The sixty-sixth Cheltenham Music Festival begins on July 2nd, and with more than one hundred and fifty hours of live music to enjoy this year's concerts promise to be as diverse as ever. The Festival attracts more than sixteen thousand visitors each year, with events ranging from free family workshops and projects for young artists to concerts by world-class musicians. Performances take place in a variety of venues, including Pittville Pump Room, Gloucester Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey and the Everyman Theatre.
Concerts at the Town Hall will now be broadcast on big screens, putting audiences closer to the music than ever before, and fourteen rows of tiered seating have been added to the back of the main floor to improve sight lines. With so much to choose from it's impossible to highlight everything of note. However, a number of events have caught my eye, such as Alfred Brendel's illustrated lecture-recital (July 11th) exploring how character and atmosphere are no less important than form and structure in musical performance.
If you're a Cheltenham Festival Member you can look forward to hearing Imogen Cooper (July 2nd), who, in fact, first came to Cheltenham in 1973 as a masterclass student of Alfred Brendel! Her programme includes four of Debussy's Préludes, Schumann's Humoreske (Op. 20) and Schubert's Sonata in D flat (D. 960). I'm also looking forward to hearing duettists Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa perform a varied programme of music by Chopin, Ravel, Stravinsky, Lord Berners and Lutosławski (July 11th).
Chopin enthusiasts are sure to enjoy Freddy Kempf's all-Chopin recital (July 17th), celebrating the bicentenary of the composer's birth. Kempf is no stranger to this music. He has recorded two highly-acclaimed Chopin discs for BIS Records, and last year he performed the complete Études on BBC Two and BBC Four. His Cheltenham programme will include Ballades No. 1 (Op. 23) and No. 3 (Op. 47), the Third Sonata (Op. 58), the Grande Polonaise (Op. 22) and the Polonaise Fantaisie in A flat (Op. 61).
The Music Festival has a reputation for featuring the most up-and-coming, controversial and entertaining performers. No one fits this profile better than James Rhodes, whose recital (July 13th) promises to be the piano highlight of this year's concerts. Rhodes is quietly redefining what kind of audience a classical pianist can attract. Last year he was the first pianist to perform at London's newly-opened Roundhouse, and his first album, Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos, topped iTunes' classical download chart.
Five years ago he was not a professional pianist at all, but a City drop-out emaciated by anorexia and suicide attempts. He suffered from depression for many years, and as a young man used drink and drugs as an escape (though he's been clean and sober for many years now). Watching him today, dripping with sweat as he pounds out the final bars of a Beethoven sonata, is a powerful experience, and his unorthodox approach to classical repertoire is combined with the deepest respect for its essence and content.
Warner Brothers clearly believes that he will win over people who have never been to a classical concert before, and have signed him up as their first classical artist. He has also just recorded a BBC documentary, Chopin: the Women behind the Music, for broadcast later this year. It follows him on a journey through Europe in search of the truth behind Chopin's obsession with the human voice. His Cheltenham programme includes Chopin's Fantaisie in F minor (Op. 49) and Beethoven's 'Waldstein' Sonata (Op. 53).
Tickets can be purchased online, or by calling the Festival box office on 0844 576 8970.
UPDATE:
Those of you that missed James' concert last might enjoy this clip of his third encore... or 'iEncore', as it could more accurately be described! You can also see him in action here, at this year's Hay Festival.
