Plans well underway for Three Choirs' return to Hereford in 2009

1:15pm Thursday 21st August 2008

AS The Three Choirs Festival 2008 ends, plans are already well under way for the 2009 festival which takes place in Hereford and has the seasons as its central theme.

Organisers are delighted to announce an exciting programme devised by Hereford’s artistic director Geraint Bowen.

One particular highlight is that, for the first time in living memory, the festival will have a composer in residence as John McCabe joins the festival in his 70th birthday year.

Plans for his residence include an orchestration, especially for the festival, of Songs of The Garden, which will be premiered in Hereford Cathedral in a programme that also includes Strauss’ Four last Songs, Poulenc’s Gloria and Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A UK premiere of Les Martinets Noirs will be performed by the Orchestra of the Swan and John McCabe will also present a commission written for the early music choir, Stile Antico.

The theme of the seasons is reflected in works by composers with anniversaries in 2009 – among them Haydn’s (died 1809) The Seasons and Britten’s Spring Symphony (written in 1949).