Rian Evans

A celebration of the
VALE OF GLAMORGAN FESTIVAL

When John Metcalf conceived the idea for the first Vale of Glamorgan Festival, held in 1969, neither he nor anyone else could have imagined the impact it would come to have. Now, after over half a century of memorable annual events and with the Festival as we knew it having reached an end, it feels all the more important – in the midst of the sadness and regrets – to look at the festival’s achievements and those of John Metcalf as its founder and artistic director. It’s a rich and remarkable legacy.

Founding the Festival

Back in 1969, while the Swansea and Llandaff Festivals were occasions for hearing big orchestras and the Cardiff 20th Century Festival was opening up new avenues, there were still relatively few venues for professional concerts and, given the relative absence of chamber-music outside the capital or the university towns, Metcalf saw the potential for something new.

His aim was to present music in intimate settings which lent themselves to smaller-scale genres and repertoire. This matching of music to places of historic and architectural interest was from the outset a guiding principle. St Donat’s Castle – home of the United World College, with its Bradenstoke Hall – offered a natural hub, but concerts in the Vale’s historic churches – many of them significant in the emergence of early Christianity, such as St Illtyd’s in Llantwit Major – evoked the aura of history that was always a significant element in heightening the audience experience. Performances were also given in private houses, relatively unusual at the time, with the affinity of music and setting creating a special atmosphere.

Artistic vision

John Metcalf would prove himself to be ahead of the curve in his thinking and his approach was characteristically imaginative, the very opposite of a composer in the proverbial ivory tower, always engaged with the musical world and society in general. From the outset, he showed an aptitude for putting together programmes covering different periods of music and using artists with specialist commitments, instinctively spotting or hearing about interesting talents. Many musicians setting out on what would in due course prove to be very considerable artistic careers came to the Vale of Glamorgan in those early years: they included Trevor Pinnock, Anthony Pleeth, Anthony Rooley and the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble. Pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Radu Lupu both gave recitals in the latter half of the 1970s and the late David Williams, for so many years the hugely committed chair of the festival and later its president, enjoyed telling the story of Lupu’s arrival at St Donat’s, his suitcase carried by none other than Murray Perahia.

In 1979, Elisabeth Söderström gave a recital with Richard Armstrong at the piano. Two instrumental ensembles who would go on to be acknowledged as most important in their field, Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the Arditti Quartet, made early appearances in the Festival, while, in 1982, the legendary Amadeus Quartet performed at Holy Cross Church in Cowbridge. And if all this seems like a case of serious and nostalgic name-dropping, it was precisely these sort of artists that established the calibre of the Vale of Glamorgan festival in its first decades.

Championing the contemporary

As a composer himself, John Metcalf was deeply committed to programming contemporary music. In 1979, the Dream Tiger Ensemble performed works by Iannis Xenakis, George Crumb, Salvatore Sciarrino and Peter Maxwell Davies, and premiered festival commissions by Erica Fox and Douglas Young. In that same year, the London Sinfonietta included Luciano Berio and Thea Musgrave in their programme, returning in 1981 when Hans Werner Henze conducted the Sinfonietta in his extended song cycle Voices.

It was in 1979, too, that the festival made a commitment to focus on music theatre, a decision which would see it charting significant new territory and presenting landmark performances. In the early 1980s, Oliver Knussen – his reputation as a composer already burgeoning, but gradually becoming just as highly regarded for his conducting of contemporary music – conducted the London Sinfonietta and then the Music Theatre Ensemble and Music Projects/London in performances of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, and also Michael Finnissy’s Vaudeville. Subsequent collaboration between the Music Theatre Ensemble at St Donat’s and the Cardiff New Opera Company would in turn prove crucial to the founding of Music Theatre Wales which went on to be the leading contemporary opera company for more than three decades.

Contemporary music had thus consistently offered a vibrant perspective on current developments alongside the festival’s more traditional fare. Yet such a flourishing picture over more than two decades makes John Metcalf’s decision to opt for a new approach and to programme only the work of living composers all the bolder. In 1986, Metcalf had been appointed to the Banff Centre in Canada, where he would become one of the artistic directors with music theatre his prime concern, overseeing fruitful collaborations between Banff and the Vale of Glamorgan Festival. And, on this side of the Atlantic, it was the creative and administrative flair of associate director David Ambrose, appointed as director of the St Donat’s Arts Centre, that kept the festival flag proudly flying. John Metcalf returned to the helm in 1991, his highly productive time away from Wales having helped give him a fresh perspective on music-making in his native country and an even deeper conviction that his festival could make a difference.

