Sunday 21 April 2013

Celebrating Delius and Ireland

John Ireland in 1917
Ireland in 1917
Frederick (Fritz) Delius in 1907
Delius in 1907
Delius and Ireland: A Celebration is a five-day festival being run by Birmingham Conservatoire celebrating the music of Frederick Delius and John Ireland. Running from 17 to 21 June 2013, the festival will be one of the biggest that the conservatoire has hosted with over 60 people involved from the senior and junior conservatoire, students and faculty as well as orchestras, choirs and guest artists. The festival intends to give an ambitious overview of two of the 20th centuries major composer pianists. In addition to following on from the Delius and Ireland anniversaries in 2012, the festival will acknowledge the 25th anniversary of the death of  Birmingham pianist and teacher, Denis Matthews, and the 60th anniversary of the death of Arnold Bax, as well as finishing with the premiere of a work by Benjamin Britten.

The fifteen concerts will include a wide variety of work, songs, pianos pieces, chamber and orchestral, including the complete solo piano works by Ireland, the Delius double concerto and the Ireland piano concerto. The opening concert will be a recital by Mark Bebbington including Ireland's Sonata and Rhapsody. The closing concert will be Delius's Seadrift with the Conservatoire Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Lionel Friend in Birmingham Town Hall on 21 June. The programme also includes and early work by Benjamin Britten, Chaos and Cosmos, which will be a world premiere.

As well as concerts, there will be talks, competitions and Student Prizes including the Delius prize awarded by the Delius Society.

Concerts take place in the Adrian Boult Hall and Recital Hall in Birmingham City University and in Birmingham Town Hall.  Further information from the Birmingham Conservatoire website.

Elsewhere on this blog:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts this month