Oliver Brett Organ Scholar, Westminster Cathedral

Oliver was last year's organ scholar graduate of King's College. He is now at Westminster Cathedral as organ scholar and Director of Music at the Westmister Cathedral Choir School. For this first lunchtime concert of the Festival he plays works by Bach and Vierne's 3rd Symphony.

Beethoven Sonata in C minor op. 13 (Pathétique)
Sonata in F minor op. 57 (Appassionata)
Ireland Three London Pieces
Debussy La cathedrale engloutie, Feux d'artifice
Liszt/Wagner Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Liszt/Verdi Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto

Mark Bebbington contrasts two of Beethoven's best loved piano sonatas with gems of English and French musical impressionism, and rounds off his programme with colourful and virtuosic Liszt.

'A truly remarkable pianist.'
The Times.

'Intrepidly communicative.'
Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice

This performance brings together many members of choirs from Cambridge and the surrounding area, including members of Cambridge University Musical Society and Cambridge Philharmonic Choral Society, into a glorious ‘Festival Chorus' under the baton of King's College Chapel's Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury. 

Stephen Cleobury conductor

Miranda Keys soprano
Richard Lloyd Morgan baritone
The Cambridge Orchestra

Johannes Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn (St Anthony Chorale) and Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op 45

Brahms's Requiem, his greatest choral work, is deeply personal, moving and expresses great hope, using inspiration from the Lutheran Bible to produce music that sings of human compassion, in German rather than the usual Latin.

A concert by the Ukulele Orchestra is a funny, virtuosic, twanging, singing, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock ‘n' roll and melodious light entertainment featuring the ‘bonsai guitar' and a menagerie of voices in re-workings of rock ‘n' roll, punk, jazz classical music and toe-tapping oldies.

'Perfectly polished professionalism, threaded through with dry wit and wry humour.'
The Independent

Vaughan Williams
Toward the Unknown Region

Walton
Belshazzar's Feast

Hertfordshire Chorus is one of the finest large choirs in the country with a repertoire that spans traditional and contemporary works, including several new commissions. Recent performances have included concerts in the Royal Albert Hall with Daniele Gatti and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a Christmas concert there with José Carreras broadcast on Radio 2. The Chorus performs in other major venues including the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, the Sage in Gateshead and Durham Cathedral, as well as in Hertfordshire. It regularly tours abroad, to Sicily, Seville, Perugia, Valencia and, most recently, Krakow.

Holst and Vaughan Williams were close friends: Vaughan Williams wrote at least one major work for Holst's Whitsuntide Singers in Thaxted Church. Both will often have played the Lincoln organ in the North Transept. The Festival closes with one of the most exciting choral works ever written - Walton's dramatic masterpiece charting the downfall of King Belshazzar!

Saint-Saëns
Sonata for clarinet & piano

Debussy
Première rapsodie

Schumann
Fantasiestücke Op.73

Julian Bliss, who is still only 18, first caught the headlines when he featured, at 13, in the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. He has now established himself on the international scene with highly successful debuts at the BBC Proms, the Verbier Festival, the Gstaad Festival and through a tour of Japan with the Tokyo Symphony. His playing is particularly notable for its beauty of tone, its musicality and expressiveness and, of course, for its technical mastery.
He will be accompanied by the American pianist Bradley Moore.

VaughanWilliams
Concerto Accademico

Grieg
Holberg Suite

The Yehudi Menuhin School has always had a flourishing string orchestra. Yehudi Menuhin considered it a vital part of the musical education offered to these exceptionally gifted young musicians, and he himself often directed them.

Since 1998, Malcolm Singer, the School's Director of Music, has conducted the orchestra in many concerts in Britain and on tour abroad. Mstislav Rostropovich conducted the orchestra in London, András Schiff from the keyboard in Oxford and in 2007 Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted in Italy in a programme of Mozart and Dvořák. Soloists who have played with the orchestra in recent years include Jeremy Menuhin, Julian Lloyd Webber, Pascal Roget, Tasmin Little and the klezmer violinist, Sophie Solomon.