7 MAY 1977, Page 26

Festivals 77

Rodney Milnes How do British festivals survive in these troubled times? The very troubles attract those for whom uper-priced continental jamborees for the Euro-elite are way out 0f court. An international festival of Edit'. burgh's standing is dirt cheap by European standards and still pretty reasonable hY ours. There are also those hidden assets that make it worth the promoters' while to persist; with sickening regularity the good burghers of Edinburgh make their annual ritual moan about the cost of it all (and the undesirable foreigners it attracts) but keel silent about the untold wealth the Festival brings to the city a case of complaining all the way to the bank. In order to survive, the race for sponsors is on: Arts Council and local authorities are no longer enough. This year at least there seem to be plenty to go round. Among them are: W. D. & H.O. Wills (Glyndebourne and Bath); Imperial Tobacco (Greenwich' Glyndebourne) and its own Thamesicle binge; Benson and Hedges promoting a second bite at the Aldeburgh cherry; the banking houses of Barclays (Bath, King's Lynn), National Westminster (Brighton, Bath), Midland (Three Choirs' Greenwich); Marks and Spencer (Cheltenham, Three Choirs, King's Lynn' Bath); IBM (Cheltenham, King's LYnn.; Bath); Granada, Associated, Harlech anu Yorkshire TV (passim); Rank Xer°71, (Three Choirs); Peter Stuyvesan` (Glyndebourne); John Player, who are promoting their own Centenary Festival in London; and Gulbenkian Foundation supporting the first-ever National Festival of Youth Theatre in Leicestershire from 'II 1 September. This incomplete list cornet by way of information to proud (or disk fected) shareholders and helpful hints t° those thinking of boarding the gravy traill. next year. Then there are specialist gatherings. Jutscit as a certain kind of Wagner-freak wow never miss Bayreuth (though many may ,he considering it after last year) so tne, Haslemere Festival of early music (15 July), whose programme reads like supplement to Grove, is sure of faithfu' patronage, as is the annual St Albans Organ Festival (28 June 9 July). So, I hope, are those festivals of a literary bent: Iikiey (4 11 June), with a celebration of the great Sydney Smith this year and the, participation of Melvyn Bragg, and stronu (8 22 October), to whose annual poetrY and composers' competitions is added one for script-writers, sponsored by HTV. Edinburgh (21 August 7 September/ This essential festival is impercept0Y, drawing its horns in this year: the manage ment prefers to reduce the number of events rather than lower standards. So, ne visiting opera companies, but instead the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots mounted by Scottish Opera, and a fit-up all-star Carmen (Berganza, Domingo, Freni, Krause) conducted by Abbado, played by the LSO and presumably to be recorded by DG. The Concertgebouw is the only major foreign orchestra. Conductors include Haitink, Kondrashill, Gibson and Giulini, and soloists Tortelier, Baker, Menuhin, Curzon, Barenboim arid the Amadeus. To hell with Salzburg. Glyndebourne (31 May —7 August). MeW productions of Die schweigsame Frau (Andrew Davis, John Cox, Michael Annals), Don Giovanni (John Pritchard. Peter Hall, John Bury) and Poulenc's to Voix humaine (Calvin Simmons, Graziella Sciutti, Martin Battersby), the latter in 3 double bill with The Cunning Little Vixen. Revivals of Falstaff and The Rake's Frog' ress, I don't think 1 could survive without Glyndebourne. Aldeburgh (10 — 26 June). Sad, inevita" bly, this year, but the inauguration of a second week's chamber music festival froir 27 September to 2 October shows there is no looking back. Fishguard (23 —30July). A new opera for children by Alun Hoddinott, written fel Eiddwen Harrhy and Geraint Evans. libretto by Myfanwy Piper, decor by Jelin Piper. Bath (3 — 12 June). The featured coirli poser is John Tavener, with the premiere ° his new opera The Gentle Spirit (based ell Dostoievsky) and performances of his vastf 'Ultimos Ritos', 'Canticle of the Mother °, God' and 'Requiem for Father MalachY ' Bishop-Kovacevich plays the Diabelli variations, London Sinfonietta, Beaux Arts Trio etc. Bath is very good on guided walicarounds, bus tours etc. A real holiday. Gloucester, Three Choirs Festival (20-28 August). Not just Gerontius. Names like 1,Schoenberg, Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies have crept into the programme, and there are new works by Rory Boyle, Malcolm Williamson, Ronald Tremain, and Richard Rodney Bennett. Elgar's Caractacus as well as Gerontius. Concerts spread as far afield Prinknash and Tewkesbury Abbeys. This ls the 250th Three Choirs Festival, just to Put things in perspective. I(ing's Lynn (22 30 July). Much local :.,Ponsorship, and an amiably middle(Joyce unrenfell, John Ebdon) to high-brow (Janet uaker, Amadeus) programme. Oddly enough among it all, is a showing of A lligger Splash. Harrogate (4 17 August). Literary llavour, plus Grace Bumbry (Harrogate is always hot on one big name), Joseph Cooper Barry Tuckwell, Richard Rodney Bennett.

Cheltenham (1 10 July). One of the ,r11, ost satisfying features of Cheltenham is the series of morning recitals in the Pittville burnt) Room, this year devoted to Beethoven violin and cello sonatas and Piano trim (Gyorgy Pauk, Ralph

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b rshbaum, Peter Frankl). The Town Hall, hY comparison to this gracious venue, is a nuge Edwardian baroque joke, but the `atering facilities are excellent. Cheltenham has an unsurpassed record for commissions: this Year there are new pieces by Wilma Patterson, Alun Hoddinott, Jonathan H, rveY, and Gordon Crosse. Tavener's 0 "

Pera is borrowed from Bath.

Brighton (517 July). The theme is the under-twenty-five generation, reflected in the concert repertoire, a Beardsley evening, 711,11 an exhibition about royal children. ere is a huge environmental expo devised by " Bevis Hillier: entitled 'The Generation ja ow', which is to be built round a traffic Lar It is part-sponsored by British v Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and :alter Legge give their first European aster classes, and there is a concert in St blarth°1°mew's, one of the most remarka„!, churches in Europe. Brighton has ,,'"nted its brochure in four languages this Year,