The Festival 50 years ago
The first City of London Festival took place in 1962. The Lord Mayor of 50 years ago, Sir Frederick Hoare, introduced the first souvenir programme with truth, prescience and timeless relevance:
"Despite the fact the City of London is better known today mainly for its material efforts, in so many ways there is still a strong recognition of the things that have inspiration. This can be seen in the multitude of beautiful churches and the magnificence of St Paul's Cathedral. Within the Livery Companies there are many treasures of utmost beauty....this Festival is trying to show many things that are beautiful and inspired by the arts - music by the masters, played by the masters, the song, the play, the opera, verse, tragedy and comedy - in the setting of this our most historic capital, and perhaps by doing so release man for a while and remind him that there are other things than those entirely material."
The 2012 Festival remains true to its original spirit and reason, with well-established artists and emerging talent performing past masterpieces and repertoire of the future. The quest for beauty and the need for arts remain intertwined as we pursue the former and prove the latter. There was also vision, creativity and excellence aplenty within the programme for the very first Festival. Established great artists like Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf appeared, alongside emerging figures such as Colin Davis and John Williams. Then, as now, students from the Guildhall School were featured: in 1962 these included two of their Gold Medal winners, Benjamin Luxon and Jacqueline Du Pré!
A significant body of new work was created and premièred in the very first Festival: Richard Rodney Bennett London Pastoral; Arnold Cooke Clarinet Quintet; Peter Maxwell Davies Leopardi Fragments; Alan Rawsthorne Concertante a tre; Edmund Rubbra Te Deum (for Festival's Service of Dedication in St Paul's Cathedral); Phyllis Tate Duo Concertante; and William Walton A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table.
The Festival today
Our Golden Jubilee Festival will celebrate the founding principles of the Festival. The main theme in 2012 will be City of London - Trading Places with the World. We will celebrate 50 years of animating the City's buildings and open spaces through the arts, nurturing home-grown and international talent, and presenting world-class artists throughout the Square Mile. This will include a special, individual country focus for certain key events, building on Embassy relationships developed over the last decade, taking our audience on international journeys - and always connecting back to the City of London.
Sustainability and the environment will also be a continued theme for the Festival, with flowers of both the City and of the world added to the 2010 and 2011 themes of bees and birds. We will also explore how cultural diversity flourishes through the arts.
Highlights in the City's special buildings will include the epic Berlioz Requiem performed at St Paul's Cathedral, by LSO, London Symphony Chorus and with Berlioz expert Sir Colin Davis as conductor (25 & 26 June). The LSO and Sir Colin Davis both performed in our Festival in 1962, and we are delighted to welcome them back for this spectacular performance. Similarly, the now world-famous classical guitarist John Williams appeared in the first Festival in 1962, and will return with a special programme reflecting his home country Australia at Fishmongers' Hall (10 July).
The Festival has commissioned new work, reflecting the founding principles and traditions of the first Festival in 1962. A new piece by Tansy Davies for the wind ensemble of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will be premiered at Mansion House (28 June). We are excited to have commissioned a new work from Nigel Osborne for quadriplegic former trumpeter, Clarence Adoo and his specially designed new instrument, Headspace, which enables him to perform once again with professional musician colleagues. And Golden Fanfare - a new work for LSO Brass, commissioned from Francisco Coll by the Goldsmiths' Company for their Gold exhibition and the Festival's Golden Jubilee - will have its première at Goldsmiths' Hall (27 June).
