Stour Music 2008

20–29 June 2008

Founded by the celebrated counter-tenor Alfred Deller in 1962, the annual early music festival of Stour Music takes place at the end of June each year. Its name derives from the River Stour, which runs along the valley between Ashford and Canterbury. Concerts are held in the beautiful Pilgrim church of All Saints’ Boughton Aluph, situated in the heart of the Kent countryside, and renowned for its superb acoustic.

This year’s festival opens with a concert by the much acclaimed new vocal ensemble Stile Antico, prize winners at the 2005 York Early Music Festival and recently nominated for the 50th annual Grammy Awards. Maintaining its tradition of inviting distinguished early music performers from overseas, Stour Music will also be welcoming Música Ficta from Bogota, who will present a programme of Spanish renaissance and baroque music from colonial South America.

In the first of our two Sunday afternoon concerts, The Bach Players will give a programme of music by Schmelzer, Biber, Haydn and Boccherini.

The second weekend sees the return to Stour, after an absence of more than 20 years, of Harry Christophers’ celebrated vocal ensemble The Sixteen, who will be making a stop on their 2008 Choral Pilgrimage tour with Treasures of Tudor England. This will be followed by a Late Night concert given by the tenor Mark Padmore in a programme of lute songs by John Dowland. The Saturday night features two ensembles making their first appearance at Stour Music – La Serenissima with a programme of music by Vivaldi, Locatelli Marcello and Tartini, and Duo Trobairitz, with Songs of the Troubadours and Trouvères, one of the four candlelit Late Night Extra concerts.

The final Sunday afternoon traditionally features the Stour Festival Choir and Orchestra, who, with a distinguished team of soloists, will this year be performing the Magnificat by CPE Bach and Haydn’s ever popular ‘Nelson’ Mass.

Mark Deller
Festival Director