Brinkburn Festival

I really ought to love the Brinkburn Music Festival.

Brinkburn Priory is set on the banks of the River Coquet, in the midst of beautiful Northumberland countryside and is a place of intense peace and tranquillity.The priory church is the only complete surviving building of a monastery founded as a house for Augustinian canons in the twelfth century. Its original dedication was to St Peter, later modified to include St Paul. The house was never a large one and by the fourteenth century numbered only some twelve canons. In 1536 the monastery was dissolved and its buildings fell into ruin. Careful restoration work in the nineteenth century, instigated by Brinkburn's then owner Cadogan Hodgson Cadogan, restored the church building. Unlike some 'restorations' of the Victorian period the work at Brinkburn was carried out in a sensitive and restrained manner.

One of the many remarkable qualities of the building is its wonderful acoustic. This was noted by Paul McCreesh, Director of the Gabrieli Consort. He has used the priory for recording some of his liturgical reconstructions and in 1993 he founded the Brinkburn Music Festival which has brought musicians of international standing to Brinkburn. My own Schola Gregoriana of Northumbria sang at the first of those festivals in a concert with the Orlando Consort. Since 1995 Brinkburn has also been used for an annual Latin Mass celebrated using the Missal of Blessed John XXIII and the Schola has led the music at every one of those Masses.

This year the Gabrieli Consort presented a concert of music written in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There was a surprising preponderance of modern music (more than half the pieces were written in the twentieth century) and no Gregorian Chant. I enjoyed Mouton's "Nesciens mater" and Josquin's "Ave Maria ... virgo serena" but I thought Palestrina poorly represented by his rather ordinary "Stabat mater". Of the modern music I was thrilled to hear Pablo Casals's "O vos omnes" a brilliant and moving piece.

At the end of the official programme Paul McCreesh announced that the Gabrieli Consort were to be joined by the Tees Valley Youth Choir for further two pieces. These, and an unexpected interval, extended the concert by 45 minutes beyond its promised finish time. The performance of Britten's "Hymn to the Virgin", with a small group singing the refrains from the back of the Priory was something special.

The Gabrieli Consort is an outstanding choir who showed eclectic virtuosity in music ranging over more than five centuries. Ensemble was occasionally a little shaky (a lack of rehearsal perhaps?). The ladies showed the fault of a lot of similar groups, singing with a rather sharp and harsh sound - a little more roundness of tone would be very welcome. And I am afraid I don't like Paul McCreesh's practice of having his choir singing a sustained final 'n' (Amen-n-n-n-n) - to me it sounds affected.

The organisation of the Festival gets better year by year. In addition to the marquee offering drinks and meals this year there was also a picnic service. Even the dreaded 'arrangements' were better this year - at least for the gentlemen.

But there is something about this Festival that always leaves me unsatisfied. Maybe it is the seating that is crammed into the Priory to the point of discomfort. Maybe it is the 'country show' atmosphere - except with McCreesh CDs rather than dressed sticks on sale. Maybe it is the 'school concert' organisation, with sudden additions to the programme and frequent self-congratulatory speeches. Maybe it is that I have come to associate Brinkburn with the performance of great church music within the liturgical context for which it was written.

I really ought to love the Brinkburn Music Festival. But I struggle with it...