# Classical music festival. UK



## stephcre8ive (Jun 29, 2010)

Other than classical music I really love the countryside. Nothing like hiking with the ipod at full blast as the trees and flowers move around you.
Anyway, I recently stumbled upon a festival called Serenata which is supposed to be the first classical music festival in Britain where you can camp out and listen to various performers and orchestras, really get down with nature and the sounds of heaven - Looks wonderful and thought you might all like to know.


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## 151 (Jun 14, 2010)

Quite expensive...£125 for a student tickect? hm.


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## alexando (Jul 7, 2010)

Thank you for this information. Your personal description of it, the bond between nature and music, it was interesting. Would say nice, but feels like it's more to it. I will remember this one festival, along with your thought on it all.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

As someone who works in the classical music business, 'Serenata' appalls me. It has almost nothing to to with classical music and EVERYTHING to do with nasty, cheap crossover pap.
The festival bills itself as 'Britain's First Classical Music Festival'. Well, I don't know what the Proms people would have to say about that!
Nauseating lowest-common-denominator trash.
It's not even the first one where you can take a picnic - Glyndebourne, Opera in the Open, Proms in the Park and Kenwood Lakeside, just to name a few, have been doing it for years!


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## Toccata (Jun 13, 2009)

Delicious Manager said:


> As someone who works in the classical music business, 'Serenata' appalls me. It has almost nothing to to with classical music and EVERYTHING to do with nasty, cheap crossover pap.


Agreed. I looked at this when it was first posted and it struck me that it was probably a sales pitch by one of the event's organisers. As far as I am concerned, the contents seem to be the ultimate in trash from a classical music perspective. It's incredibly expensive too. I would never go to anything like, and I shouldn't think that it would appeal to many (if any) of the regular posters here.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

It's not a line up that even remotely interests me, but I do get the sense that marketing the Serenata Festival on particular brands (sexy female, individual, young, new talent etc) rather than composers; repertoire - is probably the only way to make something like this viable for the public.

The Proms crowd are hardly likely to be interested in paying for camp tickets. Have you been to the Proms? Most still turn up dolled up in their Sunday best and then some, sprayed with perfume until the nostrils feel under attack, turning up in their Chelsea tractors and parking anywhere they can, creating havoc for the Kensington residents. 

£125 for 3 days = around £42/day for a ticket. Who knows - does that include tent and toilet, or is it like London, where £0.20 for a use of a public toilet applies? 

Although their repertoire line up for the Serenata probably fits that "trashy" classical label best, isn't it a good thing, that it's aiming for this generation's hippies to enjoy some outdoor event with real voices; real instruments, rather than synthesisers and standard pop rock fare? 

No harm done having a festival like this. I just don't think that being snobby as a group about this kind of trashy cross-over stuff helps people's perception of classical music. After all, there are only a few dozen to choose from during the bank holiday weekend in August - most other festivals are inclusive, rather than exclusive. As long as people pay for the ticket that is..


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## Toccata (Jun 13, 2009)

Head_case said:


> No harm done having a festival like this. I just don't think that being snobby as a group about this kind of trashy cross-over stuff helps people's perception of classical music. After all, there are only a few dozen to choose from during the bank holiday weekend in August - most other festivals are inclusive, rather than exclusive. As long as people pay for the ticket that is..


Let's do a quick comparison of what's available at both the Serenata event and the Proms on the relevant dates, 26-28 August:

 Serenata

No information that I can see on the actual music that will be performed, but here's a line-up of the artists:

Emma Johnson
Faryl Smith
Blake
Geoff Sewell
Ruth Palmer
Katherine Jenkins
Benamin Grosvenor
Russell Watson

"Timothy Redmond" (who?) conducts a 48 piece orchestra (which?) including some of the world's greatest musicians (who?)

Now for the Proms. These are the main items only.

Barber - VC
Sibelius - S2
Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No 1
Bruckner - S4
Schumann - Liederkreis
Schumann - Piano Quartet, Op 47
Berg - VC
Beethoven - S9
Dvorak - Carnival Overture 
Dvorak - S8
Martinu - S6
Grieg - PC
Janacek - The Ballad of Blaník

Featuring the likes of : BBC symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, Czech Philhamonic Orchestra.

As far as I can see, it's a no-brainer. Serenata wins by a mile! LOL


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Head_case said:


> No harm done having a festival like this. I just don't think that being snobby as a group about this kind of trashy cross-over stuff helps people's perception of classical music. After all, there are only a few dozen to choose from during the bank holiday weekend in August - most other festivals are inclusive, rather than exclusive. As long as people pay for the ticket that is..


This sort of 'classical music' festival does a LOT of harm because it perpetuates the marketeers-driven myth that this sort of musical pap IS classical music when it's not. If trying to maintain standards and teach people that not everything that cynical marketeting departments tell people is classical music is actually true, then yes, I am a snob.


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## Toccata (Jun 13, 2009)

Delicious Manager said:


> This sort of 'classical music' festival does a LOT of harm because it perpetuates the marketeers-driven myth that this sort of musical pap IS classical music when it's not. If trying to maintain standards and teach people that not everything that cynical marketeting departments tell people is classical music is actually true, then yes, I am a snob.


Quite right. Fortunately, this semi-classical, cross-over "music" hasn't attracted much, if any, interest on this Board. I too would like to be known as a "snob" if that is the price to pay for saying that I dislike that kind of stuff and that it doesn't bear comparison with classical music proper.


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