The West Meon Music Festival

Start: Thursday, September 11, 2025 7:30PM
End: Sunday, September 14, 2025 5:30PM

Celebrating Jane Austen with Felicity Kendal and James Gilchrist The 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth will be celebrated in memorable style at this year’s 15th West Meon Music Festival with a special gala concert, Jane Austen’s Playbook, starring leading actress Felicity Kendal as narrator reading extracts from Austen's letters, notebooks and novels with the selection curated by internationally-celebrated director Nancy Meckler. Joining them will be renowned tenor James Gilchrist and the festival’s founders, the Primrose Piano Quartet, with songs and chamber music from Jane Austen’s time, including works by Schubert, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, and Maria Theresia von Paradis. Highlight of the concert will be the world première of a new work – Notes for a Novel – or “how a tune a day inspired the development of Pride & Prejudice.…”, – commissioned by the festival from Peter Salem, known for his extensive output of TV, film and theatre music (among them the ever popular theme “Call the Midwife”). Jane Austen’s Playbook on Sunday 14th September at 3.30pm at West Meon’s St John’s Church is the final concert of the four-day festival, which starts on Thursday 11th September. Festival founders, the Primrose Piano Quartet, will be opening the festival on 11th September with a Mozart’s Piano Quartet K493. The concert will also mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the most remarkable and popular composers of the twentieth century, with a performance of his Second Piano Trio. Completed in 1944, the work reflects on the horrors of the Second Word War and is supremely moving. Friday night sees a recital by young pianist Clara Isabella Siegle, featuring Beethoven's technically challenging Sonata in F minor (Appassionata) and Ravel's Jeuz d'eau. Clara made her orchestral début at the age of nine, and is gaining worldwide renown as a solo artist. This concert will be followed at 9pm by 'Made for Two', a highlight of which will be Schubert Fantasy in F Minor for Piano Four Hands, with the Primrose's John Twaites and Clara Siegle. On Saturday morning the Primrose Strings will be joined by the wonderful violinist Tom Aldren at the beautiful All Saints' church in East Meon for a concert of Viennese String Quartets. Tom is a frequent guest principal player with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the CBSO, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chamber orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Royal Northern Sinfonia. On Saturday afternoon David Wright of the brilliant baroque band Red Priest will give a harpsichord recital in Warnford’s lovely Church of Our Lady, with works by Couperin, Rameau and D'Anglebert. On Saturday evening the festival returns to St John the Evangelist in West Meon, when the Primrose Piano Quartet will again be joined by Tom Aldren for a journey from St Petersburg to Vienna, with pieces by Shostakovich, Schubert and Brahms. The coffee concert on Sunday morning features The Primrose Piano Trio. Shostakovich's Cello Sonata is one of his most popular pieces and brims with melodies, colours and dramatic effects. Ravel's Tzigane for Violin and Piano is a fearsomely difficult work and demands such techniques from the violinist as artificial harmonics, left-hand pizzicatos, complex multiple-stops, and sustained octave passages. Brahms composed the three Intermezzi Op. 117 in the summer of 1892 while staying in Bad Ischl. He told a friend that they were "three lullabies of my grief" The evening concerts are candlelit and include a glass of wine or a soft drink, and the daytime concerts include coffee and biscuits or tea and cake. Full details of all eight festival concerts can be found at www.westmeonmusic.co.uk. Tickets, with prices from £10 to £27, are available via the festival website with all tickets for under-16s priced at £1 and substantial discounts for full-time students.