2002 Cheltenham Festival of Music comes to town (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

2002 Cheltenham Festival of Music comes to town

classical

THE 2002 Cheltenham Festival of Music, which runs from July 5 - 21, marks it out as one of this country's top artistic events, offering an exciting programme of musical experience for all tastes.

This year's Festival enjoys the perfect musical marriage of the cerebral and the emotional in exploring the work of two of the greatest and most popular composers.

The musical colours of Igor Stravinsky - from the exhilaration of The Rite of Spring to the intimate charms of both the Cantata and the Mass - will be presented alongside music by one of his strongest musical influences, J S Bach, whose featured works range from the spirited Brandenburg Concerti to solo sonatas and partitas performed by candlelight in idyllic Cotswold churches.

Both strands weave the 2002 programme together, each interpreted by artists who will be taking exciting steps into new repertory, among them Piotr Anderszewski, Emma Kirkby, Angela Hewitt and the BBC Singers.

The intense emotional world of Robert Schumann preoccupies many of the concerts at the Pittville Pump Room.

Mark Padmore, Sarah Connolly and Christian Gerhaher breathe fresh life into the bittersweet song-cycles, and some of Schumann's finest instrumental creations - trios, quartets and quintets - are performed by renowned interpreters such as the Nash Ensemble, the Florestan Trio and the Schubert Ensemble.

The Early Opera Company explores the rich one-act operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau, with concert performances of Pygmalion and Les Indes Galantes.

A cycle of Beethoven's mid-period string quartets concludes a three-year project which has surveyed all of his remarkable quartet output, performed this year by the Goldner, Skampa, Belcea, Jerusalem and Lotus Quartets.

Music Theatre Wales premieres a reworking of Nigel Osborne's visionary The Electrification of the Soviet Union, and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale is staged by Psappha at the Everyman Theatre. The Town Hall hosts the UK's second performance of Louis Andriessen's vast De Materie, as well as a specially commissioned piece for the massed ring tones of many mobile phones.

A new Festival partnership bears fruit in 2002 as Cheltenham links up with the Sydney Festival in Australia, exchanging a range of programmes, artists and commissions from leading antipodean composers.

Among these is a new work from Peter Sculthorpe, whose music is featured throughout the programme, one of some 20 first performances that include new works by John Tavener, Per Norgard, Martin Butler, Adrian Williams and Michael Zev Gordon.

The Festival offers warm return welcomes to I Fagiolini, the Takacs Quartet, Steven Isserlis, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin.

Festival debuts include performances by harpsichordists Elisabeth Chojnacka and Richard Egarr, as well as Vadim Repin, Angela Hewitt and London Baroque.

Sitarist Anoushka Shankar visits Cheltenham for the first time, with a late night raga programme, while Japanese trio Kokoo perform both ancient and modern music, including a collaboration with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

The Festival visits more venues than ever before - beyond the concert hall, the late night series, @22h, takes music for after dark into pubs and restaurants around the town and the Young Artists series travels to Cotswold venues each afternoon.

The programme is complemented by film, visual arts and a Fringe Festival that includes free street entertainment and three weekends of outdoor celebrations for all the family. BBC Radio 3 spreads the festive message further still, with a wide range of events broadcast across the UK and to the world beyond.

Alongside this, the Festival's popular Education and Outreach Programme, Music Scores, offers opportunities for adults and children alike to get involved through innovative hands-on projects, continuing a commitment to ensuring equal Festival access to all areas of the community.