Concerts at Cratfield
Blyth Valley Chamber Music presents six or seven afternoon concerts each summer (July-September): the series is known as Concerts at Cratfield, since our concerts take place in the church of St Mary’s Cratfield, Suffolk (UK). Cratfield is a small village in tranquil and rolling countryside about 5 miles (8km) west of the A12, close to Halesworth and Yoxford: click here for a map and here for further details of the church and its facilities for concertgoers. Concerts begin at 3pm on Sundays, usually ending at around 5pm.
Our concerts are all of chamber music (mostly instrumental, but occasionally with a singer). Our approach is simple: to invite to play for us the best young ensembles we can afford, playing pieces from the best in the repertoire to the best standard attainable by them. As a result, we regularly feature performers with connections to the activities of Aldeburgh Music nearby: the Aldeburgh Festival in June, the winter lunchtime concerts at the Jubilee Hall and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Snape. Each Cratfield season mixes well-established works with lesser known and new music, including first performances.
In 2007 Blyth Valley Chamber Music celebrated its twentieth anniversary with the world première at Cratfield by the Sorrel Quartet of a new string quartet commissioned from Simon Rowland-Jones. Further commissions are in the pipeline for future seasons.
The Badke at the Museum of London
If you heard the Badke’s concert in Aldeburgh in early January as part of the Friday lunchtime series at the Jubilee Hall – and even if you didn’t – you may wish to catch them playing in London, before they come back to Suffolk for their Cratfield concert in August. They are taking part for the second time in a lecture-and-recital series organised by Gresham College. Each month until June, Professor Roger Parker from King’s College London introduces a different string quartet (Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven), which the Badke then play. It’s a great way of understanding more about the music – and it’s free. The series is at 1pm in the Weston lecture room of the Museum of London (close to the Barbican); each event lasts an hour. Click here for the details from the College website.
The Rare Theatricall: new concert details
We now have a new overall title for this early music group’s concert at Cratfield on Sunday 22 August 2010 at 3pm:
‘Music, thou divine, mysterious thing‘
The group’s Director, Christopher Bucknall, writes:
The Rare Theatricall will be joined at Cratfield by soprano Sarah Barnes for a programme of sacred songs by Purcell and his colleagues William Croft and Jeremiah Clarke, partnered by Dietrich Buxtehude’s glorious and virtuoso cantatas for voice and strings. Purcell’s sacred songs share all the extravagance and gesture of his theatre works, but with a deeper, more poignant intensity, whilst Buxtehude’s solo cantatas glory in the voice as an instrument of praise and jubilation. Coupled with virtuoso instrumental music selected from Purcell and Buxtehude’s wonderful sets of sonatas, the concert promises a glorious combination of the sensual and the spiritual, of music at its most original and at its most profound.
Music in the Stour Valley
Stour Valley Arts & Music has an autumn-to-spring season of concerts (some with supper) and lectures each year in Dedham and East Bergholt, on the Suffolk/Essex border. The 2009-2010 season has two events remaining:
Friday 19 February 2010 8pm at the Constable Hall, East Bergholt: the Concerts at Cratfield chairman, Jeremy Greenwood, gives a talk ‘The Wood Engravings of Eric Ravilious‘
Friday 19 March 2010 8pm in St Mary’s Church, East Bergholt: Trio con Brio Copenhagen play Beethoven, Ravel and Smetana
For more details, including how to book, see the SVAM website.
Concerts in Woodbridge
If you live within reach of Cratfield, you may also be interested in three chamber concerts in St Mary’s Church, Woodbridge on evenings in May and early June 2010:
Friday 7 May 7.30pm: The Appassionata Piano Trio (with Sophie Stanley viola) – Bridge, Schumann and Brahms
Saturday 8 May 7.30pm: Natalya Romaniw soprano, Gary Griffiths baritone and Iain Burnside piano – A Celebration of Twentieth Century English Song
Saturday 5 June 7.30pm: The Heath Quartet with Philip Higham cello – Beethoven and Schubert
More details from the website of Woodbridge Chamber Concerts, including a special offer for early bookings for all three concerts
Click here for details of the Heath Quartet’s concert at Cratfield: Sunday 19 September 2010 3pm
K502 at Cratfield
The Aquinas Piano Trio, who play for us on Sunday 25 July 2010, have now agreed that the Mozart with which they open their programme will be the Piano Trio in B flat, K502. This was the first of Mozart’s four ‘mature period’ piano trios, completed in November 1786. Its textures and inventive brilliance, in particular the central Larghetto, recall his best piano concertos.
E-mail returns!
After some months of uncertainty and technical complexity, the Concerts at Cratfield e-mail address is now working again: info@concertsatcratfield.org.uk. You can use this to reach Tom at the Box Office or Philip as Concert Organiser (or both); they will forward any incoming e-mail to other members of the Committee as necessary.
Commit to Cratfield!
Ticket sales cover only about three-quarters of our outgoings; the shortfall is made up principally by the generosity of our Patrons and Members, who offer ongoing financial support. At present we benefit further by Gift Aid, if you are a UK taxpayer and become a Patron or Member.
In return, Patrons and Members gain two weeks’ priority booking (worth having, since about half the seats for the whole season are usually sold in that period) and an invitation to our AGM. The AGM, usually at the Cratfield Village Hall in early December, reviews the season just ended, looks ahead to the next, appoints Committee members for the following year and (when necessary) the Concert Organiser – and there is then a convivial lunch.
Becoming a Patron or Member is the best way of ensuring our future and showing your commitment: click here for the form in PDF format. The file will either open as a new on-screen page or be downloaded to your computer, depending on your own browser settings or preferences.
Heath Quartet: update
The Heath Quartet now includes Cerys Jones, who has joined them as second violin. Before coming to Cratfield, the Heath will play for Woodbridge Chamber Concerts on Saturday 5 June 2010. They play at Cratfield on Sunday 19 September 2010, the last concert in our season. They will now play the Haydn op 20 (’Sun’) no 5 in F minor as the first item in their Cratfield programme, instead of the op 33 no 5 originally announced.
The Navarra at Cratfield
The Navarra String Quartet come to Cratfield for the first time, opening our 2010 season on Sunday 11 July at 3pm. Its members are already well known in our part of Suffolk, appearing regularly in past winter quartet series in Aldeburgh, as well as in the new Britten Studio at Snape in October 2009. The quartet is supported by the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT); it won second prize in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition of 2007, following first prize in the Florence International Chamber Music Competition ‘Vittorio Gui’ in 2005.
They are playing in the Ipswich Chamber Music Society concert series on Saturday 20 February 2010 at 7.30pm in the Great School at Ipswich School, together with the Sacconi String Quartet (well known to Cratfield audiences). For further details, call 01473 258218 [no website].
View a YouTube clip from their performance of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross (also their first audio CD, for Altara) by clicking on the ‘play’ arrow in the centre of their image, higher up this page on the right-hand side.