We’ve just received the Bath Festival programme for 2014’s festival, and I looked through to see which concerts I might want to go to. But I was struck by three things: the shortness of the programme, the relative absence of performers whose names I recognised (other than local ones), and the lack of large-scale concerts. The only orchestral one is the Bath Phil, whom we can hear several times a year. There is no concert involving a choir, only the Abbey’s festival evensong, which is essentially a beefed-up version of what they do every week.
I’m not objecting to the jazz weekend, though I’m not qualified to comment on how good the line-up for it is. But the whole festival now consists of only 22 events spread over 11 days (excluding the ‘on tour’ events, but including the evensong and a screening of a Hitchcock film). I’m all for giving a platform to performers starting on their careers; I’ve been to a number of Festival concerts given by them in the past. But I have the impression that when it comes to attracting big names, the International Music Festival is in danger of being overtaken by the Mozartfest, which has built up relationships with the Nash Ensemble and other groups. Certainly the programme doesn’t read like one for one of the country’s principal music festivals. Possibly funds have run low, or is there a conscious attempt to rebrand it as a chamber music/crossover festival? Why are the Assembly Rooms, usually the hub of the Festival, only being used for two concerts? However, one attractive feature is the use of the Old Theatre Royal, now Bath’s Masonic Hall; I’ve never been inside and am intrigued.
(My open letter to the Artistic Director, written a couple of years ago, is here. I see that they have done something which I was in favour of: stopped calling the Festival the ‘MusicFest’ and got rid of the logo. Actually, this seems to have been done across the board for all Bath Festivals.)
P.S. This article, illustrated with a photo of my former colleagues in the Chandos Singers, may be relevant. Many festivals are now claiming a share of BANES’ limited arts budget, which must have considerably reduced the amount the International Music Festival receives.
P.P.S. A relevant blog post from the Guardian.