St Donat's Castle, home of the early VoG Festivals

St Donats Castle was the main venue in the early years

Radu Lupu is one of the many world-famous artists to have performed at the Festival

Listings from the 1976 festival programme

The Amadeus Quartet appeared at Holy Cross, Cowbridge in 1982

Connecting artists with audiences

The 1992 festival was the first to carry the banner A Celebration of Living Composers. Given the already strong commitment to new music, it was not a totally radical change of direction, but a conscious attempt to bring audiences into a much closer and symbiotic relationship with the composers themselves. Instead of more music by long-dead names, albeit pillars of the classical musical world, here would be a festival highlighting composers who would be invited to be part of the proceedings and, by their very presence, underline that theirs was a living, breathing art. For those in the audience, it was that sense of a closer connection with creative artists, who were also patently normal human beings, which helped them to relate to the music in a direct and more meaningful way. This gradual access of familiarity enhanced the overall engagement with performances, and it happened precisely because the composers were there among us.

In that first year of the new-style festival, the programming of music by Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, along with that of Philip Glass, Kevin Volans and Gavin Bryars, shows that John Metcalf was perfectly aware of the zeitgeist and the growing interest in contemporary composers who had consciously – as had Metcalf himself by this time – turned their back on dissonance and, by and large, the techniques of serialism.

The premiere of John Tavener’s piece The Protecting Veil had taken place at the 1989 Proms, with Oliver Knussen conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the cellist Steven Isserlis as soloist. By 1992, Isserlis was performing it in the Bradenstoke Hall with the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox. A much smaller venue, of course, but with its own particular character and a gentle austerity lent in part by the timber roof that had originally graced the medieval Augustinian priory of Bradenstoke in Wiltshire. It was an evocative context for Tavener’s music. Two days earlier, his piece A Village Wedding, commissioned by the Festival, had been premiered by the Hilliard Ensemble in St Augustine’s Church, Penarth. Events such as these, sometimes awesome in the word’s original meaning, ensured that the festival’s new approach quickly won the trust of their audiences. The appearance of Steve Reich and Musicians in 1993, was another early milestone. Reich’s music would be a vibrant festival staple in the ensuing years, an association which saw Reich being the president of the 2019 festival marking 50 years since its inception.

National recognition

In 1994, the success of the Festival’s change of direction was recognised when they won the prestigious Prudential Award for the Arts. It was an astonishing achievement: not only were they awarded the £25,000 award for the best music event, but also the £100,000 award for the best overall arts event. Noting that the other organisations nominated in this category were the British Film Institute, the Siobhan Davies Dance Company, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, underlines the distinguished company in which the Vale of Glamorgan Festival had found themselves, first among equals. Yet, ironically, such a triumph meant that the newly reconstituted Arts Council of Wales now declined them ACW funding, a frequent obstacle over the decades and, ultimately, a reason for the Festival’s demise. The trustees’ success in obtaining sponsorship – pioneering in this respect from early on – was crucial in sustaining its viability through the years, with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and the Colwinston Charitable Trust consistently supportive.

Arvo Pärt in residence

Arvo Pärt’s music proved popular from the first and would go on to feature regularly in programmes, with the week-long visit of Pärt himself to the festival in 1996 confirming his particular place in the hearts of Vale festival-goers, a benevolent, gentle presence who would return again in 2010. People who shook his hand said they felt blessed and it was notable that Pärt’s music with its spirituality, its tintinnabulism, its simplicity and transparent quality, ascetic while yet having a richness of musical vibrations, communicated to audiences in a quietly powerful way.

Similarly, the genial warmth of Peter Sculthorpe also captivated people from the time he and his music featured in the 1994 festival, gaining him countless admirers who would continue to identify and relate to this key Australian composer in the many performances over the years.

The commitment to commissioning new work continued to be a significant factor, giving audiences that certain frisson of expectation and also a sense of being part of a creative continuum. Considerably smaller in scale than festivals such as Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Huddersfield (founded in 1978), the Vale of Glamorgan Festival nevertheless succeeded in making made its own indelible mark and was regarded as important by the composers themselves. And, while internationally acknowledged names, such as John Adams, Henryk Górecki and Kevin Volans, might appear to have been predominant, British and Welsh composers were just as important. To mention Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, Steve Martland, Graham Fitkin, Howard Skempton, Max Richter, Charlie Barber, Geraint Lewis, Hilary Tann, Huw Watkins, Pwyll ap Siôn, Guto Pryderi Puw, as well as John Metcalf himself, is to name only some of a much longer and astonishing roll-call of composers.

