I am just off the boat after a 24 hour trip to
Fishguard. Following years of travelling through the Pembrokeshire ferry port en-route to London, I decided to make the Welsh coastal town my end destination rather than merely a pit stop. I was encouraged by an extremely attractive programme at the 10 day annual classical music festival and the prospect of discovering new territory practically on my doorstep,. But the excursion hit the rocks early on Tuesday when the meaning of the term 'missing the boat' was fully impressed on me. I found myself on the wrong side of the rising gangway contemplating an Indiana Jones style leap onto the soon-to-depart ferry. I made a second attempt on Thursday and at 9.00am I was afloat and on my way to catch the last day of the
Fishguard Music Festival. I was glad that I did. I had a terrific day. There was sunshine and exhiliarating performances. I met interesting people, discovered some extraordinary venues and upstairs in the Town Hall, I found a local treasure that would have merited the trip alone.
Pianos: In the afternoon,
Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe shared the second and third of Beethoven's opus 31 sonatas as a prelude to an evening of piano duos. The magnificent oak timbered concert hall in the rural retreat,
Rhosygilwen was a stunning, light filled venue. There was a pause for supper in the orangery and picnics in the courtyard before the evening programme of piano duos performed on two pianos. We heard SaintSaens
Variations on a Theme of Beethoven's Sonata no 3 picking up a thread in the afternoon programme. As the evening wore on, Mozart and Brahms gave way to the impressionist, Debussy, In the fading evening light of the fine Summer evening,
Prelude de'lapres midi d'un faune' shimmered with the luxury of two sets of piano strings before all hell broke loose in a visceral performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.. Peter Donohoe's evocative context setting introductions conjured up images of Debussy and Stravinsky playing through the work in Paris salon. Debussy's nocturne
Fetes, was an exuberant celebration rather rather than a shadowy affair heard at a adistance.
I was thrilled to meet performer and joint artistic director, Peter Donohoe who generously gave me a post-show interview. Do listen to Donohoe talking about the importance of Spring to the Russin psyche and about the recent stepping up of his involvement in becoming joint Artistic Director of the Fishguard Festival. Hear his eloquent insights into the bond between Stravinsky and Debussy and his changing view of the groundbreaking 'Rite of Spring'.
'Build it and they will come' At the interval, a gentleman was delivering fliers on forthcoming events at the venue. I discovered later that he was in fact our host,
Glen Peters, MD of Western Solar who built the striking concert venue on the grounds of his home. He spoke to me about how the decision to build came about and the inspiration for the design. Listen to Glen Peters on the architectural design of the concert hall.
https://audioboom.com/users/102528/boos
The venue was full with 300 or so patrons for the closing recital. I enjoyed talking to composer Geraint Lewis about the arts in Wales. It was good to meet Gaye Williams, the face behind the digital marketing platforms at the 2015 festival. The bus to the concert was full but this was Pembrokeshire and I was not left on the side of the road. I am grateful to Boyd Williams for getting me there and back.
Have a listen to Festival team member Boyd Williams summing up of the event at
https://audioboom.com/boos/3424637-boyd-williams
Tapestries: The Last Invasion Tapestry: Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, the tapestry tells the story of the last invasion by the French forces and the formidable Jemima Nicholas who captured a battalian with her pitch fork (that may be overstating slightly but you get the picture) This woman should have her own opera written about her. We don't know who stitched the Bayeux tapestry but you can watch the video and hear many of the seventy ladies involved in this marvellous community project.I was struck by the parallels with another community tapestry unveiled about the same time. The port side town New Ross is home to the
Ros Tapestry.and also host of a music festival shaped by a pianist. The
New Ross Piano Festival takes place on 24th-27th September under director Finghin Colllins
Pasties: I spnt a happy hour in
Ffwrn Meaning oven, an amazing bakery, cum bar, cum bistrot. Pianos in various states of repair are arrayed around. The central piece is the oven out of which emerge pasties of Finn McCool proportions. Listen the Rod Smith about the Ffwrn and the forthcoming bagpipe festival at the venue. Coming back for the crab hammer plank.
What else is on? The event schedule for Rhosgilwen Retreat includes a literary weekend in September and a weekend Schubertiade in October. Check it out
here Fishguard is home to the weekend
Aber
Jazz Festival in August and a Folk festival in May. FFwrn hosts a
Bagpipe Festival in October
http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/explore-pembrokeshire/towns-and-villages/fishguard-and-goodwick/
Fishguard International Music Festival is a ten day festival that runs at the end of July. Events were very keenly priced there was a good spread of events to suit a range of tastes. Tickets for final day concerts -£18 combined price for two recitals, remarkable value.
How to get there: Boat is best. Some of the venues are walking distance from the ferry
. Stena Line operate twice daily sailings to Fishguard from Rosslare. (9.00am and 9pm returning at 2.30am and 2.30pm ) There are great value short hops with or without car. A return 24 hour ticket costs €42 booked online with a €5 supplement booked as a roll up at the terminal
Getting around: The festival runs a bus to some of the larger events in the festival but for a longer stay, I would recommend taking your car.
Where to Stay: There are lots of attractive options. For a high end B&;B experience try
Cefny dre .
Cefn-y-Dre Country House, who offer evening meals with a Ballymaloe trained owner.
