So another Musical Festival is looming, and I am looking forward to another week’s concerts, as, I’m sure are all those involved - organizers, performers and audiences alike. We have an enormous wealth of artistic talent in Petersfield, and I have been thinking back over the many Festival Concerts I have heard over the past fifty years. It is only during the past twenty, since I have been writing for the Post, that I have attended every single night. Before that, when I had to but my own ticket, it was largely the big occasions, or to hear something that I particularly liked. What stands out above all is the way in which the Festival has changed, yet paradoxically has remained the same in spirit.

My first Festival concert was in 1955, when I was stationed at Longmoor Camp. Mozart’s Requiem had an even greater aura of mystery about it in those days than it does today, perhaps because it was seldom heard. I can remember the tall, military looking conductor, Dr. Sidney Watson, from Eton College, but three of the soloists are long forgotten. The fourth, bass Julian Smith, from Winchester, was a Festival stalwart for twenty years, and is still listed as a visiting singing teacher at Winchester College. His longevity is probably matched by some of the choristers - I wonder if any of this year’s chorus sang in that performance?

A contemporary of Smith was the much-loved Petersfield tenor, Wilfred Brown, who graced the Festival almost every year between 1951 and 1970, the year before he died. He featured in most of the big works which became a more frequent feature of the Festival during the 1960s - Messiah, The Creation and the B minor Mass, especially after the fondly remembered Gordon Mackie took the helm..

So what performances stick in my mind over these long years? In 1967 Mackie gave us an exhilarating Verdi Requiem, including among the soloists a burly young tenor called John Mitchinson, who went on to achieve international fame. Twelve years later I vividly remember Richard Seal conducting two major works, Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, whose opening bars almost burst the Festival Hall asunder, and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, then a rarely heard work which has since achieved great popularity.

The energetic Mark Deller conducted many memorable performances, including both Bach Passions, but I remember him best for two works which might have been considered daring choices for the Festival: Tippett’s A Child of our Time and Monteverdi’s Vespers.. In 1983 A Child of our Time would bave been thought very modern and difficult by choirs and audience alike, but Deller’s enthusiasm won everyone over in the end. Monteverdi’s Vespers presented a very different challenge, requiring a style of singing quite new to most of the participants, and the use of cornets, sackbuts, recorders and lutes in the orchestra. It was a gallant effort, if not as successful as the Tippett, which was repeated with equal success under Jonathan Willcocks in the Centenary year of 2001.

1995 was a notable year in which William Llewellyn directed Haydn’s The Creation - a Festival favourite - and Elgar’s rarely heard The Kingdom. I still remember the latter as a deeply moving occasion, the final appearance of a conductor who, a few years before, had given a memorable performance of The Dream of Gerontius. After this the Festival seemed to have its ups and downs for a few years, but has recovered splendidly since first Nicholas Wilks and now Paul Spicer took charge

Of course I have seem many changes over half a century, most importantly, perhaps, the demise of competitions, once its raison d’etre. Ladies’ Choirs, too, have disappeared and Youth Concerts are quite different nowadays, often featuring compositions by the students themselves. For twenty years we had a Festival Service, we have had Master Classes from distinguished musicians and celebrity recitals by performers as diverse as Julian Bream and The Demon Barbers. Choral concerts are now accompanied by a fully professional orchestra.

All of this costs money, and herein lies a major problem. Soloists and large orchestras are enormously expensive, and ticket sales and the limited degree of sponsorship available nowadays cannot possibly support performances of those large works which have remained uppermost in my memory, which often need cohorts of brass and percussion. Yet I’m sure that those dedicated people behind the scenes will ensure that the Festival continues for a good few years yet in one form or another.

Tom Muckley, March 2007

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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