Jools Scott's The Cool Web opens 2017 Wimbledon International Music Festival

This year's Wimbledon International Music Festival, the ninth festival, opens on Remembrance Day with Jools Scott and Sue Curtis's oratorio The Cool Web based on the war poems of Robert Graves (who was born in Wimbledon), performed by Sonoro, Merton Music Foundation Young Voices, Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Robin O'Neil, with baritone Edward Grint. The work was premiered in 2014 at Bath Abbey to mark the beginning of the World War One centenary (there is a review of the original performance on The Fine Times Recorder). The festival ends on 26 November with the Philharmonia and Robin O'Neill returning for a programme of Mozart and Haydn symphonies plus Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto with Gordon Hunt.



The Academy Choir and Baroque Players, conductor Matthew Best, with soloists Mary Bevan, David Allsopp, Andrew Tortise are performing Bach's Mass in B Minor, and the Schubert Ensemble perform a double concert celebrating the music associated with Vienna from Mozart to Mahler.

Other highlights include violinist Victoria Mullova and friends (including cellist Matthew Barley) in music by Brazilian composers, and Sir Willard White and Counterpoise in a programme of American inspired music from Gershwin to Art Tatum and Piazzolla. Tenebrae, conductor Nigel Short, will combined movements from Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles, with Holst's Evening Watch, plainchant and Palestrina. The Wihan and Sacconi Quartets join forces for a programme of octets, Quatuor Diotima performs a programme of Debussy, Dutilleux, Stravinsky and Ravel, and trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger joins forces with percussionist Colin Currie.

Other artists performing include viola player Timothy Ridout (first ever British winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition), Red Priest, pianist Yevgeni Sudbin,  and the Soloists of the Russian Virtuosi of Europe.

Full details from the Wimbledon International Music Festival  website