Musique-Cordiale - Orchestral, Chamber Music & Opera

Orchestral, Chamber Music & Opera

The festival repertoire, from classical to jazz, from sacred to sexy, is designed to suit an eclectic variety of tastes. There has been a particular focus on choral works and opera arias, performed a cappella or with a full or chamber orchestra. Such concerts are interspersed with, for example, violin, piano, trumpet or oboe recitals, musical soirées, lectures and lively youthful gigs by singer-songwriters. Classical training and a passion for music, professionally performed, are common features among most of the musicians, regardless of what kind of music they play or sing. Away from the festival, members of the orchestra are key players in the London Philharmonic, Halle, BBC Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle and other major European orchestras. Recent and future performers include Artisan, Emily Kraemer, Stephen Roberts, mezzo-soprano Polly May, Piers Adams & Red Priest (violin, cello, piano and a variety of recorders), Hans Martin Ulbrich (oboe), Florenz Jenny (bassoon), pianists Marina Nadiradze, Paul Posnak & Martin Kasik, oboist Mike O'Donnell, cellists Christopher Hoyle and Chiara Enderle, promising young sopranos Dima Bawab, Rosie Bell, Anna Leese & Elizabeth Drury, tenor Andrew Staples, pan-piper Michel Tirabosco, violinist Eva Thorarinsdottir and the Bolivian Soloists quintet (flute, cello, violin, double bass and piano). Young conductors such as Tomas Netopil and Kevin Griffiths provide energetic new approaches to the direction of works which the Ensemble Cordial performs; the Bach Mass in B Minor, the Mozart Mass and the Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin have found favour with audiences in the past and the latter reappeared in the 2007 repertoire by popular request - and also because the choir found this an intensely satisfying a cappella piece to sing. In 2007, the choral programme included Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, The Brandenburg Concerto (J S Bach), Handel's Dixit Dominus and Zadok the Priest with the Duruflé Requiem, with its 2 organs played by Andrew Parnell and vocal solos by Christopher Wray and Rosie Bell, providing the musical centre-piece of three final choral concerts performed in three beautiful old churches under the baton of conductor Errol Girdlestone.

Each year, a specially-constituted Quartet, consisting of well-known chamber music players, plays as a quartet under the guise of Quatuor Cordial 2005, 2007 etc. Other pieces performed in concerts during the 2007 festival included: familiar opera arias sung by Anna Leese following her recent Covent Garden debut, including J C Bach's Cara la dolce fiamma and, with Andrew Staples, the Mi ciamano Mimi, O soave fanciulla duet by Puccini and ; Trumpet concerti and sonatas by Albinoni, Handel and Vivaldi, JS Bach's Concerto for 2 violins and the Marcello concerto for oboe and strings. The Quatuor Arpeggione string quartet performed a concert and its violinists, Nicolas Risler and Isabelle Flory also played in the Ensemble Cordial again in 2007, with Nicolas leading the orchestra, conducted by Errol Girdlestone. Musical direction in 2008 is by Kevin Griffiths & Tom Seligman, himself conducting at the festival for the first time. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Tom Seligman and Clare College Cambridge Music Director, Graham Ross, shred the baton. In 2012 Tom Seligman is the sole conductor and in 2013, Graham Ross will also be the sole music director. The artistic director of the festival is violinist and viola-player Pippa Pawlik.