The Bradfield Festival of Music in 2024 runs from Saturday 22nd June to Saturday 29th June in the beautiful village of High Bradfield, South Yorkshire. All Concerts are held in St Nicholas Church which has fine acoustics and enticing views! For more details about the Festival, please see our about page.
Booking for all concerts is now open. We also have a Patron ticket which has several benefits including entry to all seven concerts for the price of six which is available from January 2024. For the other benefits and information on how to become a patron please see the Patron form. Patrons who have not elected to remain anonymous may be found here and the trustees look forward to seeing you all at each concert; thank you!
Festival sponsors have helped to make the 2024 Festival possible by their contributions and the Trustees are grateful for their generosity.
We have made a few small changes to the festival for 2024, we think for the better. For a summary of these, please click here.
And so to the 2024 programme. As usual, this year we have excellent artists, some of whom are returning friends of the festival and all of whom have a fantastic programme of works to perform.
Please read our fascinating interview with Ben Goldscheider who has an enticing programme to perform on 25th June.
Please note that all programmes are subject to change.
Saturday 22nd June, 7:30pm – Sheffield Chamber Choir
Directed by Robert Webb and formed in 2011, Sheffield Chamber Choir specialises in sacred choral music. If you have never heard them before, there are plenty of examples of their excellent musicianship and engaging sonority on SoundCloud and YouTube. For the Festival this year, they present a programme of English choral classics, including:
C Hubert H Parry (1848-1918) I Was Glad
Herbert Howells (1892-1983) Take Him Earth for Cherishing
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) The Spirit of the Lord
Edgar Bainton (1880-1956) And I saw an New Heaven
Edward Bairstow (1874-1946) Let all Mortal Flesh
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Mystical Songs
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Rejoice in the Lamb
Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983) Come Holy Ghost
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) Three motets
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) Lo the full final sacrifice
Book online, by post or in-person.
Monday 24th June, 7:30pm – Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Image credit: John Davis
Back with us in Bradfield after a short break, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason will no-doubt once again capture the audience with her technically brilliant and emotionally charged piano playing. Her programme this year is:
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in A major, K 24
Sonata in F minor, K 466
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Waltz No. 2 in C♯ minor, Op. 64
Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 35
William Grant Still (1895-1978) Three visions
I. Dark Horsemen
II. Summerland
III. Radiant Pinnacle
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Sonata No. 7
Book online, by post or in-person.
This concert is sponsored by Jane Doran.
Tuesday 25th June, 7:30pm – Ben Goldscheider Duo
Ben Goldscheider has given recitals at major concert halls across Europe including the Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Köln Philharmonie and Wigmore Hall. Ben was a BBC Young Musician Concerto Finalist in 2016 and is a member of the Boulez Ensemble and principal horn of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
For Bradfield, Ben performs with Richard Uttley, whose reputation and musicianship as soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and as a recording artist are enviable. Richard is piano professor at the Royal College of Music and a Professor of Academic Studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and so is both a gifted musician and educator.
If that list of prestigious accolades does not get your pulse racing to come and hear Ben and Richard play in Bradfield, I don’t know what will!
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Morceau de Concert, Op. 94
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Élégie for Horn and Piano (In Memory of Dennis Brain), FP 168
Camille Saint-Saëns Romance for Horn and Piano Op. 67
Eugène Bozza (1905-1991) En Forêt, Op. 40
Paul Dukas (1865-1935) Villanelle for Horn and Piano
Camille Saint-Saëns Romance Op. 36
Jean Françaix (1912-1997) Divertimento for Horn and Piano
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) L’isle joyeuse
Jane Vignery (1913-1974) Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 7
Book online, by post or in-person.
This concert is sponsored by Christopher & Elisabeth Birkby.
Wednesday 26th June, 7:30pm – Lisa Friend Trio
Lisa Friend, both as soloist and with her ensemble, have toured internationally, recorded prolifically and partnered with numerous other highly respected orchestras and individual performers. Most recently, she has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with guests Alfie Boe and Russell Watson and is currently recording an album of Ravel. Tonight, Lisa is joined by Martin Radford (Cello) and Mark Kinkaid (Piano).
