Hatfield House
Chamber Music
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Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival 2021
A 10TH ANNIVERSARY : WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER – SUNDAY 3 OCTOBER 2021
The Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this autumn with five full days of concerts, masterclasses, talks, schools events and a family concert.
Artistic Director Guy Johnston is delighted to announce his programme for this special year looking back at the past 10 years whilst also celebrating the present and looking to the future with contemporary works and new commissions. The line up of performers features both regular Festival artists sitting alongside new additions to the rostra of international chamber musicians who come to visit Hatfield each year. Musically the Festival plans span the wealth of musical history connected with the House with performances of pieces from the archives right through to the present day with two new commissions specially written for this anniversary.
Guy comments:
“I am absolutely thrilled to announce the plans for our 10th anniversary year. I can’t wait to celebrate this momentous occasion for the Festival. The Festival has come such a long way over the last decade, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the wonderful administrators, board of trustees, sponsors, volunteers, friends of the Festival and audiences. We of course owe a huge debt of thanks to Lord and Lady Salisbury for continuing to open their doors and for enabling us to share music in their beautiful and historic home. What started as a seed of an idea has grown beyond what I could have imagined back in 2011 with such an array of esteemed artists appearing and performing many memorable concerts during that time.”
The Festival opens on Wednesday 29 September with a piano quartet line-up of cellist Guy Johnston and Festival regulars Magnus Johnston violin, Brett Dean viola and Tom Poster piano. The programme includes works by Schumann, Brahms and is also as a platform for a world première of a cello sonata by Joseph Phibbs.
The other new commission in 2021, a solo cello suite written specially for Guy by Matthew Kaner, will be performed as part of a performance in the Armoury on Saturday 2 October. The juxtaposition of old and new will be very evident in this concert with this new piece alongside an organ recital performed by William Whitehead which explores Hatfield House’s musical archives.
The 2021 Festival resident musicians also include the Carducci Quartet, the Orsino Ensemble, featuring star wind players and Festival regulars flautist Adam Walker and oboist Nicholas Daniel. Another regular performer in Hatfield, clarinettist Julian Bliss, will appear in the 2021 Festival in his other guise as he brings his quintet for a Saturday evening of jazz in the Marble Hall.
Guest artists coming for the first time to Hatfield in 2021 include world-renowned but locally-based soprano Carolyn Sampson in a song recital accompanied by pianist Joseph Middleton and we are delighted to host a performance by IMS Prussia Cove musicians as part of their annual concert tour. On the final day of the Festival vocal ensemble VOCES8 will be joining the line-up, inspiring local young choral singers in a singing masterclass in the morning and performing as part of the Finale concert in the Old Palace. Not only will VOCES8 enjoy a solo spot displaying a huge range of vocal repertoire in this final concert, but they will be joining the Festival resident musicians for performances of Britten’s Rejoice is the Lamb and Lili Boulanger’s Vieille Prière Bouddhique.
Running alongside the public concerts there will be plenty of activity for local schoolchildren – to listen, take part and perform themselves – and on Saturday afternoon families are invited to come to experience Holst’s Planet Suite being wonderfully brought to life through storytelling and painting by artist, James Mayhew.
For further information see: https://hatfieldhousemusicfestival.org.uk/
Guy Johnston
Projects
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2017#tecchler300
My cello was made in Rome in 1714 by David Tecchler. 300 years on, I decided to mark this special anniversary by commissioning 3 new works as gifts for the cello and to take the cello back home all these years later.
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Jane Cowan Remembered, Royal Academy of Music 26/2/17
Jane Cowan Remembered, Royal Academy of Music 26/2/17
I’ve come to know Jane through the stories I’ve heard. My Uncle use to go to the cello centre here in London and I was fortunate enough to study with a number of her students including Nicholas Jones, who is sorry not to be here today, Steven Doane, David Waterman and Steven Isserlis. All of them are sitting on my shoulders here at the Academy where I have the honour of teaching a vibrant class of cellists – Joel was playing in the ensemble just now – and I like to think that Jane’s influence continues to live on from the wisdom I have picked up along the way through these extraordinary people. If they are anything to go by, Jane clearly must have been a one off! I was having dinner with Steve and David the other night and we were considering the order of events for today. The stories of Jane were out in all their glory – Steve talks of Jane as a kind of saviour to him during a crossroads in his latter student years and David remembers one of his first experiences in Scotland when Jane apparently shrieked, “Fake!” and “Boring!” at him. If anything sounded unnatural, there were consequences! But these stories, and there are many more that we can look forward to hearing in a moment, also helped me to make sense of some experiences during Steven’s classes at IMS Prussia Cove. As a young aspiring cellist keen to make an impression on my childhood idol, I would often take criticism deeply personally particularly in front of peers who would be watching. “Why do you do that?” “What does it say in the score?” “Vibrato should not be automatic!” “Relax!” and one of the biggest insults of all, and similar to Jane’s outbursts, “Cellist!” In fact, it was not necessarily an attack on me, but rather more about a desire to serve the music first. It was about getting beyond ones instrument in search of the essence of the music and not just about playing the cello. All of these formative experiences studying with Jane’s protégés makes me realise what an impact she had on all their lives and that her influence continues to shine through them and all those for whom her passion, uniqueness and, dare I say it, eccentricities have rubbed off on. Steve, today is an inspired idea and as always the London Cello Society and the Royal Academy have been so enthusiastic in their willingness to make such an event happen. Bringing everyone together in this way to reminisce and share these moments with all of us makes it a particularly special occasion, and so without further ado I’d like to invite our panel of past students to the stage to share their memories of Jane with us.

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