Canterbury Festival - Crowther Wind Quintet

Date: Tuesday 16 October 2007

The Canterbury Festival 2007 opened last weekend, and St Edmund's was well represented in two events on the Sunday.

The Choristers, immediately on return from an exhausting 4-day tour to Italy, took a leading part in the Festival Evensong, which commemorated the centenary of W.H.Auden's birth with a setting by Britten of his 'Hymn to St Cecilia', and Precentor Jeremy Frost's new setting of an extract from Auden's 'In Memory of W.B.Yeats'.

An hour later, an audience of 150 in the Shirley Hall of King's School enjoyed the collaboration of the Crowther Wind Quintet and our own Jacob Barnes. The concert included Mozart's exquisite Piano Quintet (K452), together with Francaix's exciting and fun piece. 'L'heure du Berger'. There were also works by Ibert ('Trois Pieces Breves'), Fucik, and Grieg, and a final flute/piano duet for Barnes and Rosemary Rathbone.

Guest critic, Keith Mander, felt that the whole concert was 'stupendous', and that Jacob 'stood out' among professional musicians.

And, he can be heard again in the Thursday concert in St Alphege's Church, where St Edmund's will be entertaining a lunchtime audience.