With the trio, Lisa’s scope extends across classical and film music. In Bradfield, the Trio will be performing:
Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) Trois Aquarelles for Flute, Cello and Piano
No. 1, Par un clair matin
No. 2, Soir d’automne
No. 3, Sérénade
Arturo Rodríguez (1976-) Introspección for flute and piano
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Libertango
Oblivion
Ennio Morricone (1928-2020) Medley
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) Sonata in C major for flute and piano, In. 620
Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) Through the Eyes of Love (from Ice Castles)
John Williams (1932-) A.I. Artificial Intelligence Theme
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Westside Story Medley
Book online, by post or in-person.
This concert is sponsored by Margaret and Stephen Faulkner.
Thursday 27th June, 7:30pm – Camerata RCO
Based in Amsterdam and all members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Camerata RCO are a select group of musicians who enjoy the intimacy and challenges of performing in a small ensemble as much as playing in a large orchestra. The Camerata were formed in 2015 and have performed and recorded extensively.
Programme TBD.
Book online, by post or in-person.
This concert is sponsored by The Freshgate Foundation, The Schoolrooms, Low Bradfield and Distinfields Properties.
Friday 28th June, 7:30pm – Consone Quartet
Playing on period instruments, the Consone Quartet were formed in 2015 and rapidly became enrolled into the BBC’s New Generation Artists scheme. Focusing on classical and romantic repertoire, they have gone from strength to strength winning prestigious prizes worldwide and touring extensively to enviable reviews.
For Bradfield, the programme draws on Classical period works:
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) String quartet in F♯ minor, Op. 50. No 4, H III/47
I. Allegro Spiritoso
II. Andante
III. Menuetto: Poco allegretto
IV. Finale: Fuga, allegro molto
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) String quartet in D major, K499, “Hoffmeister”
I. Allegretto
II. Menuetto: Allegretto
III. Adagio
IV. Allegretto
Carl Czerny (1791-1857) String Quartet in A minor
I. Allegro espressivo ma animato
II. Andante espressivo
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Finale: Quasi Presto
Book online, by post or in-person.
Saturday 29th June, 7:30pm – Tim Kliphuis Trio
2024 sees the 150th anniversary of Modest Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which the Russian Romantic composed in honour of his friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann, who had died suddenly the previous year, aged only 39.
Premiered at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on 10 March 2024, Tim Kliphuis and his Trio (Nigel Clark (guitar) and Roy Percy (double bass)) present a brand new Pictures at an Exhibition, showcasing the daring innovations of Musorgsky’s music through a unique and exciting lens. Original movements, Promenade, Baba Yaga, The Old Castle – and more – are ‘re-invented’ and, taking Musorgsky’s lead, Tim Kliphuis has composed new musical representations of famous paintings like Klimt’s The Kiss, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Hokusai’s Great Wave and O’Keeffe’s Ritz Tower.
In 2024, the Tim Kliphuis Trio celebrate 18 years of touring; highlights include the Prince’s Canal (Amsterdam), the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-sur-Seine (France) and Royal concerts (Stockholm), as well as collaborations with the Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Netherlands Chamber, Tallinn Chamber and Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestras. Of their three recent Sony albums Reflecting the Seasons, Brandenburg and The Five Elements, their innovative new version of Vivaldi’s masterpiece hit the No. 1 spot on the iTunes charts.
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Pictures at an Exhibition (revisited)
Gnomus (Mussorgski/Hartmann)
Promenade 1 (Mussorgski)
Bydlo (Mussorgski/Hartman)
Baba Yaga (Mussorgski/Hartmann)
Promenade 2 (Mussorgski)
The Old Castle (Mussorgski/Hartmann)
Great Wave (Kliphuis/Hokusai)
The Kiss (Kliphuis/Klimt)
Promenade 3 (Mussorgski)
Starry Night / Nocturne (Kliphuis/Van Gogh)
Ritz Tower (Kliphuis/O’Keeffe)
Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) Selection
Book online, by post or in-person.
This concert is sponsored by Mark and Christine Hewitt.
Sponsors
The Trustees are grateful to the following who have made the 2024 Festival possible by sponsorship:
Jane Doran
CM and EH Birkby
CJ and MJ Hewitt
The Schoolrooms, Low Bradfield
Distinfields Properties Bradfield
Swann-Morton Limited, Sheffield
Freshgate Foundation, Sheffield
ME and SJ Faulkner
Last updated 26th March 2024. Sponsors who prefer to remain anonymous are of course not listed above.