Gregynog Festival, Wales’s oldest classical music festival, returns in June with its traditional combination of beautiful summer events in idyllic Mid Wales locations. The season celebrates the vision of the Davies family – Gwendoline and Margaret Davies and their brother David, 1st Baron Davies - for a better world rooted in culture and peace following the First World War.
Erbarme dich, an all-Bach programme of arias for tenor, flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord, will be performed by the multi-award-winning Flemish tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and his Baroque ensemble A Nocte Temporis. Their Gregynog Festival recital marks their début appearance in Wales.
Reinoud Van Mechelen graduated from the Brussels Royal Conservatoire in 2012 and was awarded the prestigious Caecilia Prize for Young Musician of the Year by the Belgian music press in 2017. After working for several years as a soloist with conductors including William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Hervé Niquet and Christophe Rousset, he founded his own ensemble A Nocte Temporis in 2016.
A Nocte Temporis means ‘from time immemorial’: a nod toward the past, to what is changing, and especially toward what remains unchanged. The aim is to present historically-informed performances that touch the emotions of as wide an audience as possible. The ensemble’s two CDs, Erbarme dich: Arias of JS Bach for tenor and flute (2016) and Clérambault: Cantates françaises (2018), have been released to unanimous critical acclaim, and gained awards including two Chocs from Classica magazine (‘A Bach recording blessed by the Gods’), five Diapasons, a Diapason d’Or, and a Caecilia Prize as one of the ten best recordings of 2016.
After touring its Bach programme to Warsaw, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Pavia, A Nocte Temporis has been invited to perform at prestigious venues including the Festival Radio France (Montpellier), MA Festival (Brugge), Bozar (Brussels), Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles and Wigmore Hall.
The 2019 Gregynog Festival season also includes concerts by the chamber-folk group VRi (22 and 23 June), the Odysseus Piano Trio (28 June) and the organist Meirion Wynn Jones (30 June), plus community outreach performances, talks and exhibitions across Mid Wales.