Where on earth does one start? There was so much endeavour and so much achievement in all aspects of the arts in Petersfield during the past year that it is hard to know where to begin. But I think this year it must be with the Winton Players. Following their well loved annual pantomime in January, they gave us two more outstanding and highly contrasted plays during the year. Lend me a Tenor proved once and for all that amateurs can make a success of farce, whilst Penny Young’s production of Gaslight showed just how enjoyable a good thriller can be.

Sarah Ewing was the star of both productions, whilst the temperamental tenor of Ken Ludwig’s comedy, Simon Long, would appear again later in The Gondoliers. The Lion and Unicorn Players, in contrast, made do with just one production, Molière’s study of religious hypocrisy, Tartuffe.


Professional drama at the Olivier Theatre saw the return of Nola Rae in Exit Napoleon pursued by Rabbits, and if this seemed less compelling than her earlier shows, perhaps it was through over-familiarity. Linda Marlowe’s Diatribe of Love was a very powerful solo performance, and it is difficult to decide whether the remarkable Gogmagogs’ Gumbo Jumbo was drama or music. Whichever, their energy was breathtaking.

The two choral concerts at this year’s Petersfield Musical Festival were something of a disappointment, which was a pity, as they marked Nicholas Wilks’s swan song. Nevertheless, what came in between was stunning. The Youth Concerts were a great improvement on the previous year’s, and it goes without saying that The Swingle Singers were absolutely fabulous. Petersfield Orchestra, too, were a revelation, producing unforgettable performances of Weber’s Oberon Overture and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.

Under its new conductor, Robin Browning, the orchestra goes from strength to strength, delivering a blistering account of Beethoven’s Egmont in June and a shattering one of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony in November, when Felicity Vine also enchanted us with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Equally spectacular was Liss Band, which celebrated its 30th anniversary with a splendid concert at the Festival Hall in June.

Three of the Southern Orchestral Concert Society’s concerts remain clearly in the mind. Nicholas Wilks conducted a sensational account of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra at the Festival Hall in April, the Nash Ensemble included Mozart’s glorious Clarinet Quintet in its concert at the Olivier Theatre in September, and Jonathan Willcocks brought us a thrilling baroque spectacular with the Petersfield Chamber Choir and the Southern Pro Musica at St. Peter’s in November. Ann Pinhey’s choir also gave a lovely concert at Privett Church on a warm evening in June, when the stillness of Tavener’s Song for Athene was interrupted by a nightingale outside! Nicholas Wilks finally said farewell to Petersfield at the Froxfield Chamber Choir’s concert in St. Peter’s in June, at which the baritone Andrew Ashwin joined the choir in a sensitive performance of Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs.

The Festival Hall stage saw colourful productions of Anything Goes, The Wizard of Oz and The Gondoliers from the Hi-Lights, the Petersfield Youth Theatre and the Petersfield Operatic Society, the last named featuring a shining new soprano, Liz Jones . All three were spectacular stagings, abounding in colourful costumes and dancing, which did each company proud. Bedales’ exciting performances of Les Miserables earlier this month fully deserves a mention, too.

The town is very fortunate to have Bedales Arts Centre on its doorstep. I have already mentioned several events at the Olivier Theatre, which is also the venue for jazz and folk concerts, and has this year played host to such luminaries as the percussionist Bill Bruford and legendary guitarist Bert Jansch. The Bedales Gallery, too, hosts regular exhibitions of modern art.

It may be imagination, but I felt that August’s ambitious PAinT week, held at fifty venues around the town, and supported by other events, suffered from being too close to the popular annual exhibition of the Petersfield Arts and Crafts Society at the Festival Hall, where once again the woodcarving and ceramics in particular caught the eye.

There has been so much to see and hear during the past year that I’ve probably forgotten something important, but not my Christmas turkey: the cellist who played the same Vivaldi Sonata at St. Peter’s twice in the space of a few months, without on either occasion appearing to display the slightest interest in what he was doing.




Tom Muckley, December 2004

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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