World-class musicians and emerging young stars will be arriving in Iffley at the end of next week for Iffley Music Society’s Spring Festival.
The society – founded in 1996 by The Rev Canon Dr Michael Bourdeaux – regularly brings world-class musicians and emerging young stars to Iffley with its monthly concert series.
Now the society is all set for a three-day chamber music celebration, which will see another select group of artists happily swapping the glamour of the big concert venues for the intimacy of Iffley’s historic church hall.
One such performer is the multi-award-winning soprano Ann Mackay, who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with legendary German-born soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Her career has taken her to the Wigmore Hall, Sadler’s Wells, Cheltenham Music Festival, Three Choirs Festival and many more prestigious venues and festivals all over the UK and beyond.
Now settled in Oxford – she moved here 22 years ago, and has performed many times in the city – she is delighted to be teaming up with long-standing accompanist Kathron Sturrock for a mixed programme of songs and arias, from Handel to Elgar and Vaughan Williams.
“Kathron and I go back a very long way,” she says. “We’ve been friends for 40 years, and we’ve been playing that number as well, and it’s just so nice to have that continuity in our lives.
“I did the very first Elizabeth Schwarzkopf masterclasses in my early 20s and she was playing for those, so I knew her back then.
“She makes me feel so great when she plays and always brings out the best in me. She always understands and she’s terribly supportive. She’s doing a solo in this concert as well, Beethoven’s Andante Favori, which is a lovely piece.”
Acclaimed as a great Handelian singer, Ann is starting her programme with two Handel arias – ‘Endless Pleasure, Endless Love’ from Semele and ‘Piangerò la sorte mia’ from Giulio Cesare.
“I love Handel above all else, really,” she says. “Some of the loveliest experiences I’ve had was when I did a lot of Handel opera in the ‘90s in Cambridge. They had a festival there, and I did Berenice, Partenope and Alcina.
“Berenice was interesting because it was the first time it had been staged since 1737, and to bring that music back to life after that length of time was wonderful.”
Songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss complete the first half, while the second half consists mainly of English composers.
“I was brought up with a lot of English music at the Guildhall,” she recalls. “So I was a taught a lot of Parry, Quilter, Gurney, Baxter and Bridge songs, and I think they’re marvellous.”
A poignant inclusion in the programme is Elgar’s After, which Ann is performing in memory of one of her mentors, the late Brian Trowell, a Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford who retired to Iffley and died in 2015.
She is also performing Parry My heart is singing like a bird, Vaughan Williams Silent Noon and a selection of songs by Quilter and Bridge.
Earlier in the festival, you can catch the Jacquin Trio – Jessie Grimes (clarinet), Kay Stephen (violin) and Charis Hanning (piano) – an award-winning ensemble that has been attracting rave reviews since its formation a decade ago.
The trio’s programme in Iffley will include Bruch Eight pieces, Libby Larsen Black Birds, Red Hills, Mozart Trio in E flat major, K498 ‘Kegelstatt’, Khachaturian Trio and Stravinsky The Soldier’s Tale.
Like Ann, Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson has a history of performing in Oxford, having played at the Sheldonian, JDP Music Building, Holywell Music Room and St John the Evangelist Church in the past. On the Saturday night, he accompanies Hungarian cellist Ditta Rohmann in a programme of cello and piano sonatas by Schubert, Beethoven and Britten.
Ann’s concert brings the festival to a close – the perfect treat, perhaps, for Mothering Sunday.
Iffley Music Society’s Spring Festival takes place at Iffley Church Hall on Friday 20th & Saturday 21st March at 7.30 and Sunday 22nd at 3pm. For full details, visit https://iffleymusicsociety.org.uk.
NICOLA LISLE
