Newbury Weekly News - May 11th 2017

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Newbury Weekly News

arts &enter tainment

Comic book Guardians return for Volume 2 film review –42

An artist’s process explained – 37

Welcome to the sculpture zone – major two-site exhibition 39

What's on this week– 35-42

Folk

Show how much you love your Corn Exchange FURTHER to the news that West Berkshire Council has been forced to reduce Corn Exchange funding by £78,000 over the next two years, the centre has launched a fundraising campaign, Love Your Corn Exchange. Funding from the council is specifically to fund the activities at the Corn Exchange and, as a small arts charity, it needs to urgently raise £25,000 to manage this reduction. Project funding to launch the Learning Centre and to develop 101 is ring-fenced to deliver these projects and therefore cannot be diverted to manage the funding gap for the Corn Exchange. A suggested donation of £10 (simply amend the denomination to donate more or less) will be matched pound-for-pound by Arts Council England and can you donate by: p Phoning the box office on 0845 5218 218. Calls will cost 2p per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge p Giving online at www.cornexchangenew.com/donate p Texting CORN15 £10 to 70070 p Sending a cheque to Love Your Corn Exchange, Corn Exchange, Market Place, Newbury, RG14 5BD Last year the campaign raised more than £12,000 in six weeks. This was a crucial lifeline for the Corn Exchange to continue its activities and services. By working together, you will be helping the Corn Exchange to continue making a positive impact in your community.

ONE of the shining lights of the British folk scene, vocal harmony trio Lady Maisery perform at Arlington Arts tonight (Thursday, 8pm). Underpinning every performance are Lady Maisery’s distinctive harmonies; sometimes lush and rich, sometimes dark and invigorating, they intertwine with assured precision. The trio are also one of the foremost English proponents of mouth music or ‘diddling’ – a form of singing without words, once common in England and still found across parts of Europe. Many songs are accompanied by a rich tapestry of Rowan’s fiddle, banjo and bansitar, Hazel’s harp and concertina and Hannah’s accordion and foot percussion. Visit www.arlingtonarts.co.uk THE Watermill’s powerful production of Romeo + Juliet has returned to Newbury until Saturday, before touring nationally and internationally alongside Twelfth Night . Shakespeare’s immortal tale of an all-consuming love is reimagined in a contemporary setting and features the same cast of actor- musicians who recently performed the successful Twelfth Night , inspired by the 1920s jazz era. Romeo + Juliet features a dynamic selection of energetic folk and rock music performed live by the cast, with fresh interpretations of familiar songs by Mumford and Sons, Johnny Flynn, The Vaccines, The Civil Wars and Hozier. Visit www.watermill.org.uk Shakespeare BBC RADIO 4 comedy duo Croft and Pearce perform their new show, Croft & Pearce Are Not Themselves, at New Greenham Arts on Saturday. After a total sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, they launched a podcast with their hit characters June and Jean, and are now back on the road with a whole host of entertaining new character combinations. Catch these award- winning comedians, who bring their hilarious new sketch comedy show to Newbury for one night only. Visit www.cornexchangenew.co.uk Comedy p EDITORIAL: Trish Lee edits the Arts pages. If you have Arts news, diary dates and pictures, send her an email at: trish.lee@newburynews.co.uk p ADVERTISING : For advertising inquiries and bookings in this section, telephone the leisure team on (01635) 550444 On the web p For daily local Arts & Entertainment news online, log on to www.newburytoday.co.uk and click the link to ‘Entertainment’ Contact us

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Angels and demons launch town’s music festivities

Newbury Spring Festival opens with big orchestral concert

Newbury Spring Festival Bournemouh Symphony Orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius, at St Nicolas’ Church, on Saturday, May 6 in the far reaches of the apse, was in finest voice throughout, delivering their multiple roles with silvery encouragement or alarming menace, as required. Their chorus master Janet Lincé is stepping down after 17 years. She leaves with the gratitude It was a beautiful, uplifting, compelling and dramatic account of this sublime work. Even the most agnostic of us would have left the church cleansed and touched by its conviction

and admiration of all concerned. It was a beautiful, uplifting, compelling and dramatic account of this sublime work. Even the most agnostic of us would have left the church cleansed and touched by its conviction. But there were two significant shortcomings. There was no text printed in the programme booklet, so that many (according to my audience research in the interval) had no idea as to the function of the choir, or indeed what had occurred in the first half. It was disconcerting that orchestra, choir and soloists had played and sung their hearts out with perhaps less than half the audience knowing why. Then, as in his Wagner/Verdi concert a couple of years back, I was unable to relate the whirling gestures of conductor David Parry to the music. But nor, it seems, could the fine and experienced players of the BSO, to judge by some obvious lapses of ensemble. And how frustrating for the choir, after so much committed and rigorous rehearsal with the superbly precise Janet Lincé, not to be offered the clear and steady beat they so need to give of their best. CHARLES MEDLAM

BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra, Newbury Spring Festival Chorus, and Choros, with mezzo Caitlin Hulcup, tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones and baritone Morgan Pearse, under conductor David Parry, opened the 39th Newbury Spring Festival with one of the cornerstones of British choral music. Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius was composed in 1900 to Cardinal Newman’s long, beautiful and highly- accessible poem of 1865, a profound and compelling meditation on the ecstasy of Christian faith, which Elgar used as a declaration of his own Catholicism. It tells how the faithful Gerontius, after initial confidence in the after-life, is made to doubt by a chorus of Demons, has his faith restored by Angelicals and finally achieves immortality through the intercession of the Angel of Agony. The role of Gerontius was convincingly sung, floated, affirmed and declaimed by Gwyn Hughes Jones, with ringing high notes and appropriately operatic delivery. Caitlin Hulcup was a passionate and lush-voiced angel and Australian baritone Morgan Pearse an imperious and authoritative Priest cum Angel of Agony. The Festival Chorus, perched as ever