rhydian Tiddy on trombone and James Tavares on tuba.
The concert started with a joyful rendition of Anderson’s “Prelude and Reinlendere” from “Norwegian Dances”. We then had three movements from Susato’s “Danserye Suite” which would have originally been played by lutes or string groups. The sense of the courtly dance came through, with the addition of tambourine (yes, you can play the trumpet with your right hand and the tambourine with your left).
Crepso, a Uruguayan, did write music for brass and his “Valse Peruano” was full of energy with an excellent dynamic range and sensitivity where needed.
James Nash, one of the trumpeters, then introduced us to the next piece, “Quintette Victoria” by Jevtic, to which they had invented a story based on 006 finding and delivering an Enigma. They played us extracts for the key points of the story before playing the whole piece. It was a fun way to interpret this piece of complex and adventurous rhythms and harmonies.
Gabriel’s Oboe” from “The Mission” was a piece known to all. This beautiful haunting melody was exquisitely played on the piccolo trumpet, with incredible breath control, by Nash.
The first half ended with the first movement from Ewald’s Brass Quintet No 3. This is part of the core repertoire of a brass quintet, though unfamiliar to many in the audience. It zipped along effortlessly with the main melody passing seamlessly between the instruments.
“Mini Overture” by Lutoslwaski was commissioned by the father-in-law of Philip Jones who founded the first of the class ensembles in the modern era in the 1950s. This is a piece of technical difficulty, and they produced a wonderful, unified sound and precision timing.
Eric Whitacre’s compositions are very atmospheric, and “October” is no exception. Originally written for wind band, the quintet was able to bring a richness of sound to this evocative piece.
“Still Life” by Duddell brought a soundscape with lower parts providing the stillness and the upper parts the “life”. This has a very chorale-like feel to it and illustrated life in all its colours.
Luciano Berio was an Avent-garde composer, and the quintet interprets his “Call” as the instruments being different colours calling the audience to the event yet to come.
The concert finished with Jan Bach’s “Foliations”. The “La Folia” melody of Iberian origin has been used by many composers. This was a set of variations, with a handful to be performed at any one time. The quintet skilfully used them to introduce the various instruments in their version of a “Young Person’s Guide to the Brass Quintet”!
The concert was kindly sponsored by Robert and Charlotte Carter.
Sunday
Songs of Praise
An uplifting church service, celebrating the wonders of hymnary, was held in Blakeney Church led by Rev Claude Scott and Michael Wakelin, former Head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC. With Patricia Alexander on organ and Brenda Blewett on piano, the regular church choir (directed by Helen Gimson) led the congregation in their singing.
We had a selection of wonderful familiar hymns all chosen by local people – Praise, my soul, the King of heaven; Morning has broken; Amazing grace; The Lord’s my shepherd; How great thou art; To God be the glory; O thou who camest from above; All my hope on God is founded; King of Kings, majesty; and Lord, for the years.
Michael, a Methodist by tradition, started his love of hymns at school. He gave us some anecdotes of his time recording Songs of Praise, including the 40,000 who came to Old Trafford in 1995.
During his talk, Michael gave examples of how hymn words can go to a number of other and some unexpected tunes such as “On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At”. He also said of how a tune can become divisive in hymns such as “All things bright and beautiful”. He did also point out that our selection did miss one of the greatest of all hymn writers, Charles Wesley. The tune for that can also cause division…
Festival Finale
“All good things come to an end”, so the saying goes. This was more than good though – it was a wonderful celebration of all that is good in English classical music.
Stephen Threlfall conducted a string ensemble of 17 players; we had a fantastic oboist, Ewan Millar, and rising young star, Isaac Schaad, who composed and played his viola in one piece performed and also sang and played in Britten’s Simple Symphony.
Stephen Cottee opened proceedings in Cley Church by thanking the Sponsors, the Donors, the Festival Friends, the volunteers and the Artistic Team of Brenda Blewett, Ivan McCready and Rachel Stacy. He then welcomed the assembled musicians for a concert in a “land of pure delight”.
We started with “Pan” from “Six Metamorphoses after Ovid” for solo oboe. This was exquisitely played off-stage by Ewan Millar, a former finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year. You could imagine the high-spirited Pan playing his pipes.
This led straight into one of the most familiar and well-loved pieces for such an ensemble – Elgar’s Serenade for Strings. We wallowed in its rich harmonies and were serenely transported to another plain in the second movement.
We were introduced to fourteen-year-old Isaac Schaad at Making Musicians and it was a delight to have another contribution from him. This was the Finale from his Divertimento for Strings which was exciting and dramatic, assisted by the use of unison strings. I found myself imagining the American Prairies in the middle, more tranquil, section.
The mood changed as we heard Philip Herbert’s “Elegy – In Memoriam”. This was written as a response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence. You could sense the pain and loss that surrounded this tragic event and it draws on the English Pastoral School reflected in the music of Vaughan Williams and Finzi.
The first half ended with Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Oboe and Strings. For me this described the English Idyll – this coastal community with its vast wide skies and fickle sea, those glorious views and the wealth of flora and fauna. Millar played this exquisitely with excellent breath control.
“Narcissus” from the “Six Metamorphoses” opened the second half, again exquisitely played by Millar. It was then straight into another classic- Holt’s “St Paul’s Suite”, composed, not for the Cathedral, but for the school. The energy of the “Jig” was evident and the delicate “Ostinato” was atmospherically and fittingly enhanced by the bats flitting around the church. The majesty of the strings in the “Intermezzo” contrasted well with the violin solo. Then it was into one of the best-known jigs, “The Dargason”, which Holst had originally used in his Second Suite in F for Military Band. Each part has the tune at some point and it contrasts with “Greensleeves”.
I find Finzi to be a very atmospheric composer of the English Pastoral School. His “Romance for String Orchestra” is no exception and this performance was tearing at your heart strings with the beautiful and expressive melodies.
Britten’s “Simple Symphony” is a reworking of several pieces he wrote as a child and had much emotional significance for him. This performance had Schaad introducing each section with the original compositions played on the piano and the first two with him then proving he still has a fine treble voice as he was accompanied by Brenda. We had a “Boisterous Bourrée”, a Playful Pizzicato”, a Sentimental Sarabande” and a Frolicsome Finale” all which wonderfully fitted their descriptions in the performance.
It was a wonderful and electrifying Festival taking us on a musical journey which evoked many emotions. Thank you so much Brenda and Stephen and your thoroughly capable teams, not forgetting the excellent standard of musicianship from all performers.
We’re all looking forward to 2026!