Southwell Music Festival: Stunning music in idyllic settings for 10th anniversary celebration

Southwell is a lovely corner of Nottinghamshire and the Minster is definitely the gem on the crown - a beautiful building to behold and an incredible concert venue, writes Val Johnson.

The festival is always a highlight of the summer and the programme for the 10th anniversary was excellent. It was fantastic to have  Mark Padmore as artist-in-residence as he is absolutely brilliant.

The Minster is stunning, beautiful Norman architecture and the building is acoustically perfect. It is full of lifelike carvings of English leaves and brilliant misericords, many of them funny. During evening concerts the sun streams through the stained glass angels in the great west window, a very beautiful sight to behold. The Chapter House is a beautiful shape and a more intimate space where you are very near the musicians and surrounded by brilliant carvings including green men. It is truly a feast for eyes and ears.  

This year's spectacular was more special than ever as the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary and the performance to celebrate that was unmissable.

The 10th Anniversary Concert and Mozart’s Requiem

This evening in the Minster began with a specially commissioned anniversary work 'With What Sudden Joy' and ended with a glorious rendition of Mozart’s Requiem. Two young women won this commission: composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad and poet Kate Wakeling. Kate held two workshops in Southwell to discover what music means to local people and from their words created the text for this concert.  Cheryl then composed the music for this text and it was performed by the soprano Alison Rose, the Festival choir and the strings orchestra. The glorious creation soared to the rafters and was a pertinent introduction for Mozart’s Requiem. The rendition of the Requiem was led by four soloists, tenor Mark Padmore; soprano Alison Rose; mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley and bass-baritone Frederick Long. However, the star of this performance of the Requiem was the chorus. They were small in number but so powerful in voice. It was so loved by the audience that they received a standing ovation.

Medieval Masters

Medieval Masters was a combination of music composed in the 12th & 14th centuries with music written by one of the UK’s foremost composers of today, Martin Bussey. This profoundly beautiful and spiritual work tells of the many adventures and political manoeuvres of Peter of Bologna, as well as of his intense spirituality.The concert was in “The Crossing” section of the Minster, an intimate space within the very centre of this exquisite building. It is a work for four soloists, flute (doubling piccolo), French horn and percussion. The horn announced significant moments from different parts of the Minster. The flute often accompanied the singer’s more spiritual moments. The piece was at times reflective and occasionally haunting when represented by some of the reflective compositions from the Festival Voices. A moving experience.

Strings in the Nave

World renowned tenor Mark Padmore and Marcus Farnsworth, a young baritone and founder of this festival, had an engaging, public conversation prior to their performance in the Minster. Marcus, as a young student spent a summer volunteering at the St Endellion Music Festival in Cornwall where Mark was Artistic Director from 2012 to 2022. It was where a nervous Marcus was absolutely terrified one day when his washing-up partner turned out to be none other than this world renowned tenor! Mark came over as an unassuming, easy going ,friendly guy. In contrast, he later showed what a virtuoso he is when he performed Dies Natalis with Marcus conducting the Festival Sinfonia Strings. The second part of the “Strings in the Nave” evening performance was Benjamin Britten’s epic virtuoso work for strings, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge Op 10. Jamie Campbell was lead violinist of the Festival Orchestra and also the festival's Associate Artistic Director. This was a wonderful, immersive concert for strings. The players obviously enjoyed playing as Jamie conducted with his captivating facial expressions and nods as he led what was a young orchestra.

Surround Sounds No 3

The early morning sun poured in through the beautiful stained glass windows of the Minster Chapter House as the small, capacity audience awaited the arrival of the musicians. In breezed Marcus Farnsworth who placed his iPad on the music stand, touched it and the space was filled with the sound of a lilting English folk tune. He began to sing along with it and was joined by a distant unseen trumpet and violin. Gemma Bass on violin, Graham South on trumpet and flugelhorn, and their instruments appeared in the entrance and joined Marcus in the Chapter House. For the next 45 minutes they moved around playing their instruments reinventing a variety of English folk tunes. Mezzo soprano Judy Louie Brown joined Marcus in two of the love songs as the musicians twisted, turned and reshaped these tunes to include improvisation, storytelling and even jazz exploring nature, love and loss in this fair isle of ours.

Surround Sounds in the Chapter House: Voices of France

Here, in this intimate setting, principal harp of Opera North and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Celine Saout was joined by Marcus Farnsworth, who sometimes manages to join performers at the festival and sing with them. Mostly Celine played ‘melodie’, a form of art song mostly from the 19th Century. These included pieces by Debussy, Poulenc, and Faure. Marcus joined her in two songs. Celine gave a detailed description of the history of the harp and its development before sitting down to play the next song. The sound which came from the harp at that moment was so obviously not in the correct key that she stopped, explained with a laugh that it was “a demonstration of how the foot pedals work” and immediately carried on with Marcus joining her in song in perfect harmony!

A Night at the Opera

One of the joys of opera can be the historical or present day setting of the visual interpretation of the music and the text. It can add so much to the overall enjoyment of the opera. Despite this, however, the choice of mostly very well known overtures, solos, duets, trios and choruses made for a wonderful evening of music. These included the overture from Le Nozze Di Figaro played by the Festival Ensemble and the Toreador song from Carmen sung by the Festival Voices. There were excerpts too from 20th century musicals such as Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music and I could have Danced all Night from My Fair Lady. The four soloists - soprano Alison Rose, mezzo soprano Susan Bickley, tenor Alistair Brookshaw and bass-baritone Frederick Long all sang with exuberance and sensitivity where it mattered. The Festival continues to try new forms of presentation and the audience loved this one.

Marcus Farnsworth reflected the joy of many festival-goers when he said: “Southwell Music Festival is truly a team effort, and I’m immensely proud of what we have achieved this year and over the last decade. In this special anniversary year, we have celebrated music and how it connects us through shared experience. I would like to thank the teams at our venues, Southwell Minster, Southwell Methodist Church and Southwell Library, as well as our Festival Friends, benefactors, trustees, volunteers, audiences and musicians for what has been a brilliant 2024 festival. We hope that you can join us again in 2025!”.

Southwell Music Festival returns briefly in December for its annual A Christmas Celebration concert and Festive Family Carols. Tickets are available at southwellmusicfestival.com. And if you love stunning music in idyllic settings, put next year's Festival dates in your diary, Friday August 22 to Monday, August 25, 2025.