20 for 20: Northampton's Malcolm Arnold Festival celebrates the 20th festival with all of Arnold's concertos

Malcolm Arnold

This year the Malcolm Arnold Festival in Northampton celebrates the 20th festival and on 18 and 19 October 2025, there will be performances of all 20 of Arnold's concerts that feature a solo instrument. There are five concerts in all, daytime concerts at Northampton School for Boys and a gala evening concert on 18 October at St Matthew's Church.

Of the twenty ‘Concertos’ with opus numbers, seventeen are for instrumental soloist, of which three are duo-concertos, the majority lasting around fifteen minutes. The earliest were written for friends and colleagues, which led to commissions from world-renown soloists including Denis Brain (horn), Julian Bream (guitar), Benny Goodman (clarinet), Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), and Michala Petri (recorder) who is also appearing at the Festival. Some are considered masterpieces of the genre, such as the Flute Concerto no.2, and the Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra.

There are also those written for more unusual solo instruments, such as harmonica, organ, and piano duo. The festival will be giving the premiere of John Lenehan's two-handed arrangement of the Concerto for Two Pianos (Three Hands) which was originally written for Phyllis Sellick and Cyril Smith after Smith lost the use of his left hand. One of the more light-hearted ones is the Grand Concerto Gastronomique for Eater, Waiter, Food and Large Orchestra Op.76 – to give the piece its full title – was written for one of Hoffnung's festivals. Arnold composed several works for such occasions that often meant great fun, and this one does contain some fine music.

Performers include LGT Orchestra with conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, London Choral Sinfonia with conductor Michael Waldron, Equilibrium Symphony Orchestra with conductor Mattea Leow, Bedford Sinfonia with conductor Ian Smith, and Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra with conductors Jonathan Burnett and Ben Copeman. Soloists include Ben Goldscheider (horn), Michala Petri (recorder), Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola) and John Lenehan (piano).

The music in the festival is almost exclusively Arnold's with the admixture of his teacher, Gordon Jacob, his contemporaries Ruth Gipps, William Walton and Malcolm Williamson, plus Sibelius.

Full details from the festival website.