Presteigne Festival: The Open Fund for Organisations
For:
2016 Presteigne Festival
Presteigne Festival
25-30 August 2016
Held every August in an intimate setting nestling on the Powys/Herefordshire border, the Presteigne Festival has become a focal point for those seeking musical nourishment and artistic discovery in the beautiful surroundings of the Welsh Marches. With a truly forward looking commissioning policy, the organization works closely with composers and artists to create and curate inspiring programmes and events for an ever-widening festival audience and to bring experience broadening opportunities to its host community.
For 2016, the central musical theme, prompted by the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in the summer, is the examination of war and the influence it has had on composers and their music. Included are major works by Messiaen, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, together with Adrian Williams’ extended chamber cantata The Ways of Going (settings of Alun Lewis), Robert Saxton’s new commission, The Resurrection of the Soldiers, inspired by Stanley Spencer’s powerful canvas of the same name, Richard Rodney Bennett’s choral setting of A Farewell to Arms and the Fauré Requiem.
New work is central to programming at Presteigne, and the 2016 commissions are James Francis Brown’s The Heavens and the Heart for chorus and orchestra, piano Preludes from Michael Berkeley, 2016 composer-in-residence Robert Saxton’s orchestral piece, a chamber work from Adrian Williams and our 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society/Presteigne Festival commission, for oboe and piano, by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade.
Other contemporary British composers to be featured include Thomas Hyde, David Matthews, John Metcalf, Paul Patterson, Deborah Pritchard and Huw Watkins.