Celebrating the music of Italy at the Festival of Chichester

The Parnassian Ensemble will be celebrating Italian music in a two-part offering for this year’s Festival of Chichester.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor of Sussex Newspapers and also

00:06chairman of the Festival of Chichester. And now we love the Parnassian Ensemble at the

00:10Festival of Chichester. You are regulars with us, and long may that continue. And you've

00:15got two super-sounding events for this year, two different events, haven't you? Tuesday,

00:19July 8th, is the full ensemble, the Parnassian Ensemble. On Tuesday, July 15th, it's David,

00:26David Pollock on harpsichord. But the linking factor is it is Viva Italia. Now, Italian music

00:34then. Why? What makes Italian music special for you and suitable for you?

00:41Well, it's such an amazing range of repertoire for us. So right from sort of early 16th century

00:49all the way up to mid-18th century, Italian music is always very driven, very exciting

00:57and extremely passionate. And those are things that make it immensely enjoyable to play and

01:05hopefully immensely enjoyable to listen to.

01:07But it is possible to speak about a national character then in terms of music, do you think?

01:11I think it is. Yes, it definitely is. And the Italian influence, especially in our field,

01:20is huge. I mean, it spread all over Europe. Italian music, Italian Baroque music became very,

01:29very fashionable and influenced anyone who was anyone. It's just so vibrant, which is why we

01:37thought we thought we would make our two concerts this year, Italian themed.

01:42Absolutely. And given that you're not playing it in Italy, you're playing it in the right place

01:47in Chichester, aren't you? St. John's Chapel is a place that you as an ensemble love, isn't it?

01:53Yes, we have a long association with St. John's. So it's really lovely to be back there

01:58again this year. The acoustics are fantastic for us. And it's a wonderful venue, sort of

02:07Georgian venue, but it just, everything works there. So the acoustics, the space itself,

02:15it's a lovely space. And we're very fond of it. So yeah, we're very pleased to be back

02:21at St. John's.

02:22Well, fabulous that you're back at the Festival of Chichester, just as you should be.

02:26You've got two of us, Tuesday, July the 8th, the Ensemble, Tuesday, July the 15th, David

02:32giving a solo harpsichord recital. Sophie, as always, really lovely to speak to you. Thank

02:37you.

02:38Thank you very much. Thank you.