Berkeley Ensemble
Libby Burgess piano
Katherine Broderick soprano
Ravel Introduction & Allegro
Debussy Sonata for flute, harp, viola
Ravel Chansons madécasses
Debussy Musique de scène pour les Chansons de Bilitis
Kenneth Hesketh The Singing Bone (Premiere)
Debussy arr. Hesketh Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon (Premiere)
Debussy arr. Hesketh Deux Arabesques
Michael Berkeley Nocturne
A welcome return for the Berkeley Ensemble, named for father and son Lennox and Michael Berkeley, the latter a previous Festival Artistic Director whose music closes the programme. They are joined by radiant soprano Katherine Broderick for chamber works by Debussy and Ravel, which paint canvases of intimate seduction. Kenneth Hesketh invites us into the woods of a darker sound-world with his setting of a Brothers Grimm tale, shortly followed by world premieres of Hesketh’s Debussy arrangements (Cheltenham Music Festival commissions).
