With such a wide array of artistic talent living in or around Petersfield, and with so many visiting performers apparently eager to appear on our excellently equipped stages, it is impossible for one person to have seen or heard everything that has been on offer during the past year. Nevertheless, going to a concert or a play should be something of an occasion even for a hardened critic, and I have to say that during the past year it is the concerts given in the Festival Hall by the Petersfield Orchestra that have generated the most anticipation and excitement.

With their conductor Robin Browning at the helm, their performances of Brahms’s First Symphony, Schumann’s Fourth and Rachmaninov’s Second, disciplined, yet apparently spontaneous, would have done credit to many a professional outfit.

At the other end of the scale came Schubert’s magical String Quintet, which was heard at the Olivier Theatre in September, courtesy the Southern Orchestral Concert Society. The Primavera Chamber Ensemble’s playing had a rapt intensity during which you could have heard a pin drop.

Highlights of the Petersfield Musical Festival were Paul Spicer’s performance of Bach’s St. John Passion and a recital of music for two pianos and piano duet by Richard Saxel and Faith Leadbetter, in which Schubert once again had pride of place – this time a searching account of his Fantasy in F minor. On purely musical grounds the performance of Schubert’s Winterreise at St. Peter’s by Andrew Ashwin and Angela Zanders should be included, but it was handicapped by unsuitable additions to the programme.

Outside the Festival there were several choral highlights. In May a Swedish choir, Non Silentium, came to St. Peter’s and gave everyone a lesson in sublime singing, perfectly balanced and controlled. As part of a year of Nelson celebrations the Froxfield Chamber Choir, under its new conductor, Richard Smith, gave us an invigorating performance of Haydn’s Nelson Mass at Holy Trinity, Privett, whilst Ann Pinhey’s Petersfield Chamber Choir treated us to some rare Janacek at St. Peter’s in June, and a beautiful Christmas Motet by Morten Lauridsen just last week.

In the field of Jazz, in addition to the regular gigs at the Olivier Theatre and elsewhere, two events at the Festival Hall stood out. First, the outstanding vocalist Clare Teal, whose homely personality, humour and expressive singing held a Festival audience enthralled, and second, earlier this month, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, a truly astonishing group of instrumentalists.

Our two dramatic societies were as busy as ever, with the Winton Players, in addition to their annual pantomime, presenting two highly contrasted plays at the Festival Hall. John Mill’s hilarious production of Neil Simon’s Rumours introduced Jenny Perry as a glamorous, but neurotic lawyer, and more recently Leslie Sands’ Intent to Murder featured Justine Jenner as a guilty writer who murdered her husband. Unfortunately I missed the Lion and Unicorn Players’ production of Talking Heads at the Studio at TPS, a welcome new venue, but there were some impressive individual performances in the overlong Royal Pardon, directed by Joyce Bunnett at the Festival Hall in November.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed the Hi-Lights’ production of The Music Man more, but I don’t think it is one of the great musicals by any means. There is just one memorable number, and despite some vigorous and colourful dancing, I felt it was something of a let-down. The Petersfield Youth Theatre completely forsook the spectacular song and dance routines which are their trademark for an ingenious Nik Ashton staging of Whistle Down the Wind, in which the difficulties of the music were skilfully surmounted by a mixed cast of adults and children. Special praise must go to Georgina Ower, for her touching portrayal of Cathy. For Gilbert and Sullivan fans we had the Petersfield Operatic Society in Patience, pleasing, but lacking the zest and vitality of recent years. Perhaps what I enjoyed most during the year was Little Shop of Horrors at Bedales. Again, not one of the great musicals, but performed with such flair and imagination that it seemed like one.

The visual arts scene was once again dominated by the Petersfield Arts and Crafts Society’s annual exhibition at the Festival Hall in August and by the ambitious PAinT week, held this year in more than fifty venues at the end of May. The Rotunda Arts Project, a new venture held at the Studio at TPS, unfortunately chose the same week - a good example of the need for all our Arts organisations to co-ordinate their events.

And finally…. before naming my Christmas Turkey, I must mention a remarkable performance of part of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 6, played on two violas by two students from The Petersfield School, Catherine Bissex and Clare Mohan, which has haunted me since I heard it back in May. And that turkey? For the third year running the so-called Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra, all seven of them, played a virtually identical programme at St. Peter’s in August. To judge by their demeanour they were as bored as at least one member of the audience.


Tom Muckley, December 2005

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

tommuckley.co.uk