Malcolm Arnold Festival 2010

Saturday 16th October
11.00 The Festival will be launched by the legendary actress Hayley Mills, star of Whistle Down the Wind. During the launch 12 trumpeters from the award winning Northampton County Youth Orchestra will play Sir Malcolm’s exuberant and high-spirited Hoffnung Fanfare which was written for the celebrated and riotous Hoffnung Music Festival in 1956

11.45
Following the launch Hayley Mills will talk to Paul Harris about the various films she and her father, the great John Mills, made with Sir Malcolm.

2.00
After lunch there will be a Malcolm Arnold Young Musician Competition. Young performers are invited to play any solo or ensemble work by Sir Malcolm. The judges will be the conductor John Gibbons, the pianist Moritz Ernst and the composer Matthew Taylor. The generous £250 prize has been kindly donated by the Malcolm Arnold Festival

3.30
Next will be an illustrated talk on the film music by composer Martin Ellerby, a real expert in the genre. Martin knew and worked with Sir Malcolm so his reflections will be particularly fascinating.

5.00
After tea the terrific young pianist Moritz Ernst (who has already recorded a CD of Malcolm's piano works) will perform a scintillating piano recital featuring music from both stage and screen, and, most excitingly, the world premiere of a specially commissioned work for the occasion: Matthew Taylor is composing a Fantasy on Whistle down the Wind - this will surely be one of the many highlights of the weekend.

8.00 at St Matthews Church
For the evening concert we are delighted to welcome the Northampton Symphony Orchestra to the Festival for the first time. Together with the Abingdon Choral Society under the direction of international conductor Alexander Walker they will performing Sir Malcolm's wonderfully theatrical (and rarely performed) large-scale choral and orchestral work Return of Odysseus. Also included in the programme will the Suite from Malcolm's ballet Sweeney Todd.



Sunday 17th October
	12.00 2010 being the 50th anniversary of The Pure Hell of St Trinian's the midday orchestral concert, given by the acclaimed Northampton County Youth Orchestra, will include the St. Trinian's Suite, Sound Barrier, Inn of the 6th Happiness and the Scherzetto from You Know What Sailors Are. 2.15 After lunch we will have a probably never to be repeated St. Trinian's event - Celebrating St Trinian's! with many of the original actors and crew from the original St. Trinian's films! An undoubted highlight!

4.00
The second theme of this year's Festival is the music of fellow Northampton composer, the hugely talented William Alwyn. We are delighted that the brilliant Harpham Quartet will be joining us again during the afternoon and their concert will include Alwyn's deeply beautiful First String Quartet as well as Malcolm's highly emotional and Irish-inspired Second Quartet.

5.00
There will be a song recital by Jessica Gillingwater and Edward Hughes featuring music from Malcolm's marvellously tuneful musical Parasol as well as the witty and colourful set of songs he wrote as incidental music to Sean O'Casey's play Purple Dust.

7.30
The Gala evening concert, 'A Night To Remember' will be conducted by the acclaimed John Gibbons, and will again include music by William Alwyn (who, like Sir Malcolm, also wrote about seventy film scores). Alwyn's 'overture' to the first major film about the Titanic will open the programme and will also feature his music to the famous war film Desert Victory and his Waltz and Rumba from In Search of the Castaways as well as some of Sir Malcolm's best loved film music including Trapeze, Bridge on the River Kwai, David Copperfield and No love for Johnnie. We shall also hear the premiere (in the concert version) of the music for his film Boy on the Bridge.

The concert will also include Rachmaninoff's great 2nd Piano Concerto. Altogether an evening of real razzamatazz and glamour. In fact that's the best word to describe this weekend - it's going to be glamorous from the opening titles to the closing credits. So book now to avoid disappointment!

The Official Malcolm Arnold Festival 2010