South Downs Soloists return to the Festival of Chichester

SussexWorld

The professional singers of the South Downs Soloists return to the Festival of Chichester to present Palestrina 500, a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Renaissance composer.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and also

00:07Chairman of the Festival of Chichester and now featured in our last few festivals and

00:12so pleased that it is. We have had the Southdown Soloists and you're back again this year. You

00:17are in Boxborough Priory on Saturday, July the 5th at 7.30. Lovely to speak to George

00:24Haynes who put together the Southdown Soloists, what, three years or so ago? And you've got

00:29a particular, well I always have an interesting programme, but particularly pleased with the

00:32programme this year. Talk me through it, what you've got for us. Well thanks for having me

00:38here Phil, it's great to see you again. We are doing a big celebration concert. Our eight

00:45singers are going to perform a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the

00:51composer Palestrina, who is really important in musical history and you can see where he

00:58influenced people from then and up to now. And that's what we're really trying to feature

01:04at Boxgrove this year.

01:06And do you want to mention the programme in a little bit more detail, some of the other

01:11things that you've got?

01:12Yes, so we're featuring some really powerful grand motets of power stream that some people

01:19who are in that sort of, who love that sort of music will know, as well as some music

01:24by him that people won't necessarily know, things that aren't done very often. And then

01:29there's a little pattern, a little story in travelling through time in the programme as well. So there

01:35will be some music from even earlier than him in the 15th century, music that he would have

01:40known that influenced him, which is really interesting to hear that sound world. And some brand new

01:47music, or music that was written in the last couple of years, which really, using similar

01:52texts and styles and the lines interweave really, really complement the Palestrina. And then also

02:00in the second half of our concert, we have some really lovely, mostly Italian music of composers

02:07who came just after him, or in the 100 years after Palestrina, who either knew him, or would

02:14have known his music. And you can see the journey that's starting to develop and become, you

02:20know, really interesting, and some of it quite slightly wacky as well. So I'm really looking

02:24forward to this quite varied thing, even though we are celebrating one major composer.

02:28And celebrating his continuity is saying if you seriously study composition now, you will still

02:34bang your head against Palestrina, wouldn't you?

02:36Yeah, absolutely. And you will be asked to write in the style, maybe, you know, as people are asked to

02:43write Bach chorales out, or improvise in a Mozartian way, it's the same sort of thing. But he is, in a

02:49sense, as important as them, because he came before them, and they knew of him. So he's really important.

02:55And it's lovely that the group has kind of developed through the festival, through our

03:00festival. And you're reaching a point where you do have a good Chichester following, and

03:05it's partly to the festival, which is great.

03:07Yeah, we're so grateful that it's travelled that way, really. And over the last three or so years,

03:15our audiences have grown. We've made a pairing with Stone Pillow. So each of our concerts,

03:20in the festival, at least, we take money and raise money for Stone Pillow, which is really

03:26lovely. And they come to our concert, and they talk a tiny bit at the start. All lovely stuff.

03:31And our audience is growing. They like to keep in touch with us. So yeah, it's really good link for

03:36us. And it makes us want to do exciting things.

03:39And let's just talk about the venue. Box Quirk Priory. Pretty good place to be, isn't it?

03:44It is. And I've sung there, but I've never taken my own group there to sing.

03:48Oh, really?

03:49So this is our first one there. We were singing at St John's Chapel, which is also a lovely,

03:56intimate venue. But for this sort of swirling music, that acoustic in there will be absolutely

04:03gorgeous. So as well as, you know, something you feel quite privileged when you stand there and

04:10perform in a place that is so beautiful and so historic.

04:13Absolutely. That must be inspiring in itself, but maybe challenging too?

04:20I don't know. I think we'll embrace it with open arms. It'd be lovely. It'd be a lovely feeling,

04:24to be honest.

04:25Well, congratulations on what you've achieved with the syllabus. It's great to have you back at

04:29the Festival of Chichester. Keep coming back, won't you? We will, yep.

04:34Saturday, July the 5th, Box Quirk Priory, 7.30. Tickets through the Novium. George,

04:40great to speak to you. Thank you. And you. Thank you. Bye.

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