Highlights this year include the RPO under Pinchas Zukerman playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra bringing with them a feast of Russian favourites, and our marvellous Festival Chorus joining forces again with David Parry and the English Chamber Orchestra for a final night of Handel, Britten and Vaughan Williams.
Douai Abbey again hosts two important concerts, the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford and the European Union Chamber Orchestra with Sir Andrew Motion, reciting new sonnets inspired by the Vivaldi Four Seasons.
I encourage you to visit St Lawrence’s Church Hungerford to hear Ensemble Berlin, drawn from the finest players of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Englefield House, the luxurious setting for an evening with one of Britain’s finest opera stars, Rosalind Plowright. At Highclere Castle you can hear Chopin’s second piano concerto played by Leon McCawley, who also performs a solo recital at the Corn Exchange. Chopin in his 200th anniversary year provides the theme for the festival’s own Sheepdrove Piano Competition, now in its second year, and already an important event in the festival calendar.
Our regular presence at the Corn Exchange includes the much awaited return of Ballet Central, and another talented group of young performers, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. I am looking forward to Portico Quartet’s festival debut as I am to all the young musicians who will appear at our lunch time series, the stars of tomorrow. But it’s not all youngsters at the Corn Exchange; two of the world’s greatest guitarists, John Williams and John Etheridge will also be there, as will the evergreen Kit and the Widow, the inimitable Kathryn Tickell, and Indian sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar.
So a warm welcome to this year’s Festival, where there is much to enjoy. I look forward to seeing you in May!
