Welcome

” What a marvellous feast of music. The festival seems to get better every year”.  David Lloyd and Rosemary Dunhill, audience members 2011 and now Festival Patrons.

Daniel Tong. Photo: Benjamin Harte

This is the London Bridge Ensemble’s fifth Festival and with our three guest artists, we are delighted to welcome you to another celebration of chamber music and song.  As always, we take great pleasure in performing masterpieces of the repertoire, but also a few rarer gems, which we are sure will surprise and delight you. There are six concerts, a masterclass for talented local musicians and a schools programme. Most events take place at the Discovery Centre, with others in the lovely ambience of St Lawrence and St Paul’s Churches.

It is gratifying to hear from you, our audience, that as well as the music, a treasured feature of the Festival is its informality and intimacy. You have said that you value our spoken introductions to some of the performances and the opportunity to chat with us before the concert or over a drink at the nearby Festival Club. You will see that we have built on this even further for 2012 by featuring an open rehearsal and  also some talks and discussions. And as in 2011, our souvenir programme will explore some of our thoughts and feelings about the 2012 repertoire, as well as giving background on the individual pieces.

Kate Gould

Many of you have told us that 2011 was the best Festival yet in terms of repertoire and atmosphere. How to surpass that? Well, as in 2011, various themes thread through our programming. Our Saturday Schubertiade was so popular last year (with the musicians as well as the audience!),  that we’ve decided to present another one. It includes his visceral yet sublime string quartet, ‘Death and the Maiden’ and his wonderful final collection of songs, Schwanengesang. Another theme is the use of folk music idioms, especially in the featured pieces by Martinů and Dvořák; our guest presenter, Richard Wigmore, also explores this in a pre-concert talk.  Last year, the festival culminated in Brahms’s String Sextet in G; this time, we end with the richly melodious string sextet by his admirer and friend, Dvořák, for the same instrumental combination. Programme

Part of the joy for the Ensemble is the opportunity the Festival gives us to work closely with fabulous guest musicians. This time, we are thrilled to welcome Alice Neary, cellist of the Gould Piano Trio and like Kate, born in Winchester before both went on to pursue top international careers; her husband, violinist/violist David Adams, leader of the Orchestra of WNO and regular guest with the Nash Ensemble, and Swedish violinist/violist,  Malin Broman, founding member of the Kungsbacka Trio and leader of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Artists

The informal sharing of music by local schoolchildren is always an uplifting curtain raiser to the Festival. So we are delighted that Kate’s former school, St Bede, is involved once again, and equally pleased to introduce Oliver’s Battery for the first time. We know that working alongside our indefatigable animateurs Sam Glazer and Jack Ross, they will produce some remarkable music of their own and we are also eager to see how the two schools work together.  As always, there is also a masterclass for promising local musicians. Creative learning programme

The Festival Club and restaurants have proved popular with audiences and the Festival team alike, so we look forward to seeing you at both Brasserie Blanc and Loch Fyne.  Festival Club/restaurants

We are very pleased once more to be able to offer free tickets for children and young people. For the rest of our audience, ticket packages such as an overall festival pass or day passes offer great value for money. How to book

As you will be aware, financially, things are ever harder for all arts organisations and indeed for individuals, families, companies and organisations of whatever description throughout the country. So as always, our deepest thanks to our supporters and volunteers.  Our Friends scheme continues to grow and we also had a very good turnout for our fundraising concert in November 2011,  both being clear testaments to Hampshire’s continuing appetite for high quality professional chamber music.  But there is always more to do on the fundraising front, so if you haven’t already done so, we warmly encourage you to join our Friends scheme or to consider supporting the Festival in other ways. Click here for info

We all look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Festival!

Daniel Tong and Kate Gould, Artistic Directors