Street Entertainment

St. George’s Square and surrounding area, Hebden Bridge

1.00pm to 4.00pm approx

Walshaw Lodge Piano Recital

Margaret Bruce (piano)

Walshaw Lodge, Hardcastle Crags

3.30pm; recital begins promptly at 4.00pm to 6.00pm approx
£15 (£13 restricted view)

A firm Festival favourite, glorious music and a delicious tea. Margaret Bruce’s musical career has taken her to many parts of the world, appearing as a soloist with orchestras ranging from the Royal Philharmonic at London’s Barbican to the Plovdiv Symphony in Bulgaria.
Scarlatti: Two Sonatas
Clementi: Sonata in B flat, op 47 no 2
Janácek: Suite In the Mist
Tucapsky: 6 Preludes (First performance)
Liszt: Au Bord d’une Source
Chopin: Scherzo no 1 in B minor, op 20

English Premiere

The Autumn Journal of Louis MacNeice

The Godot Company

Little Theatre, Holme Street, Hebden Bridge
7.45pm to 9.45pm approx
£10 (£8)

Left to right: Louis MacNeice, Ted Hughes,
TS Eliot, WH Auden and Stephen Spender
© Mark Gerson/National Portrait Gallery

The welcome return of The Godot Company, following last year’s sell-out performance. This evening, once again devised by the indefatigable John Calder, commemorates the centenary of Louis MacNeice and has the entirety of his finest long poem Autumn Journal (1939) at its centre. It is a detailed account of the latter half of 1938; episodes in London, Barcelona and at the Oxford by-election powerfully capture the atmosphere of looming war. The evening is interwoven with news items of world events.

“WH Auden might be the greater poet, but MacNeice seems to inspire the greater affection” (The Independent)

“One of the most arresting and accessible of modern poets” (Anthony Thwaite, The Guardian)

The Hepton Singers

Heptonstall Parish Church

8.00pm to 10.00pm approx
£8 (£6); £2 for full-time students and under-16s

Alison West, who is directing the choir in this concert, will premiere her own composition Rehearsing the Languages of Birds, from the play Song, Sickle, Stone by the local poet Donald Atkinson. The concert also includes choral music by the contemporary Hungarian composer Gyorgy Orban, Czech composer Antonin Tucapsky and American composer Libby Larsen, as well as 16th and 17th century Spanish and Italian motets and madrigals.

The Tannahill Weavers

Trades Club, Holme Street, Hebden Bridge
9.00pm (band on by 10.00pm) to midnight approx
£8 (£6)

This dynamic quintet play Scottish traditional music at its best. The band’s potent mixture of traditional ballads and fiery instrumentals leaves their audiences spellbound. As tight and versatile as any band in the Celtic music scene, the Tannahills can summon rock-n-roll intensity or haunting introspection.

“…as close to perfect as it gets in an imperfect world” (Sing Out!)

“…world class musicians with passion and a healthy sense of fun, keeping alive and making accessible the very heart of the tradition itself” (Mojo Magazine)