All the world’s a stage as St Magnus Festival goes ‘truly international’ for 2002
By Brian Flett
(From The Orcadian dated March 28, 2002)

Prunella Scales who will be joining husband Timothy West and son Sam in a performance of Stravinsky'sThe Soldier's Tale.

This year’s St Magnus Festival will be a “truly international festival” according to the event’s director, Mrs Glenys Hughes.

Speaking at the launch of the brochure for this year’s programme, Mrs Hughes explained that the international flavour would come from the Grand Union Orchestra who were returning to Orkney after a period of almost 20 years, and who had members from Chile, the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Uruguay among other places. She said that there was also a music ensemble coming all the way from Australia and the festival’s celebrity soloist, pianist Ronald Brautigam was from Holland.

Mrs Hughes pointed out that the Grand Union Orchestra would be involving about 150 pupils from local schools in two performances of a music and visual art work on the theme of carnival around the world to close this year’s event. So she felt the theme of this year’s St Magnus Festival could be summed up as “local and international.”

Focusing on the start of the festival, Friday June 21 - Midsummer Day - Mrs Hughes spoke about the community drama production Barriers specially written by playwright Alan Plater, with music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. She explained that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the arrival in Orkney of the Italian prisoners of war who built the Churchill Barriers and painted the Italian Chapel. Alan Plater had been so keen to work with the same group of actors who had been involved in his 2000 adaptation of George Mackay Brown’s short story Greenvoe, she said, that he wanted to write this play and have it premiered in Orkney.

Mrs Hughes explained that festival-goers could enjoy a performance in the Italian Chapel that same evening by a professional vocal ensemble called the Dunedin Consort. Buses would take people out to Lamb Holm from the Arts Theatre following the production of Barriers and vice versa. She believed that given a nice midsummer night, the combined events on the Friday promised to be “a lovely evening.”

Kicking off the Festival Club on the Friday night will be the Grand Union, who she said had proved to be one of the most successful club bands ever.

The following day will see the “usual crowded programme” of events, she said, starting with the morning coffee concert in the St Magnus Centre by Jean Leonard and pupils from the traditional music group.

In Stromness, on the Saturday morning, there will be a reading by the award-winning poet, Carol Ann Duffy, who was awarded the CBE in the 2002 New Year’s Honour List.

Actor Timothy West, famous for his portrayal of Sir Winston Churchill, will perform at the St Magnus Festival with his wife and son.

The “real coup” for this year’s St Magnus Festival, said Mrs Hughes, had been to attract husband and wife actors, Prunella Scales and Timothy West and their son, Sam, to take part in a performance of Stravinsky’s music-theatre work The Soldier’s Tale in Stromness Town Hall on Saturday lunchtime.

She explained that it was always difficult to get distinguished actors to commit themselves enough to take part in a festival and to sign contracts, with a pullout clause if a Hollywood film role or West End stage run came up beforehand.

Prunella Scales and Timothy West did not often get the chance to take part in festival events as a couple, she said, and were looking forward to coming to Orkney.

Prunella Scales won acclaim for her portrayal of John Cleese’s long-suffering wife, Sybil, in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. More recently, she has been seen in television adverts for supermarket chain, Tesco.

Timothy West has played many historical figures on television, including Edward VII and Sir Winston Churchill, and is also a distinguished stage performer.

Their son, Sam West, is also an actor and has narrated scripts for several television documentaries.

Mrs Hughes explained that the music for The Soldier’s Tale would be provided by the London-based group Sinfonia 21, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, who has been a regular visitor to the St Magnus Festival with other orchestras.

Prunella Scales and Timothy West make another appearance together on Sunday afternoon in Stromness Academy Theatre when they recite poetry and prose on the theme of love, courtship and marriage.

An excursion which Mrs Hughes said has become popular during the festival is the Saturday afternoon bus trip to St Magnus Church in Birsay with a recital by members of the Orkney Ensemble.

The Saturday evening family concert in the Pickaquoy Centre with former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Colin Currie, the first-ever percussionist to have reached the finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, was also picked out as a highlight. Mrs Hughes said that he gave hands-on experience to the children with rhythm and singing games, making it a real family event.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO), are return visitors this year, described by Mrs Hughes as “old friends” of the Festival. She explained that the first of their performances was to accompany the Festival Chorus and soloists from the Dunedin Consort in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera HMS Pinafore. Local singer Paul Rendall from Kirkwall, who now works with Scottish Opera, will be one of the soloists in that performance of HMS Pinafore. The Gilbert and Sullivan concert on the Saturday night promised, in the words of Mrs Hughes, to be “a very sparkling festival occasion.”.

The entire string section of the orchestra, 26 players, will be travelling to Sanday, to play with the 40-strong Sanday Fiddlers group. The wind ensembles from the SCO will be split into two groups, going to Eday and Westray, playing with the pupils during the day and playing at a concert at night.

Actor Samuel West who will be on stage with his parents, Timothy West and Prunella Scales, at this year's St Magnus Festival.

Mrs Hughes said that the Festival would love to send a group of orchestral players to North Ronaldsay, but the fear was that they could get stuck on the island, which did not have daily boat service.

The theme of this year’s Johnsmas Foy relates to World War Two and will give people’s reaction to it in poetry, prose and song.

The Sunday afternoon recital in Stromness at this year’s St Magnus Festival is to be given by Holland’s leading pianist, Ronald Brautigam.

The Sunday evening concert at the Pickaquoy Centre will see percussionist, Colin Currie, perform James MacMillan’s percussion concerto Veni Veni Emmanuel and end with Beethoven’s Symphony No 7.

Meanwhile, the late night concert in St Magnus Cathedral on Sunday night with Sinfonia 21and the Dunedin Consort will combine new and old music, with pieces by 14 century composers through to present day composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

The BBC will be giving a lot of coverage to this year’s festival and Radio 3’s drivetime programme In Tune will be broadcast live from the St Magnus Centre on Monday evening, which would combine chats with and performances by some of the artists.

Weather, particularly in relation to travel disruption, has sometimes been a worry at past Festivals and Mrs Hughes said she hoped that the name of a piece to be performed at a concert on Tuesday afternoon by the Sinfonia 21, The Fog Is Lifting, would not be too prophetic.

She also highlighted an excursion to Flotta on Tuesday afternoon which would culminate in a performance of madrigals, part songs and close harmony arrangements in the Flotta Kirk by the Dunedin Consort.

Mrs Hughes then spoke about the Tuesday night and Wednesday lunchtime concerts by the Australian group, the Elder New Music Ensemble, who are made up of post graduate students and tutors at Adelaide University.

She explained the reason that they had been invited to take part in the St Magnus Festival was that founder Sir Peter Maxwell Davies taught at Adelaide University during the 1960s and was invited back in 2000 as composer-in-residence at the Barossa International Festival held in the famous wine-growing region. The current director of the Elder New Music Ensemble, Grahame Dudley, was a former student of Sir Peter’s. The Australian group will perform no fewer than three world premieres and three UK premieres during their concerts in Orkney. A distinctive flavour of South Australia will be provided with a glass of wine from the region before the Tuesday evening concert.

Mrs Hughes concluded her preview of this year’s St Magnus Festival by mentioning the Grand Union Orchestra’s musical spectacular called Dr Carnival. Two performances of the show will mark the culmination of a ten-week project in local schools which begins immediately after the Easter holidays.

In launching the St Magnus Festival brochure, she pointed out that postal applications for patrons’ tickets will open on April 12, with tickets going on sale to the general public on May 2.