7 October 2015 – 8pm, Kaleidoscope Night, Bello Bar, Dublin €14. www.kaleidoscopenight.com
On Wednesday I happened across the press night of a new Abbey production of Sophocles' Oedipus. Given a choice, undiluted
The afternoon concert was a satisfying three course banquet-a shared effort . The Fidelio Trio brought a stringy starter of Beethoven. There were dazzling Russian fireworks from Ukrainian pianist Alexei Grynyuk. Then onto a generous dessert of all 21 of Brahms Hungarian Dances (which were originally written for 4 hands, the comprehensive notes informed us) performed-y Finghin Collins and Cedric Tiberghien. Who doesn't like to sit down and eat a whole bag of bon bons occasionally. I don't think I've heard more than a handful of the most popular ones before.
UKIP The Musical :The rise of a British right wing party might seem an odd subject for a musical, but UKIP the Musical at Surgeon's Hall was one of the hits of the festival. Hell Bent Theatre Co lampooned a range of British politicians in a satirical musical by Cath Day. The tunes were catchy, the keyboards augmented with clarinet and the odd backing track were very effective and the largely white middle class audience lapped up the satirical portrayal of past and present political figures . Darren Benedict's portrayal of Farage reminded me of Leonard Rossitor's Reggie Perrin.
Jonny Awsum - ~ I overcame my reservations about one man shows and took a chance on Jonny in a bunker at the Gilded Balloon. With a day job as a hypeman - a warmup man for TV shows, Awsum had an appealing way about him and easily persuaded audience members to join him in what became a sequence of double acts. It was great fun.
Weill at Heart: Cabaret singer Bremner Duthie and a trio led by pianist David Patrick played the dark, decadent and lovely music of Kurt Weill. With Bremner Duthies big dramatic baritone voice, it was quite an intense experience in the basement Jazz Bar.
Queen's Hall: Iestyn Davies with Ensemble Guadagni. The acclaimed countertenor Iestyn Davies
was joined by a lively period instrument ensemble under Richard Egarr in a programme of English Baroque music mostly by Purcell at Queen's Hall. It was thrilling to hear the beauty of tone and immaculate ennunciation of Davies' otherwordly voice in the packed 19th century wedgewood blue hall. The concert was skillfully paced to maximise the capacity for varying sonorities within the instrumental ensemble. The ensemble of eight ncluded a quartet of strings with Croatian violinist Bojan Cicic, two recorders and theorbo/ baroque guitar showed their flair and agility in a suite by contemoporary, Blow. Thrilling ***** Listen to the BBC Radio live broadcast here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b065xbqtStunning
this show was the venue, a large modern theatre space with a curved glass front. Experimental flamenco is likely an aquired taste. The show with a Holocaust theme of Nazi extermination of gypsies but it would have been hard to pick that up unless you read the notes. The piece appeared to be an very self indulgent vehicle for leader, Israel Galvan who opens the procedings with a fidgety unaccompanied sequence that lasts for twenty minutes or so before he is joined by a singer and a guitar.'He likes to use objects on stage' said a foyer afficionado. Well so did Fred Astaire- remember him dancing with a hat stand?. Galvan does spend a lot of time twanging a beat up piano carcass before he moves on to get maximoun sonic value out of four metal beams. When he leaves the stage to two other female soloists he retreats downstage to play a second drum set to augment the bass drum pedal of which there is already a lot threaded throughout the score. Tedious **
EICC Conference Centre: Edinburgh's Conference Centre is conveniently located in the town centre. Simon McBurney's 
I am in Edinburgh on my first visit to Scotland drawn by the magnetic pull of the month long extravaganza of high class arts festival and sprawling fringe which sees hundreds of pop up theatre spaces all over the city. Having skimmed through the programme, a weighty tome about the size of a telephone directory, I decide to leave it to chance and set off through damp streets to get my bearings and sample the Edinburgh fringe. Just down the road from my hotel is venue 45, a church hall which seems to have a respectable queue forming. A musical?- with more than one person?- that'll do nicely Anxious to lose my festival neophyte status as quickly as possible, I buy a ticket and thus stumble on Supertown.
Supertown is a new musical by the delightfully named team of , Sidgwick and Sanders - It is bright and breezy spoof based on superhero comic genre presented by members of LIDOS, which appears to be a company drawn from Insurance industry folk based in Leeds. Supertown is peopled with superheroes, soft centred villains and ordinary people, -crawlers. One geeky guy sets out to prove that the town's favourite Superhero is not all that he seems and the moral of the story is that you don't need superpowers to be a superhero. A company of generous proportions of over a dozen sing and dance with panache. A trio of Susan Boyles and a Jamiacan Bob Sled quartet are among the hilarious cameos. It is fast paced, witty and funny. The tunes are catchy, the arrangements slick. I note later that the librettist, Sigwick plays the role of slovenly superhero, Zapper in a style that reminds me of Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall.
Tapestries: The Last Invasion Tapestry: Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, the tapestry tells the story of the last invasion by the French forces and the formidable Jemima Nicholas who captured a battalian with her pitch fork (that may be overstating slightly but you get the picture) This woman should have her own opera written about her. We don't know who stitched the Bayeux tapestry but you can watch the video and hear many of the seventy ladies involved in this marvellous community project.I was struck by the parallels with another community tapestry unveiled about the same time. The port side town New Ross is home to the Ros Tapestry.and also host of a music festival shaped by a pianist. The New Ross Piano Festival takes place on 24th-27th September under director Finghin Colllins
