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St Endellion Easter Festival 2011 – Director’s  Report

I write this whilst sitting above the most beautiful beach in the world – white sands, azure sea, cloudless sky and millions of tiny wildflowers crowding the dunes around me.  No other human is in sight and nature dominates and, yes, remarkably, I am in the UK, on a remote Hebridean island that has become one of the most important places on earth for me over the last 40 years.  The space and peace are both key to one’s well-being and if I had only this treasured “home” I would count myself lucky, but I am also most blessed to have St Endellion too, again of 40 years, and to benefit from the fulfilling and stimulating experience that is the Festivals, and from the place that has been so significant to me for so long.

As I sit on one Celtic fringe listening to nature’s silent but deafening chorus, I can look back to another Celtic fringe this spring, where my waking day is filled with miraculous music making, complemented by much laughter, banter and comradeship. To have these two unique places in one’s life, balancing each other, is a privilege indeed, so while the thought of my beloved island sustains me through the roller coaster time of running the Festival, the memories of each Festival give great joy and sustenance as I gently go feral in the West.

Easter 2011 was a terrific week and, as so often, voted by most as “the best ever”. As long as we continue to aspire to that accolade, all will be well, and all was very well this spring. The sun shone, we ate superbly, thanks to the miracles wrought by Cheryl and her team, and we worked incredibly hard. Fauré brought friends ands strangers together on the first day in a “Bring and Sing” performance of his Requiem – our second year of opening the Festival gates to all comers and it makes for an uplifting start and one we will hope to continue in the coming years.  The Festival chorus (without question the best ever!) then sang like nightingales via Mozart, Purcell, Handel, Puccini and Verdi to climax with the St John Passion alongside a stellar team of soloists led by Endellion newcomer Nathan Vale as the Evangelist.  The Bach Passions are, inevitably and historically, leitmotifs for the Easter Festival and our offering this year brought together, under the masterly direction of Jamie Burton, all the facets of Endellion – musicianship, passion, spirituality and the intangible, unique input of Endelienta herself, whatever you believe that to be!

There were so many highlights – two wonderful chamber concerts including a performance of Walton’s Façade read by Edith Sitwell’s great-nephew William and Pamela Helen Stephen whose consummate articulation and stage presence brought the house down, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with a great cast beautifully led by Sarah Fox and Tom Guthrie in the title roles and also beautifully and cleverly stage directed by Tom within the slightly complicated boundaries of the church.  Before the Purcell, Andrew Watkinson and his viola colleague and long time Endellionite Garfield Jackson gave the most inspiring performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, giving the audience the impression that they were almost eavesdropping on a very magical and private conversation. Sarah and Jamie, illustrating the versatility of our company, gave an elegant evening of Cole Porter (to be repeated in London in October) and Andrew also changed roles for an evening, conducting an exhilarating performance of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

Five excellent Thoughts for the Day wove their way through the Festival, the final one being given by our own Tom Coghlan, now Defence Correspondent of The Times but someone who first attended Easter Endellion in his cradle……….

The inaugural lunchtime concert at St Kew will, I hope, start another new thread running through our week.   2011 saw the irrepressible Ben Wingfield direct the talented Easter Scholars in a short programme of English choral music, giving them a platform on which to excel and giving us a taste of the potential that is being fostered within our community.  They, Tom Coghlan, and others, including my own son Tom who has taken over the Chairmanship of the Summer Festival, are the face of the future in the Endellion Festivals, and it is a very cheering sight!

The immediate future, in the shape of the 2012 Easter Festival (31st Mar - 8th Apr) promises to be filled with delights. Andrew Watkinson directs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from the violin and then returns to the rostrum to conduct Bach’s Easter Oratorio on Easter Day 8th April. Sarah Fox joins maestro James Burton and a large orchestra for the glorious Four Last Songs of Strauss which will be preceded by a World Premiere of a new work by James Burton, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, and this concert will end with Mozart’s Requiem (performances on 6th and 7th April).

Jamie has resurrected Parry’s Magnificat (part of which was heard on the BBC Four documentary The Prince and the Composer) and he will also conduct the great D Minor Piano Concerto of Brahms with Jeremy Young as soloist.  Lunchtime concerts, Thoughts for the Day and delectable chamber programmes are being mulled over as I write this, and the Final Programme should be on this website by the end of the year, tickets going on sale in late January.

None of this planning or any of these reflections would be possible without the gracious hospitality and tolerance of Father John May and his PCC for whose support I am enormously grateful.  Nor would the Festival be possible without the input and support of Jamie Burton and my committee, who appear to let me have my head but are adept at keeping me on the right track!

I hope very much you can come and taste some of the delights in store next Easter – we greatly look forward to seeing you there.

Frances Hickox

Festival Director, St Endellion Easter Festival