The aim of the blog is to keep everyone who is interested in our wonderful Festival updated about what is going on. This is especially important in 2010, because this will be our most ambitious festival to date, with the staging of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the introduction, for the first time, of an orchestra for the Sunday evening’s grand finale – Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.
The Creation
2010’s will be our musical director, Anthony Peacock’s, last choral work for the Festival. Works which he has brought on, with increasing ambition, from the beautiful, ‘Creation’ at our inaugural event in 2004, to 2009’s triumphant Carmina Burana, with 2 choirs, professional soloists, keyboard orchestra, and that all-important, full percussion accompaniment. I doubt anyone who was there will ever forget that thunderous, spine-tingling climax of Carmina, with unleashed choir and timpani rattling the ancient walls to their
Carmina Burana
foundations. Appropriate perhaps that the latin text, and sentiments, of Carmina Burana would have been better appreciated than by most people in the intervening 1800 years, by the original hewers of the Priory’s stonework, Hadrian’s legions, who built the wall from whose remains the Priory was largely built.
Stonework that gives rise to the wonderful acoustics praised by everyone who performs at the Priory. The prospect of hearing Handel’s masterpiece in these surroundings, in a yet more ambitious production than last year’s, with professional orchestra and soloists backing up our magnificent Festival Choir is a thrilling one indeed, and not to be missed.
To help us finance this year’s Festival in these straightened times, the Committee is organizing a number of fund-raising events. The first is a coffee morning and photographic exhibition in Brampton Moot Hall on Saturday the 6th of February. Further details, and news of future events, are in the ‘Recent Posts’ section of the blog.
If you, your business or organization, would like to help us continue our efforts to bring music of all sorts, and now drama, to the community around Brampton and Lanercost, please do get in touch at: info@lanercostfestival.co.uk