'POWYS IN SUSSEX'  Friends Meeting House, Brighton, May 14, 2011 at 7.30

With readings from members of the Powys Society, the Pastores Ensemble present a programme of words and music to explore John Cowper Powys’ time in Sussex. Early Music and some new works by Robert Carrington.

Review

The celebration in words and music of “John Cowper Powys in Sussex” which took place last Saturday, May 14th in Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe was a memorable event. Attended by an attentive audience of about fifty people, it took place in the lecture room at the Friends Meeting House. The Pastores Ensemble, comprising five dedicated musicians—Domenica Lewkow, Marion Pilbeam, Jacques Ruijterman, Paul Neville and Robert Carrington—played string instruments, Bass and Tenor Viols, Lute and Cello, Mandolins and Guitar as well as the Cornemuse. After a brilliant overture composed by Robert, ‘Mr Culpeper His Praeludium’, Rob Timlin and Kieran McCann in turn read with gusto excerpts from chapters of Autobiography in which Southwick, Court House and Burpham were described. Each reading was followed by a musical interlude including among others pieces by 16th century composers such as Antony Holborne, Clement Woodcock, Christopher Tye or Elway Beven, and pieces composed by Robert Carrington mostly inspired by JCP, some performed for the first time. The readings offered the pleasure of hearing the characteristic cadences of the Powysian style, enhanced by inspiring musical compositions. One new Carrington piece which the writer of these lines liked very much was To the Ditchling Road (taken from the ‘Court House’ chapter), superbly sung by soprano Sue Mileham. Sue also sang as a homage by Robert to Alfred de Kantzow a setting of one of his poems, The Pantheist. The evening ended with the bewitching première of Robert’s ‘Mr Culpeper His Goodnight’. The guest readers and musicians were enthusiastically and rightly applauded. It is to be hoped that some at least of the new-comers to Powys in the audience will now be tempted to turn to Autobiography or another of Powys's novels. Who knows?  ~ Jacqueline Peltier