Music@Malling Festival to return next month

Music@Malling’s annual festival is set to return to Kent next month with a programme of events running from 24 to 30 September. This year’s festival will celebrate the centenary of Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti alongside focuses on works by Byrd, Beethoven and Schubert.

Performances for the 2023 festival are set to take place at St. Mary’s Church in West Malling; All Saints’ Church in Tudeley and Malling Abbey. In collaboration with the National Trust, mediaeval manor house Ightham Mote will host a performance of Ligeti’s Poéme Symphonique for 100 metronomes as well as Echo, involving five music boxes designed by Sir Anish Kapoor with music by Brian Elias. Amanda-Jane Doran, curator of Ightham Mote, will give a talk about the historical context of the performance.

The two installations will kick the festival off on 24 September, before the manor house’s great hall plays host to a celebration of composer William Byrd 400 years after his death presented by viol consort Fretwork. This will be followed by five concerts (25, 26 and 30 September) centred around works by Beethoven featuring artists including cellist Adrian Bradbury and pianists Andrew West and Daniel Grimwood as well as the Smith Quartet and Fidelio Trio.

Artistic director Thomas Kemp (pictured above) has created an exciting programme including the world premiere of Brian Elias’ Ancestral Voices, inspired by the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the UK premieres of Gavin Bryars’ String Quartet No.4 and of Deborah Pritchard’s Audivi Vocem. You can find the full programme for Music@Malling's 2023 festival here.