Crossing Borders

As well as the fundamental of offering audiences stimulating engagement with music, the festival’s understated but underlying celebration of our common humanity was core. Bringing composers and music from across the globe to the Vale built bridges that crossed boundaries and borders, very much in keeping with the Welsh tradition of looking out to the wider world. Sometimes, they were countries with a natural affinity with Wales, whether smaller countries with a very distinct cultural identity or those whose musical heritage was, like that of Wales, an intrinsic part of their thinking and being. The commitment to choral singing in Finland and the Baltic countries was a case in point. Such connections saw a steadily growing consciousness of common values, so that composers like the Latvian Peteris Vasks, and the Estonian Helena Tulve became welcome and familiar names, bringing a further richness to the audience experience.

As a creative artist himself, John Metcalf’s own vision in all this was crucial, not simply highly-principled and committed to the musical cause but always engaged in global issues and in the breaking down of prejudice. The performance of contemporary works with a political theme and relating to humanitarian issues was an infinitely valuable facet of the festival. Among them were Steve Reich’s Different Trains; Max Richter’s A House made of Cloud with its ritual bells focusing on Tibet and the question of human rights; Metcalf’s own Cello Symphony and its symbolic rejection of conflict. These and so many others expressed what composers saw as a wider role in society, together with a profound commitment to a higher ethos.

Educational role

Environmental issues were also reflected in works heard at the Festival, among them Erqing Wang’s Paradise Drowned, a plea for islands threatened by global warming. All contributed to raising consciousness, bringing a range and breadth of engagement with people and with the state of our shared world.

In the same vein, the Festival’s work in education and outreach work was also a most important factor in reaching out to a younger generation, not perhaps the waving of a permanently magic wand, but nevertheless offering immensely rewarding and joyful musical happenings.

Over time, the matter of trust in creating a relationship with an audience – inviting and encouraging tolerance, moving towards an easier acceptance of the new – underpinned everything the Vale of Glamorgan Festival did. In retrospect, what amounted to acts of creative and cultural diplomacy on John Metcalf’s part can be seen to have had a fearlessness which – for being undertaken sotto voce – was not adequately appreciated.

But the very sleight of hand and gentle good humour that is part of the Metcalf makeup also gave us performances that made us smile and were simply intriguing for being unusual: Rex Lawson playing Conlon Nancarrow on his pianola; Isabel Ettenauer’s toy piano, and the enormous fun and aural challenge that was Astrid, the Dutch street organ for whom ten composers wrote new pieces to celebrate 50 years of the festival in 2019.

For myself, were I to indulge in reflecting on moments that resonate instantly in the memory, then the glorious sounds of the Baltic choirs, De Stijl Ensemble, Piano Circus, the exhilarating Sandbox Percussion and the Cello Octet Amsterdam spring to mind, and many hugely dynamic concerts by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. But this list could go on and on, so subito al fine.

It’s impossible to overestimate the contribution the festival has made to cultural life in Wales. John was fortunate in having a committee who both supported him and gave their backing where others might have been more cautious. Thanks are due to them all. So, in saluting the Vale of Glamorgan Festival’s celebration of living composers, we salute too the brilliance and vision of John Metcalf. Not overtly revolutionary, but quietly game-changing and totally consistent in pursuing a path which aimed at excellence, at invigorating the minds and spirits of its audience and, to use Peteris Vasks’ phrase, rightly taken up as the most vital maxim, providing food for the soul.

The strap line 'A Celebration of Living Composers'

was adopted from 1992

John Tavener © Simone Canetty-Clarke.jpg

Arvo Pärt's 1996 visit made a lasting impression on audiences

Performances of works, such as Reich's Different Trains, with a political theme and relating to humanitarian issues was an infinitely valuable facet of the festival

Nieuw Ensemble Photograph Kadir van Lohu

Nieuw Ensemble performed Erqing Wang’s Paradise Drowned in 2015. (Photo: Kadir van Lohu)

Sandbox Percussion's 2022 performance of Andy Akiho's Seven Pillars was one of many festival highlights for Rian Evans

A celebration of the VALE OF GLAMORGAN FESTIVAL

A celebration of the
VALE OF GLAMORGAN FESTIVAL