St Magnus Festival 2006
16-21 June 2006
Background and themes
The programme
Festival on Tour
Orkney Conducting Course
Fringe
Festival Club
MagFest
One of Britain's most acclaimed and exciting festivals takes place in the Orkney isles of Scotland in June.
| Orkney’s annual St Magnus Festival takes place this month. The week-long festival, founded in 1977 by distinguished resident composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, takes place through the magical long white nights of the island’s midsummer. Music is at the centre of the festival programme, complemented with readings, theatre, films and exhibitions. |
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This year’s programme marks the 10th anniversary of the death of the great Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown. The work and life of the writer will be celebrated throughout the programme. Scottish composer James MacMillan’s work will also be a focus of the programme, with MacMillan appearing at the festival as both composer and conductor. Malawi’s music, art and literature will also be in the spotlight, following the Festival's Artistic Director Glenys Hughes’ recent year-long sabbatical in the African country.
Featured orchestra
The BBC Philharmonic is the featured orchestra in the 2006 programme, with three performances at the start of the Festival. On Friday 16 June Paul Daniel conducts the orchestra playing James MacMillan’s Britannia, Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 and Prokoviev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Canadian violinist James Ehnes as soloist.
On Saturday 17 June James MacMillan conducts his own piece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Maxwell Davies’ Temenos, with Mermaids and Angels, before handing over the baton to Martyn Brabbins for Sibelius’s Second Symphony. Brabbins directs the Prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, Strauss’s Four Last Songs and the Mozart Requiem. Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans is joined by Polly May (mezzo soprano), Christopher Turner (tenor), Ashley Holland (baritone) and the St Magnus Festival Chorus.
Resident ensembles
The Nash Ensemble give four concerts throughout the Festival. They perform works by Mozart, Ravel, Saint Saens, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Brahms, as well as works by living composers such as Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan and the world premiere on 20 June of a specially commissioned work by Alastair Nicholson, A Stamping Ground, conducted by Martin Brabbins.
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Members of the Nash Ensemble join forces with the resident Scottish Ensemble for a performance of Ned Rorem’s String Symphony, Wolf’s Italian Serenade and Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. |
The Scottish Ensemble and Cappella Nova, Scotland’s premier vocal ensemble, perform James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, conducted by the composer himself. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor and the Ricercare from ‘Musical Offering’ complete the programme.
String players from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama will attend this year’s Festival. Their performances are on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 June, and Festival-goers can attend a Masterclass for the students run by members of the Nash Ensemble.
Theme events
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Performances and events celebrating the life and work of Mackay Brown include: |
Cappella Nova present a programme of Carver, MacMillan and Maxwell Davies’ A Hoy Calendar, a setting of a poem from George Mackay Brown’s sequence Fisherman with Ploughs.
A Hamnavoe Man is a unique event moving through the main street of Stromness, dramatising the life of the writer and the subject matter that inspired him.
Morag MacInnes’ Festival Lecture, The sea, the street and the story.
Carve the Runes is this year’s Johnsmans Foy, with musicians and writers from Orkney and further afield celebrating Mackay Brown’s literary legacy.
An Orkney Friendship is a BBC Scotland film documenting the 25-year bond between George Mackay Brown and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who will introduce the film.
Orkney, a trilogy of films based on stories by Mackay Brown.
An exhibition with personal reminiscences from his friends runs throughout the Festival at Stromness Museum, Tapestries by Sonia Bidwell is an exhibition of work inspired by Mackay Brown’s works (Orkney Museum in Kirkwall) and A Calendar of Kings at the Old Ferry Terminal in Stromness displays work inspired by 12 artists who have visually interpreted a verse from Mackay Brown’s poem of the same name.
Malawian music, literature and art are showcased throughout the Festival:
The Limbe Choir give a family concert on Saturday 17 June. They also team up for a concert with Scottish folk group The Whistlebinkies and perform with the St Magnus Cathedral Choir at the Festival Service.
The Limbe Choir provide music at Jack Mapanje’s poetry readings.
Carvings from KuNgoni Art Centre illustrate Malawian life and culture at the St Magnus Centre in Kirkwall throughout the Festival.
Other Festival events
A Coffee Concert by young players from the Orkney Traditional Music Project.
James Ehnes (violin) and Eduard Laurel (piano) performing works from Mozart to Sarasate.
Martyn Brabbins leads a forum with James MacMillan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Conductor-Composer: How the creative process affects the re-creative – and vice versa.
The world premiere of Nocturne in Sea Shark, in which David Swift’s darkly humourous surreal toys are brought to life by filmmaker Jonathan Charles and composer Brian Cope in a Creative Scotland Award-winning tale of love and skulduggery set in Sicily and Orkney. A film resulting from a project run by the artists with three local schools will also receive its premeiere at the event.
Puppetry workshops by Sicillian puppeteer Vincenzo Mancuso. The workshops are supported by Edimburgo Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
Italian guitarist Emanuele Segre performs at the Italian Chapel in two late-night concerts on Tuesday 20 June. His recitals the following day include an excursion to the island of Shapinsay.
Lynda Cochrane and Judith Keaney perform piano duo works by Poulenc and Stravinsky. Both pianists are involved in this year’s Orkney Conducting Course.
Scottish traditional band The Whistlebinkies perform at the St Magnus Cathedral.
Festival finale
Whistlebinkies flautist Eddie McGuire’s Ring of Strings receives its world premiere when the Scottish Ensemble, RSAMD Strings, Orkney Camerata, Hadhirgaan, Shoramere, Sanday Fiddle Club, Orkney Traditional Music Project and string players from Orkney Schools join forces to present the final concert of the Festival. McGuire’s work will be conducted by James MacMillan, and Peter Maxwell Davies will conduct some of his own new works. It promises to be an exciting finale to the week. (Sponsored by Loganair.)
Since 2000, the Festival on Tour project has taken artists and ensembles visiting the Festival to Orkney’s remote outer islands where they give workshops and performances for island schools and communities. Whistlebinkies, RSAMD Strings, RSAMD Traditional Musicians and the Limbe Choir will be touring for this year’s Festival. (Sponsored by the Wood Group.)
The Orkney Conducting Course is a ten-day seminar which draws emerging conductors from all over the world. Course director Martyn Brabbins prepares students for two days of hands-on experience with the BBC Philharmonic and the Nash Ensemble by working first with pianists Lynda Cochrane and Judith Keaney. Some sessions are open to the public. (Supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Musicians' Benevolent Fund, Radcliffe Trust, Gannochy Trust, Hope Scott Trust and Binks Trust.)
Akio Suzuki and John Butcher seek out Orkney’s Resonant Spaces in which to improvise and experiment with sound. Acoustics, reverb and echo become musical instruments to be played in some of the most unusual locations throughout Orkney.
The Festival Club kicks off at 10pm each night at the Albert Hotel in Kirkwall. La Boum!, RSAMD Traditional Musicians, BBC Philharmonic Jazz, Whistlebinkies and Hivida will all be performing throughout the week.
Neil Stevenson from Groove Records joins forces with the St Magnus Festival to present MagFest, a two-day programme (30 June and 1 July) of high quality visiting rock acts sharing the stage with creative and talented Orcadians. Appearing this year are The Proclaimers, Saw Doctors, Embrace and Sandi Thom, supported by Noelie McDonnell, Hivida, The James Bishop Band and Roll Machine.
| For more information and the full programme of events, visit the St Magnus Festival website, email the Festival, or phone their office on 01856 871445. |
St Magnus Festival is funded by Orkney Island Council, Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund, Arts & Business, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Event Scotland and Highland Park. |