Archive News

Martin Dreyer
of the
York Press
reviews the
30th Anniversary Concert

Martin Dreyer of the
York Press reviews the
'three concerts in one' at
Castle Howard

Eduardo Niebla
talks to Chris Bond.
of the Yorkahire Post.

The Orchestra of Opera North
at St. Peter's Church, Norton
on Thursday 21st July

Celebration concerts help mark Ryedale Festival anniversary

on how Ryedale’s 30th anniversary features a packed programme of live music

Yorkshire an unlikely flamenco inspiration.
Article in the Yorkshire Post, Friday 17th June.

'Animal Kingdom'

We are happy to announce the programme for the 2011 Ryedale Festival and give details here of booking dates for members and friends of the Festival as well as the date for general release.

We welcome Robin Andrews, already a popular and much-valued Board member, as our new Chairman.

throughout the Festival

Calling all friends - We have a new Accommodation Co-ordinator who is updating the list of those people kind enough to put up artists during the Festival.

July 17th to Sunday August 2nd

Dear Friends, Patrons and supporters of the Festival, I hope very much that you enjoyed this year's programme. As you already know, we had record attendance figures this year, which shows just how valuable you all think live music to be. It also shows what a trusting audience you are; in a recession year, it is very tempting to 'dumb down' the programme in a very safe way, but we consciously planned to give you music that you would not be able to hear elsewhere.  By presenting Kodály's wonderful Háry János as our Festival Opera production, we did something that no other Festival in the world was doing, and you seemed to enjoy it!

Justin Doyle has held the position of Artistic Director for four years during which time the Festival has grown annually, changing its emphasis, continually adding innovative events, finding the very best of young artists and still keeping within budget.

Thursday 20th September

Háry János at the Riding School, Hovingham Hall, North Yorkshire, July 17th 2009.

Kodály's Háry János is a popular orchestral piece, but the opera from which he took the six-movement suite has never established itself outside Hungary, and it was characteristically bold of the Ryedale Festival to choose it for its annual opera, staged in the round.  The festival, whose fortnight of concerts, lectures and music-theatre events draws local inhabitants and visitors in large numbers to its North Yorkshire churches, art centres, village halls and stately homes, had a Hungarian theme this year, with a focus on Haydn and the Hungarian and gypsy influences on his music.

Friday July 17th to Sunday August 2nd

"The best festival yet, with great varied content!"  This was the comment heard over and over again at the Final Gala Concert.   Seat sales for the Ryedale Festival soared to over a total of 7,000 over its 16-day run.

Dave Robson - Darlington and Stockton Times - Friday 7th August 2009

THE celebrity concert by the Gould Piano Trio began with a fine performance of Haydn’s Piano Trio in G H XV 25, notable for the exquisite, even-paced flow of the central adagio and the sparkle of the final Hungarian rondo. The 20th century provenance (1997) of James Macmillan’s Fourteen Little Pictures may have seemed a daunting prospect as a follow-up to the Haydn piece of 200 years earlier.

Dave Robson - Darlington and Stockton Times -Friday 7th August 2009

THE triple concert at Castle Howard saw the audience moving from the long gallery to the chapel and the great hall during the course of the evening.

A violin and piano recital by and Alexsander Szram provided an excellent opening. Bartok’s 1st Rhapsody was sharply pointed and Adam Gorb’s Kletzmer for solo violin was both virtuoso and vertiginous in its execution. Mozart’s Violin Sonata in E minor, K 304 provided a fresh and engaging contrast.

Dave Robson - Darlington and Stockton Times -Friday 7th August 2009

THE priory church in Old Malton proved a fine venue for the Northern Sinfonia Wind Ensemble’s presentation of wind quintets and octets that offered some real festival programming.

A blend of the old and new, it introduced the audience to works of the 20th century by Dove, Ligeti, Barber and Farkas before finishing the evening with Mozart in the shape of the Serenade no 11 in E flat, K 375, a work fully in tune with a summer festival, despite the rather damp and grey weather outside.

Dave Robson - Darlington and Stockton Times -Friday 7th August 2009

CLARE McCaldin and Paul Turner’s morning coffee concert in the elegant saloon of Duncombe Park turned out to be a diverting, varied and well-attended exploration of song dedications.

Robert Schumann’s passionate song of dedication to his wife Clara, Widmung, was paired with Clara’s own, more restrained, gentler, Liebst du um Schönheit. Both are to settings of poems by Rückert.

Gazette & Herald - Wednesday 5th August, By Jennifer Coles

A ROYAL visitor popped into a village hall in Ryedale to listen to some talented young musicians.

The Duchess of Kent attended the Ryedale Festival tea party at Kirkby Misperton Village Hall last Wednesday, where youngsters from Future Talent Champions played a special concert to a crowd of 100 people.
Future Talent Champions is a national charity dedicated to finding, funding and nurturing exceptionally talented young musicians....The Duchess of Kent is one of the trustees.

Photograph of 'Zimbe!' - Justin Doyle conducts the Dorking Choral Society at Joan of Arc Hall, Botton Village in the 2009 Ryedale Festival.

YORKSHIRE POST - 24th July, 2009 - by David Denton

Probably with little more than the champagne budget at London's Royal Opera House, Ryedale Festival Opera have put together a wonderfully entertaining production of Kodály 's comedy, Háry János, an opera rarely staged outside of Hungary, but here an utter triumph for Ryedale.

Ken Overton, Ryedale Festival Chairman.

It has been a magical and happy Ryedale Festival 2008. We explored all the four elements in music, song and poetry but all the time the weather was good to us..

We had the magnificence of York Minster with the BBC Singers and Guy Johnston playing cello through to our technical team performing as music students along with Kirkbymoorside Junior Brass Band at St Mary’s Church, Farndale.  They all responded to the encouragement given them by the Festival.

‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ review – David Cairns

OPERA – The world’s leading opera magazine reviews The Ryedale Festival Opera – Orfeo ed Euridice in its October edition

Ryedale Festival at the Hovingham Hall Riding School, July 19.

Thanks to John Warrack’s wise guidance and the skill and energy of its young music director, Justin Doyle, the annual Ryedale Festival is an event that draws music lovers from well beyond the moors and dales of North Yorkshire to its two weeks of opera, concerts, theatre, lectures and community drama.  This year the opera was Gluck’s Orfeo. . . .the briefer, tauter original (version) with which Gluck inaugurated the reform of opera in 1762. . . and Doyle and his slimmed-down forces made a riveting drama of it in the close quarters of the Hovingham Hall Riding School. . .

Gazette & Herald Wednesday 11th July

International star Mark Padmore will have a special Ryedale resident in the audience when he performs in the area – his proud dad!

This was to be an unusual evening and could perhaps be viewed with some misgivings. Could three concerts be held simultaneously at three venues within Castle Howard and synchronised to repeat three times, so that all could be visited?