The Stour Festival Choir and Orchestra was directed by Robert Hollingworth, and the performance featured the soloists Emma Walshe (soprano), Rebecca Lea (soprano), Christopher Bowen (tenor), Andrew Tortise (tenor) and Jonathan Brown (bass).

As well as The Indian Queen, the programme also included Purcell’s My Heart is Inditing and his Remember not, Lord. Robert Hollingworth had contacted me earlier in the week to see if it would be worth using a timpanist in The Indian Queen: having talked it through, we decided to go for it and we invited Nick Cowling to play. Robert subsequently asked if there was a piece we could include that would showcase the trumpet and timpani section. The only thing I could think of, which would use the orchestra (and not the choir or soloists) and showcase the trumpet and timpani was Bach’s Marcia from the appendix of cantata BWV 207a Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten ('Rise blaring sounds of lively trumpets’). Bach used this piece as an ‘occasional’ piece—almost like a musical Polyfilla, to fill any gap in a programme. So, although it was not musically liked to the all-Purcell programme, it didn’t really matter: it was suitably celebratory for a final performance in the festival, and apparently it was a hint at the theme of the festival next year. This concert has been described as a musical omelette, so I thought it would be in the spirit of things to throw in a bit of Bach! I’ve written about this piece and it’s original performances before, including the one that led to the demise of Bach’s first trumpet player Gottfried Reiche, read more here.

It was great to play in the Stour Music Festival twice this year: it is an incredible institution and the wonderful food and desserts are, quite literally, the icing on the cake.