Welcome to the Alfriston Summer Music Festival
Artistic Directors Daniel Bhattacharya and Jeremy Young write:
We really hope you enjoy the programme of music we have for you this year. Daniel and I decided that we would concentrate on the classics of the repertoire this year and you will see masterworks like Beethoven’s ‘Pathetique’ and ‘Moonlight’ sonatas for piano, Schumann’s ever popular piano quintet and the Elgar’s phenomenally descriptive and evocative sonata for violin.
We have a wealth of young talent for you to enjoy this year. Firstly the young pianist, Richard Uttley, is a talent to watch. A graduate of Cambridge University and the Guildhall School of Music and already an international prizewinner, Richard is playing a beautiful, accessible programme of piano masterworks on our exceptional Steinway concert grand.
I am personally delighted that my trio, the Manchester Piano Trio is able to perform in Alfriston for the first time this year. Nicholas Trygstad is the principal cellist of the Halle orchestra and Adi Brett the leader of Manchester Camerata and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and in previous years their schedule at the BBC proms has meant they were not free. I’m so pleased that the Proms schedulers have been kind to us in Alfriston and these two world class players will be able to join us between their performances at the Albert Hall this year! Please come and support them!
We will have our traditional concert of Baroque favourites on Friday night and are excited to be joined by Huw Jones - Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and Assitant Director of usic at Stowe School. Huw will be playing the Handel organ concerto in D minor alongside a programme of Vivaldi and Bach.
On Saturday night my dear friends the Benyounes String Quartet join me to play rthe Schumann Piano Quintet in a really attractive programme. They are all recent graduates from the Royal Northern College of Music and have just been awarded the Julius Isserlis Scholarship. They will be the resident quartet at Trinity College of Music from September 2011.
Please support this year’s festival. As you can see we have some really exceptional artists coming to the village for a 6th year and they are all playing for no fee because they believe in the ethos of our festival.
Like so many arts organistaions we are on a dangerous footing financially. Daniel and I really hope you can make an extra effort to encourage your friends to come to a concert and we hope to see you at all of them!!
Alfriston Summer Music runs on goodwill and the very special atmosphere in the village one of the reasons we are able to tempt so many world class players here. We really want this journey to continue so please do let us know if you would like to sponsor a concert, buy some advertising in the programme or make a donation, no matter how small, to keep the festival going.
We look forward immensely to spending the week in the village again and meeting friends old and new.
All the very best and let’s hope we have some lovely weather to accompany the magical music.
Jeremy and Daniel