Revolting Rhymes and Marvellous Music

As part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Roald Dahl, the Magnard Ensemble (Suzannah Watson - flute, Mana Shibata - oboe, Joseph Shiner - clarinet, Jonathan Farey - horn, Catriona McDermid - bassoon, Suling King - piano) and actress Rebecca Kenny are to tour UK festivals from 14 May 2016, performing Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs as imagined by Dahl in his collection of 1982 poems Revolting Rhymes. The music has been adapted especially for the ensemble by Paul Patterson, from his orchestral works of the same name. The programme is completed by Martin Butler’s setting of Dahl’s collection of poems, Dirty Beasts.

Clarinettist of the Magnard Ensemble, Joseph Shiner, has been a City Music Foundation Artist since 2014, and the foundation is providing major support for the project. The Magnard Ensemble have recorded Revolting Rhymes and Marvellous Music, to be released on 18 September 2016, on Orchid Classics; the first time chamber arrangements of Patterson’s settings of Dahl’s work have been recorded.

The tour opens on 14 May 2016 at Gambier Parry Hall, Higham, for the Carducci Festival, and then travels to the Hay Festival (31 May), this is followed by a day of workshops, performance and panel discussions at The Forge in Camden on 1 June, and further dates include Dean & Chadlington Summer Festival (23 June), Thaxted Festival (2 July), Jam on the Marsh (15 July), MusicFest Aberystwyth (24, 25 July), and National Centre for Early Music (27 November).

Full information from the Roadl Dahl project pages on the Magnard Ensemble's website.