The Gower Festival has its roots in the very hot summer of 1976 when Jonathan Beecher, an Oxford cellist, brought a student orchestra to perform an astonishing series of thirty concerts in Gower churches during the last two weeks of that August. Innovative and exciting as that enterprise undoubtedly was, the very heavy burden of giving hospitality to some twenty players which it imposed upon the people of Reynoldston, where they were based, made this format impossible to continue.
The idea of holding a musical festival in Gower Churches, however, was such a good one that it led to the setting up of the Gower Festival Society the following year. Wynford Vaughan Thomas was its President and Mrs. Libby Clough its Chairman. Assured of financial support from what was then West Wales Arts, a more appropriate programme was adopted in which professional ensembles played in what became the Festival's regular slot in the last two weeks in July.
The Festival is unique in so many ways. Not only does it take the townsfolk of Swansea out of the city to enjoy listening to music in the delightful, small and simple churches of the Gower countryside, but it is also peripatetic.
While most country festivals take place in one, or possibly two venues, ours has the virtue of moving night after night from one lovely church to another, taking advantage of their charming simplicity and excellent acoustics while affording the audiences the opportunity of seeing churches they might otherwise rarely, if ever, visit.
They range from the largest church in which we play - All Saints, Oystermouth, in which the perils of the sea are so graphically recalled in Tim Lewis's classic window commemorating the tragic loss of eight members of the crew of the Mumbles life-boat in the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the crew of the Santampa in April 1947 - to St Mary's, Rhossili, where we may spend the interval chatting to friends and newcomers over a glass of wine, as we watch the sun setting in multi-coloured splendour over Carmarthen Bay.
And in the miniscule church at Llandewi we make music in what must surely be the only church in Britain which car only be reached by going through a farmyard!
From the outset it was intended that the Festival should establish and maintain the highest standards of musical performance;and it is to John Fussell MBE, Swansea's Director of Music and City Organist, who joined the committee when it was set up in 1977 and served as its vice-chairman and Festival director until his untimely death in 1990, that we are chiefly indebted for the high standards that have characterised the Festival ever since.
Dan Jones was himself our admirable President from 1987 until his death in 1993, and since then his position has been filled by John Hugh Thomas, who directs the excellent concerts of the Swansea Bach Choir.
We have had the pleasure of hearing many well-known Welsh artists, notably in 1988, the young baritone, Bryn Terfel , who gave us a memorable recital before his subsequent rise to international fame. Harpists like Susan Drake and Caryl Thomas, choirs such as the Cardiff Polyphonic; ensembles, among them the Cambrian Brass and the Swansea Sound Symphonia which played for five consecutive years during the 1980s, have all taken their place in our programmes. In more recent years we have heard very impressive performances by the National Youth Brass Band and the National Youth Choir of Wales.
Nor have we lacked for performances by Continental artists. Starting in 1984, we entertained the Da Camera Choir from Denmark and two Italian keyboard players, Pierantonio Maroni and Ennio Cominetti and, more recently the Tordale Choir from Belgium and the Mannheimer Kammerchor and Vokalisten from our twin-town of Mannheim. In 1996, the Rozmberska Ensemble came all the way from Prague to offer us a fascinating concert of fourteenth century music, which they played in costume on instruments closely modeled on those of that period. Still more recently, among so many memorable performances, has been the Belcea Quartet, who created a magical evening at Llangennith Church which, in 1999, offered the same entrancing setting for the concert by the outstanding Salomon Quartet.
In the same year, we were privileged to hear the Leopold Trio's recital at Llanrhidian. Then there were John Anderson and Gordon Back playing music for oboe and piano at Port Eynon Church, Martin Souter's harpsichord and organ recital in the tiny church that is perched on the edge of the cliffs above the sea at Oxwich and Quorum playing Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time' at Rhossili. No less impressive were Jorge Luis Prats' exciting recitals and those which have been given by a younger generation of artists like Mary Nelson, Emily Beynon and the quite remarkable cellist Liwei Qin.
Although the success which the Gower Festival has increasingly enjoyed over the past twenty-eight years has depended upon the high musical standards that we have sought to maintain, this success is also a tribute to the careful thinking, the planning and the sheer hard graft which have been contributed by all those who have been responsible for organising it. Over the years, the committee has become steadily more experienced and it is gratifying to note that the Festival has recently attracted a growing number of people whose relevant professional skills have helped to make its operation much more effective in areas such as programme-planning and publicity. It is worth particular note that, while we have striven constantly to improve the quality of the Festival, this has always been achieved without going over our budget and with a firm control being exercised over the Festival's finances.
Finally, the committee is pleased to record its indebtedness to a number to local bodies which have supported us either financially or in kind. We are grateful to the Arts Council of Wales for their annual grant, The City and County of Swansea for their support since the beginning of the Festival, and we owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the growing number of bodies and individuals who sponsor our concerts. and to our many loyal friends.
A very special contribution to the Festival has also been made by that unique organisation, the Swansea Festival Patrons Association, which helped us out of some of our financial difficulties in the early eighties and which now guarantee us against loss, a measure of support for which we are most grateful but upon which we have not had need to call.
Maurice Broady
The Gower Festival
is a member of Gwyliau Cymru, which works with the Arts Council and Wales
Tourist Board to promote festivals throughout Wales