Since 1981 Ryedale Festival has presented a mouthwatering array of concerts in picturesque churches and glorious stately homes in North East Yorkshire, characterised by interval drinks and picnics in lovely gardens or sunny terraces on long summer evenings. This year it took a short, sharp dive into a very different seasonal atmosphere, presenting its first Winter Weekend from 21 – 23 November, with just four events in the charming market towns of Pickering, Malton and Norton.
Pianist Ethan Loch, who won the keyboard final of BBC Young Musician in 2022, set the scene in his opening recital on the Friday evening in the church of SS Peter and Paul, Pickering; the following afternoon Jeffrey Boakye, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Add to Playlist and a writer on issues to do with race, education and music, interviewed Katherine May, whose book Wintering inspired the festival theme of how creativity can flourish even in the coldest and darkest time of year, when there is time to listen and space to think.
Central to the weekend was to have been Saturday evening’s recital by baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Christopher Glynn, Ryedale Festival’s artistic director. A meticulously planned programme entitled An English Song Winterreise used the famous Schubert song cycle as a jumping-off point; Williams had chosen 24 individual songs by composers ranging from Vaughan Williams and Finzi to Judith Weir, Elizabeth Maconchy, Doreen Carwithen and Errollyn Wallen, each inspired by the theme, a phrase of text or something less obvious in one of the Schubert songs.
Alas, Williams was forced to cancel due to illness, and his place was taken by James Atkinson (pictured above with Glynn), a current BBC New Generation Artist and recent winner of several major prizes, at very short notice indeed. Performing the advertised programme was impossible – though Vaughan Williams’s “The Vagabond” did open the recital as intended, followed by the remaining eight of his Songs of Travel, and his “Linden Lea”, matched by Williams to Schubert’s “Der Lindenbaum” despite their different moods, was the encore. Instead of Madeline Dring’s Weep you no more we heard her Three Shakespeare Songs, and the revised formal programme concluded with Finzi’s “Let us Garlands Bring”. In between we heard three Schubert songs – “Liebesbotschaft”, “Im Frühling” and “Nacht und Träume” – and the whole of Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39.
Musically the performances were so committed and skilful that I felt sure Glynn and Atkinson must have presented this or a similar programme elsewhere in the past; I was astonished to discover afterwards that they had never performed a note together before that afternoon. Understandable memory lapses by Atkinson in the German texts meant that the Schubert and Schumann songs were less satisfying for audience members who were trying to follow the translations. But most people didn’t seem to mind, judging by the warmth of the applause. Personally, I was delighted to hear a charismatic singer whose rich, resonant voice and relaxed manner even in difficult circumstances were enormously engaging.
The culmination of the weekend was the new community song cycle co-created with its participants by composer John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould, both highly experienced in this sort of work – as is the festival itself. The Longest Night is a wonderfully coherent tapestry of original music, interspersed with some existing folk or classical songs, and linked by readings from Katherine May’s book. These were very well delivered by Rosie Barrett, a researcher, writer and storyteller whose portfolio includes working at Ryedale Folk Museum.
Six local choirs of varying age and ability took part – Young Crescendos directed by Nicky Copley; Ryedale Voices, Harmonia, The Notables and The Ryelarks, all directed by Alison Davis; and Ryedale School Cantarla, directed by Andrew Moxon – together with Kirkbymoorside Youth Band (pictured above). Most of the piano accompaniment was expertly provided by Christopher Glynn, but there were a couple of magical interludes performed by Ethan Loch, improvising to what he heard from the choirs.
James Atkinson stepped in for Roderick Williams in this concert too, very effectively. A highlight was his performance of Butterworth’s setting of “Is my team ploughing?” from A Shropshire Lad, with different combinations of male and female, adult and young voices contributing the responses to the protagonist’s questions, most poignantly when a small group of teenage boys sang the last line.
Another highlight was “Sarkless Kitty”, an extended folk song about girl who was drowned in the River Dove on her way to meet her lover, written by Barber and Gould with pupils from Ryedale Secondary School. Set for SATB and piano, it featured an unexpected appearance at the end by the ghost of Kitty Garthwaite, a spellbinding cameo by a young mezzo-soprano (unnamed in the programme).
Elsewhere, in the hymn-like title song the texts spoke of putting bulbs to bed in crisp autumn light, jam pans bubbling and warming fires burning, home-makers salting, boiling and pickling hams as generations have done before; and the performance finished with an anthemic setting by Barber of Shakespeare’s text from Richard III “When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand / when the sun sets, who doth not look for night / the longest night?”
The quality of the singing and playing from all the community groups was a testimony to the strength of music-making in this part of Yorkshire, and to the skill of the professional team in creating a substantial piece that was firmly in a classical idiom and enabled all the performers to shine. The nave of St Peter’s, a very large Victorian church in Norton, was absolutely packed with participants and audience; we all went out into the wet winter’s night with glowing hearts and very fine music ringing in our ears.
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