2007: SEVEN
Why Seven? ... The number of magic and mysticism is embedded in many cultures
and religions - it's also been the inspiration for a lot of great music. OCMF
2007 explored the significance and fascination of the number Seven. There
were musical representations of various ‘Sevens’, from the Seventh
Angel (appearing in Messiaen’s Quartet for the
End of Time, one of
the twentieth century’s greatest works) and the Seven
Last words of Christ (set by Haydn) to the Seven Deadly Sins, which got a look in at our ‘jam’ session on at Freud’s. There
were also performances of ‘real’ Sevens: two septets by Berwald
and Beethoven, his seventh string quartet (op 59 no. 1) Ysaye’s Seven
violin sonatas, and Bartok’s op. 7 quartet.
Each year the Festival has a composer in residence, and this year we were delighted to work with Michael Berkeley, who is well known as a presenter of programmes on Radio 3, including Private Passions. Michael introduced the concerts in the Festival, and wrote a short work – a septet – especially for Seven.