THIS year’s Petersfield Musical Festival opens with a special evening of song and verse celebrating Steep poet Edward Thomas who was killed in the Great War.
The commemorative Centenary Concert, marking 100 years since the death of Thomas, is at the Festival Hall on Friday, March 17, at 7.30pm.
It will feature choral and solo settings of poems by Thomas and his many literary friends including Robert Frost and Walter de la Ware.
Vox Cantab, conducted by Jonathan Willcocks, and the Bedales Cecilia Consort will provide the music, arranged by Ivor Gurney and others. This will include a setting by Gurney of Thomas’s The Trumpet.
Since the landmarks Thomas celebrated in his writings can still be observed today – the Hangars, the Pub with No Name, the ‘Cricketers’ crossroads – there will be an accompanying exhibition of prints by the Petersfield Photographic Society.
Visitors to the Festival Hall will be able to enjoy this fantastic display for free before and during the major concerts. Buy tickets from One Tree Books in Lavant Street, or visit www.petersfieldmusicalfestival.org.uk