Inspired by a visit to the Mary Wakefield Festival in Kendal, in which village choirs came together in competition and then combined in a public concert, two sisters from Littlegreen, near Compton in Sussex, determined that something similar should take place in Petersfield. They were Edith and Rosalind Craig Seller, and after a few teething problems, a syllabus was drawn up and six choirs, Havant, Horndean, Langrish, Littlegreen, Petersfield Temperance and Purbrook met in friendly rivalry, before combining in Sir Arthur Somervell’s Charge of the Light Brigade. This was followed by presentations and speeches, and the inevitable announcement, to great applause, that another such meeting would take place the following year.

And so it has come about that next month we celebrate the 100th Festival, a Festival which, for all the changes that have occurred in the meantime, is essentially the same today, although the competitions on which the Festival thrived were abandoned thirty years ago. This enabled full-length works to be performed every year, to the accompaniment of a professional orchestra. Even the Youth Nights, so popular today, go right back to 1903, when, of course, they were called Children’s Concerts, and consisted almost entirely of singing.

Although eminent musicians like Somervell and Donald Tovey were involved from the very beginning, and others like Vaughan Williams and Hamilton Harty had appeared as adjudicators or accompanists, the Festival’s first great milestone was 1906, when Hugh Allen, a renowned name in Oxford and London, became Festival Conductor. He held the post until the first World War, after which he was succeeded by Dr Adrian Boult, who was to become conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930

Boult used his contacts to bring many of the greatest singers and instrumentalists with him: Isobel Baillie, Relsie Suddaby, Keith Falkner, Roy Henderson and Steuart Wilson, who, like Wilfred Brown in later years, was a Petersfield resident, together with Myra Hess, Leon Goossens, Pouishnoff, Irene Scharrer and many more household names.

With the advent of the radio, there was a live broadcast of Bach’s Magnificat in 1930, and six years later, to coincide with the opening of the new Town Hall, Boult conducted a complete performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Yet all this time he was happy enough to conduct massed performances of the competition set pieces, trifles like Wilbye’s Love me not for comely grace, Festa’s Down in a flowery vale or even Down among the dead men!

By the end of the war Boult’s international commitments caused him to hand over the baton to Dr. Sidney Watson, who carried on in the same tradition for another eighteen years, occasionally presenting major works like The Dream of Gerontius and the B Minor Mass, yet remaining largely faithful to the tradition of competition, which finally expired during the tenure of Mark Deller, under whom the Festival developed into what we know today.

The loyalty of many associated with the Festival has already been touched upon. But there were many others, both on stage and behind the scenes. Kenneth Skeaping played in the Festival Orchestra from 1922 to 1957 and soprano Elsie Suddaby spanned the years 1927-1953. Mabel Causton played in the orchestra at the very first Festival, trained several choirs and remained on the committee until 1959, whilst her sister Hilda’s unique collection of early programmes provides us with almost complete details of the first thirty years.

Kathleen Merritt joined the orchestra in 1920 and became the Festival’s President in 1985, the year in which she died, and Hilda Gammon served on the committee from 1922 to 1956 and sang in the chorus for many years after that. Dr Maurice Blower was a committee member from 1925 until 1977 and President for the next six years, whilst Michael Hurd has been closely connected with the Festival for the last forty years.

But two families have spanned all hundred Festivals. Arthur J.C. Mackarness was elected Chairman in the very first year, remaining until 1946, when he became President. His nephew, Peter, sang in the chorus between 1939 and 1972, joined by his wife, Torla, in 1946. She is still singing, and this year celebrates her sixtieth Festival. Even more remarkable are the three generations of Diana Harding’s family, who have actually sung in the Festival every year since the very beginning in 1901.

It is people like these, and a host of others, who have made the Petersfield Musical Festival what it is, a week that above all, gives immense pleasure and satisfaction to the hundreds who take part, and their relatives and friends who listen. A social occasion as much as a musical one



Tom Muckley, February 2006

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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