Further performances of Michael Hurd’s music to mark the 20th anniversary of his death this year have been announced by The British Music Society Charitable Trust.
We began in fine style with a concert by the Trinity College Music Society conducted by senior organ scholar Augustine Cox (pictured). Hurd’s Missa Brevis for SSA & organ and Praise ye the Lord for SATB & organ featured in the programme on 14 February in the Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge.
The Trust is grateful to the sterling work by BMS member John Talbot in not only overseeing recordings of Hurd’s music, but in typesetting from manuscript his unpublished songs Carmina Amoris, Three Songs by Robert Graves and The Ride by Night. These have attracted the attention of the Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams who will include them, together with The Day’s Alarm in a programme for the concert series Music in Oddington on 9 May, 4pm at Holy Ascension Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire GL56 0XA.
In collaboration with Jeremy Huw Williams and conductor Anthony Hose, Michael Hurd gains a special status at this year’s Beaumaris Festival in a number of concerts during the week of May 18–25.
Wendy Hiscocks will accompany Rhiannon Mathias playing his Flute Sonatina in the programme ‘From 1986 – 2026’ on 22 May, as well as Jeremy Huw Williams in a recital the following day on 23 May featuring the same songs together with rarely heard Welsh folk song settings by Haydn. In the same evening, Hurd’s Shore Leave and the Sinfonia Concertante are included in a programme given by the Welsh Chamber Orchestra.
Finally on Sunday May 24, his piano works will be showcased by students from the Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias, before we conclude with Praise ye the Lord as part of the Festival Evensong at St. Mary’s & St. Nicholas’ Church led by Rev. Huw Butler with the Monteverdi Singers. During the length of the Festival, an exhibition about Michael Hurd will be open to the public thanks to text and images provided by his friend Michael Sergeant.
Adrian Partington remembered Michael Hurd’s music well and was delighted to learn that he was a Gloucestershire-born composer. The Trust was able to help him fund the purchase of 90 copies of Praise ye the Lord for inclusion in the first evensong of the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester to be broadcast by the BBC on 29 July.
In addition to this, Adrian informed us of plans to celebrate the new organ at Gloucester Cathedral with an opening weekend on 13 and 14 June with a symphony concert, organ recital, workshops and a concert involving school children. For the latter, they commissioned a new work by Lin Marsh to be accompanied by Hurd’s Swingin’ Sampson for which, after some research, we were able to source copies on loan from the Royal College of Music where the library of Ronald Corp’s The New London Children’s Choir was deposited. They intend to repeat this programme as part of the Three Choirs Festival, so Hurd (pictured above) is well represented.
The Trust welcomes future ideas for further performances of Hurd’s music in 2027.
Dr Wendy Hiscocks
Chairman, The British Music Society Charitable Trust