Early in the morning

Up at 4am this morning to travel out into the Black Mountains to put on an early morning event at the little medieval church of Partrishow (see the previous two blogs for more details and pictures). 

Although there was no sunrise at 7.30am, when the event started,  it was very atmospheric with the grey mists over the surrounding countryside and an army of bats flying around the church. 

We managed to get everything organised ready for the start ...

A very appreciative small and audience listened to the full fifty minutes. 

There were some lovely moments: birdsong as Chrissie Mavron played her solo outside in the church porch;

Ashley Long's closing double bass solo surrounded by the sound of the singing bowls in and outside the church: Michael McCartney magically prolonged ending to one of his solos leading to a long-held silence and Catherine Handley's beautifully poised flute solos (not easy in a cold early morning church). And then breakfast for everyone afterwards with Cathy Morris’s frittatas and my bara brith

Thanks to all the performers and to Cathy Morris, Alex Thacker and Maja Palser. On to the next stage! 

Music at Partrishow

I've been at Partrishow Church in the Black Mountains today for rehearsals for a performance there on Saturday morning (20th September) ... at 7.30am.

The event is a pilot performance as part of the work I am doing on my Arts Council of Wales “Creative Wales” Award and about 35 minutes of music played by four instrumentalists: Catherine Handley (flute), Christiana Mavron (violin), Michael McCartney (guitar) and Ashley Long (bass). The performance uses many of the different spaces around the church. Here is Christiana Mavron playing her solo movement - in the porch to the building ... 

... and Michael and Catherine performing their duo at the west end of the church under the bells.

Here is the whole group in front of the extraordinary 15th century rood screen ...

... and viewed through the rood screen.

If you would like to come along, do drop me a line by going to the contact page on my website or to my usual email address. 

Partrishow at Dawn

A very early start to visit the small medieval church of St Partishow in the Black Mountains at dawn for research as part of the Arts Council Creative Wales Award that I am currently working on. 

Partishow, or St Issui, stands on a hill amongst the mountains and has one of the most extraordinary oak rood screens that have survived. 

The simple whitewashed walls are also decorated with pre-Reformation paintings and at the west end is a closed off hermit’s cell and chapel.

Because it is surrounded by mountains and hills, dawn is about an half-an-hour later than normal.  Inside the church all is still quite dark and outside there is just a glimmer of dawn in the East.

Inside, everything is still quite dark.

Eventually the sun rises over the mountains and floods the valley surrounding the church with light.

I can now head home with notes on how to use the church at this time of morning for a performance – watch this space for more details …

More architectural details

More images

Days out at Presteigne

I’ve just come back from the Presteigne Festival which I’ve been reviewing for the Western Mail and Hereford Times.

It’s a great little town on the Welsh border – rather like stepping back forty years in time (try linking up to Wi-fi there…).

These days the festival is very much a contemporary music event. It could easily spell disaster at the box office, but the concerts and talks have been packed out with enthusiastic, appreciative audiences, with the normally sleepy little border town bustling with activity well into the small hours (a special pop-up festival bar in someone’s house might have something to do with it). Here is St Andrew’s Church where many of the events are held.

This year there was a special focus on recent Polish music. Here’s Pawveł Łukaszewski whose impressive 55 minute Requiem caused quite a lot of controversy.

Below is a link to my review in the Western Mail. There are a couple of short reviews still to come in the Hereford Times.

Western Mail

www.presteignefestival.com

Bayvil

I have been revising a piano piece for its second performance this autumn. It’s called Bayvil – the same name as the small Anglican chapel of St Andrews, near Newport in Pembrokeshire, built around 1812. The name seems to come from Norman-French Beauvil, a "pleasant settlement".

It’s a wonderful example of an unaltered rural church of two hundred years ago.

As you can see, its simple plastered walls, slate floors, box pews, three-decker pulpit and flagstones hardly seem to have changed since it was built.

It has been a redundant church for some years and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. From its door the sea in Newport Bay is visible.

As with several other recent pieces, this eight-minute piano solo reflects the plain unadorned flat surface of its interior. You can hear it here. Here are a couple of pages from the score. 

www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk

Flute, Festival, Fishguard

I’ve been at the Fishguard Festival in Pembrokeshire soaking up the sun.

The wonderful La Mer Trio were there on Monday night. The ensemble consists of flute, viola and harp – a transparent and luminous sound, perfect for the cool space of St Mary’s Church in the town centre.

Here they are in rehearsal for a concert of music by Debussy, Ravel, Bax, Mathias, Telemann and a super new piece by Mervyn Burtch – and they also did a great job on my piece Beiliheulog (this is a version of the same piece that I wrote for flute, viola and guitar - see http://petereynoldscomposer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/song-for-hidden-chapel.html for more details).

And here they are in full concert gear.

Many thanks to Renate, Maja and Hannah for a beautifully controlled and elegant performance and also to Gillian, Gaye and Geraint for all their support and hospitality.

The festival runs until 30 July – details below.

 www.fishguardmusicfestival.co.uk

www.lamertrio.com

Young Composers at Rhosygilwen

Last night was the final concert in this year’s Young Composer of Dyfed at the wonderful Rhosygilwen Arts Centre near Cardigan.

Young Composer of Dyfed is one of the great undiscovered secrets of Wales – a scheme in which young composers in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokshire work with top, often international, quality players. This year they were working with the Galliard Wind Quintet. After workshops delivered to some 500 school pupils back in September, the young composers worked with composer Lynne Plowman (below) on their compositions through from October to January. The whole scheme is organised by the super efficient Cathy Morris and was compared by Lynne and Emyr Wynne Jones, Music Adviser at Carmarthenshire Schools (right), who has given the scheme endless support over its twelve years or so. I'm particularly attached to the scheme and was honoured to be their Composer in Residence between 2010-13. 

Over the last week, the Galliard Quintet have premiered 34 brand new pieces by young composers from Dyfed. Last night, looking suspiciously fresh, they played fifteen of them. The choice of the pieces was made by composer Gabriel Jackson. Here are the Galliards, about to perform …

… and here they are with the fifteen composers at the end of the evening. Absolutely fabulous!

ymmd.org.uk/en/dyfed-young-composers

www.lynneplowman.co.uk