| "I
felt very comfortable playing for the festival audience. They
were very warm and responsive…" |
| Vladimir
Ashkenazy |
| "…on
a personal note, it was Stromness that I tasted the malt whisky
Highland Park, and ever since I became a lover of that wonderful
stuff. (Not before a concert!)" |
|
Gyorgy Pauk |
| "…the
platform in the Phoenix was quite squashed. There was no side
or back stage, you were just in or out, and I changed in the
back of a truck. It was distracting, because you really need
to focus when you are giving a premiere. But it was all part
of the fun really!" |
|
Evelyn Glennie, percussionist |
| "In
the Phoenix, many people in the audience did not realise that
the performers were actually outside when they went off stage
and were waiting to come on again." |
|
Maureen Gray, festival organiser |
| "I
suppose there is something distinctly unusual about rural Scottish
comprehensive school kids performing for the first time substantial
works by a leading avant-garde composer." |
| 'Gavin'
(Peter Marshall) in The Two Fiddlers |
| "I
remember looking down at my hands during the slow movement and
seeing bite marks on my fingers. Such is the life of a concert
pianist." |
|
Joanna MacGregor after an encounter with an Orcadian dog! |
| "All
the teachers were telling us to do our best of course, as we
always did. Nobody even doubted us, well maybe except the teachers
a little." |
|
Edrian Skea, Songs of Sanday |
| "…it
was clear that future concerts involving the Festival Chorus
and orchestra would have to be held in the Phoenix Cinema -
even though the acoustic was described by one choir member as
'like singing into a plate glass wall!'" |
| Glenys
Hughes on the early years of the Festival Chorus |
| "…I
enjoy being close to the players. I also enjoy hearing the gossip
from the orchestral musicians - especially what they thought
of the conductors and the new compositions!" |
| Jean
Leonard, co-ordinator Orkney Traditional Music Project |
| "The
St Magnus Festival is a great institution…It broadens our
horizons, and without a doubt, is responsible for the continued
growth in interest in the arts throughout the county." |
|
Graham Garson, 'ubiquitous' festival performer |
| "In
the end I played the oboe myself at the last minute because
the original player was pregnant and went into early labour."
|
| Christina
Sargent |
| "The
festival remains the highlight of my year. Its regularity and
predictability means that one can say: 'No, I can't do anything
else that week because it's the St Magnus Festival'." |
| Julia
Robinson Dean, violinist, former director Orkney Camerata |
| "I
have heard many views about the St Magnus Festival. The most
disappointing is that the festival is out of touch with the
people of Orkney and that it is organised by a minority for
a minority. I cannot find evidence to support this view…."
|
| Hugh
Smith, head teacher, North Walls School |
| "At
beginning, the idea of doing a symphony of any kind in Kirkwall
was beyond my dreams." |
| Peter
Maxwell Davies |
| "I
am always very, very pleased if people like it (my music); I
can never quite get used to it, having taken so many brickbats.
Fewer and fewer people find the 'language' of the pieces difficult,
and if they then respond positively, it means a lot to me." |
|
Peter Maxwell Davies |
| "Coming
to Orkney certainly made a huge difference to me…I was
escaping nothing - just coming to find myself really - and to
some extent that is how it has worked." |
| Peter
Maxwell Davies |
| "My
son when he was little used to ask me, 'Mum, why are you always
going to poetry?' He thought poetry was a place, that I boarded
a train or a plane and I got off at a place called Poetry. Orkney
is that place." |
| Jackie
Kay, poet |
| "…if
we were putting on events and programmes that people could get
to in the central belt of Scotland or in London, why should
they come all the way to Orkney?" |
| Glenys
Hughes, festival director |
| "…
the thing that makes it worthwhile is finding the occasional
place that you won't forget and you want to come back to. I
think Orkney is such a place. Maybe what gives me that sense
is that I was welcomed here not just by the human population
but by the seals as well…." |
|
Vikram Seth, poet |
|
"At
the end of the day there was, I think, the kind of camaraderie
that you would expect to find in any collection of whores,
vagabonds and low-life."
|
| George
Rendall, director, The Beggar's Opera |
| "Hanging
over the battlements of the Earl's Palace to deliver fierce
Viking orations in the teeth of an Orkney summer gale requires
skills in voice projection nor normally required…."
|
| Terry
Delaney, actor |
| "Vikram
Seth loved Highland Park - he had never tasted it before, but
said he would be forever grateful to Orkney for introducing
him to it!" |
| |
| "It
was tremendous to play in St Magnus Cathedral…and I was
delighted to hear afterwards that my concert was considered
'excellent value for money' by one of the audience." |
| Tasmin
Little, violinist |
| "The
Festival Club doesn't really know what it is, it just rumbles
on…." |
|
George Rendall, festival chairman |
