1936
Sir Thomas Beecham and Heathcote Statham Co-direct
A four day music festival, as part of a run of triennial events.
With no festival in 1933 due to the economic depression, special efforts were made for the 1936 Festival.
Sir Thomas Beecham was brought in to co-direct the Festival, alongside Cathedral organist Heathcote Statham.
The Festival featured a new commission – Our Hunting Fathers by Benjamin Britten, which appeared in the same programme as a new work by Vaughan Williams, Five Tudor Portraits. Both works caused some controversy – Britten’s due to its uncompromising subject matter and modern compositional techniques and Vaughan Williams’s thanks to its bawdy texts by Norfolk born poet and tutor to Henry VIII, John Skelton.
Below is an extract from the EDP Article “Norwich Musical Festival – Lord Albemarle’s Speech”, on Saturday September 26th 1936:
“He did not believe that anybody would contradict him when he said that that week they in Norfolk and Norwich had entered upon a new era. They had had the great honour and distinction of obtaining the co-operation of Sir Thomas Beecham. (Applause.) He was there to thank Sir Thomas for the magnificent musical service he had given them; and it was also a subject of great congratulation to East Anglians generally that Dr. Statham had been associated with Sir Thomas in this Festival. (Applause.) He (the speaker) had asked Dr. Statham about his experience in conducting “another man’s orchestra” – having in mind a huntsman taking over a strange pack of hounds – (laughter) – and Dr. Statham, replied, “I felt very much at home with them. They would do anything for you.” (Applause.) The London Philharmonic Orchestra had served the Festival in a most wonderful way. (Applause.)”
Vaughan Williams 'Five Tudor Portraits' Premiere
Take a listen to a recording of the opening movement of Vaughan Williams’s Five Tudor Portraits, commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival in 1936.
Benjamin Britten
Another work premiered at this years Festival was Benjamin Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers, conducted by Britten at St Andrew’s Hall.
Concert programme, taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival Archive.
Poet W. H. Auden collaborated on the text, and below is a film clip of Auden reading Our Hunting Fathers.
Patrick Hadley 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'
Below is a newspaper cutting showing an anvil used in a 1936 Festival concert, for Patrick Hadley’s ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. It was only used to play one note!
Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival Archive.
Festival Programme
A signed copy of the Festival Programme. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Archive.
Festival Programme. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Archive.
Festival Programme. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Archive.
Feature on the 1936 Festival from The Journal newspaper, including list of chorus members. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival Archive.
A brief biography of Heathcote Statham from the Illustrated Souvenir Booklet. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival Archive.
Photograph of Heathcote Statham with signature, from the Illustrated Souvenir Booklet. Taken from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival Archive.