The Swindon Recital Series celebrated its 25th year on Sunday evening. It’s a remarkable achievement to have sustained this strand of high-quality music-making in the face of many local pressures on the classical music audience. The celebratory concert featured series founder and artistic director Paul Turner, with other performers who have been regular contributors over the years.
Members of the Music Of Renown Ensemble performed with me in a reprise of William Walton’s Façade, which we first presented in 2012.
Paul and I also performed a much-loved staple of our recital repertoire, A History of the Thé Dansant by Richard Rodney Bennett. The jazz theme was maintained with Schulhoff’s “hot” saxophone sonata and an arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for the same forces as Façade.
Here’s to another 25 glorious years!