Cheltenham Music Festival

The Cheltenham Music Festival starts this week with a positive riot of contemporary music and premieres. There is new work from Roxanna Panufnik, David Sawer, Michael Zev Gordon, Colin Matthews and David Matthews. Premieres include David Sawer’s The Lighthouse Keepers, a double bill of ‘radio plays’ with Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman’s Words and Music played by the BCMG under Martyn Brabbins, David Matthews’ Double Concerto is inspired by the sense of 'coming together in friendship' of the soloists in Mozart’s similar work. The work is premiered Anthony Marwood and Lawrence Power with the Welsh Sinfonia conducted by Michael Eager in a programme which not only includes Mozart's double concerto for the same forces but the English premiere of Rozanna Panufnik's Orchestrapaedia.

Michael Zev Gordon's The Gleam of Hidden Skies is a companion piece to Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings to be performed by Toby Spence, Richard Watkins and the City of London Sinfonia conducted by Stephen Layton.. Colin Matthews’ new work for piano trio was commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble to celebrate its 30th anniversary. There are also premieres by Dai Fujikura, Kenneth Hesketh, David Onac, Simon Holt, Marton Illes, Antony Pitts, Gabriel Jackson, and Hywel Davies.

Further information from the Cheltenham Festivals website.