Skillful programming

12 Sep 25

If you were a devotee of Dmitri Shostakovich whose only opportunity to attend some live performances marking this year’s 50th anniversary of his death was spending the weekend of 21 – 25 August at the Presteigne Festival, you probably wouldn’t have felt short-changed.

… Dying into the gathering darkness with an anguished pianissimo from the Presteigne Festival Orchestra, the end of the symphony expressed the international zeitgeist so vividly that the audience took some time to break into applause.

But Presteigne Festival is not really about dead composers, certainly not those who have been dead for 50 years or more. It celebrates contemporary music, much of it hot off the page or computer screen; the 2025 programme included 12 world premieres, two Welsh premieres and music by 32 living composers, many of whom were present at the concerts. And this year the mood was predominantly sunny, thanks literally to the uncharacteristically fine, dry weather weather and metaphorically to the engaging programmes that were warmly received by the festival audience.

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It is difficult to think of another festival where an audience consisting mainly of amateur music lovers, albeit with a strong contingent of composers in their midst, listens happily to concert after concert that includes not one piece that they have ever heard before.Presteigne, a small town in the Welsh Marches, attracts a loyal band of local people and a contingent of regular visitors from elsewhere in the UK to its main performance venue, the medieval parish church of St Andrew, which has a beautiful acoustic (and very comfortable seats).

“Opening with the world premiere of Edward Gregson’s suite Dances Old and New and closing with Bach’s Suite in D minor BWV1008, bookending shorter and delightfully contrasting works by Dani Howard, Edmund Finnis and Eleanor Alberga, [cellist Gemma] Rosefield’s recital demonstrated the skilful programming that is George Vass’s hallmark and which was particularly in evidence this year.”

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The Rodd was the venue for a very special event right at the start of the festival. Harriet Wybor, general manager of the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS), announced that George Vass is this year’s winner of the RPS Leslie Boosey Award, in recognition of his “bold and unwavering commitment to programming contemporary British composers throughout his career, including as Artistic Director of Presteigne Festival for over 30 years”.

Explaining that the award is not given to composers or performers, but to programmers, publishers, broadcasters, administrators, educationalists and figures from the recording industry, the people who work tirelessly “backstage” to champion new music, she presented Vass with the enormous bronze eagle commissioned by the RPS from Elizabeth Frink… adding that “Presteigne Festival devotees and composers alike will know that bringing new music to life requires hard work and dedication. Not just from those writing and performing music on stage, but from those with the vision to encourage composers to share their imagination, to support them in their creative endeavours through commissions and mentoring, and to programme exciting new music for audiences to hear.”