The 61st Edington Music Festival

Sunday 21- Sunday 28 August 2016

Time four services daily

SHAKESPEARE AND THE SAINTS

From the single lines of plainchant, sung by the Schola in the chantry of Edington Priory morning and night, to the sound of the combined choirs in Walton’s exuberant anthem The Twelve, you can hear a kaleidoscopic range of choral music at Edington this year. The 2016 Festival celebrates St Bartholomew (whose Feast falls during the Festival) and St Augustine (under whose rule the monastery at Edington existed) and marks the 400^th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare. Themes from the Seven Ages of Man speech from As you like it provide a focus for each day of the festival and have inspired the festival conductors to choose some of the most powerful liturgical choral music in the repertoire. During the week there will be opportunities to hear such masterpieces as Bach’s Lobet den Herrn, Parry’s valedictory Lord, let me know mine end  and Howell’s moving setting of words by Prudentius Take him, earth, for cherishing. Settings of the Mass sung during the week will include Ego flos campi of Clemens non Papa, Guerrero’s Missa de la batalla escoutez, Victoria’s Missa O magnum mysterium, Palestrina’s Missa Spem in Alium and Vierne’s Messe Solennelle, and the Requiem Mass of Mozart will feature on Friday 26 August. The BBC Broadcast on Wednesday 24 August will include Walton’s The Twelve and Francis Pott’s festival commission Mihi autem nimis. The festival will also mark the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Bernard Rose, and the death of John Streeting earlier this year. We continue the tradition of featuring the 2014 Harrison & Harrison organ in music before the evening services, and I am delighted that Matthew Martin, Peter Stevens, Simon Bell and Charles Maxtone-Smith will join me in playing music from Bach to Martin. Visit www.edingtonfestival.org for further details, and please come and join us!

Benjamin Nicholas

Festival Director