Cheltenham shrinks
NewsCheltenham Festivals’ co-CEO Ian George explains the diminished status of the classical festival, which has shed its leadership: ‘As recent reporting from across the sector has made clear, the current landscape can at times be challenging for festivals and events that focus on classical music. We see our role as championing sustainable and inspiring celebrations of the form.’
Here’s the limited fare on offer:
Highlights for 2024 include a number of concerts celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst, performances by star pianist Clare Hammond and celebrated baritone Roderick Williams, and brand-new works by Laura Cannell, Sun Keting and Cameron Biles-Liddell.
“There will be less of it, but it will be vastly better.”
Claire Hammond is a joke – so much for a “star pianist”
https://www.rayfieldallied.com/media/clare-hammond-performs-beethovens-sonata-no-8-in-c-minor-op-13-pathétique-at-wigmore-hall
Make of it what you will. Do missed notes count at all? Should we count all the missed notes?
(And it’s Clare not Claire btw.)
Shame!
Please get shot of that hideous lump of scrap metal on the once so elegant Promenade!!!!
No more Cheltenham symphonies then, that distinctive British genre of the 1950? I don’t suppose anybody writes them any more, unlike the palmy days of Lennox Berkeley, Alan Rawsthorne and Edmund Rubbra.
Perhaps we are due for a revival. You could call it the Cheltenham Symphony Festival … That being said, I do like Rubbra.
. . . and Robert Simpson!
Looking forward to your next post. Keep up the good work!
The Cheltenham Fstival has been in decline for years. Few performers of repute, and an over reliance on , presumably, less pricey BBC New Generation Artistes. Then there is the inevitable , near universal, move into multi cultural/ethnic L .C.D events.
Last year, I heard moans that all the events were situated in Cheltenham, so the return this year to Gloucester Cathedral for an evening concert should please many locals.
Also, the various Gustav Holst 150 celebration events ought to cheer the spirits of all the old farts, as well as introducing new listeners in some depth.
It’s good that the Mixtape concert is promoted to the main Town Hall stage because it felt inappropriately exclusive at last year’s lovely, smaller capacity, sell-out DEYA taproom event.
Last year’s evening concerts were excellent, but not all well-attended, so it seems understandable that they were no longer viable this year.