Last year Andrew Bernardi opened the Festival of Chichester with a concert in the cathedral on the very first day.
This year – in his fourth successive Festival of Chichester concert – Andrew takes to the stage as part of the closing weekend.
This year – in his fourth successive Festival of Chichester concert – Andrew takes to the stage as part of the closing weekend.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Answer to Southern Sussex Newspapers and also
00:06Chairman of the Festival of Chichester. It's fantastic that for the fourth year running
00:11we have Andrew Bernardi at the Festival of Chichester, this time playing with Andrew
00:16Bernardi's Stradivarius Piano Trio at Great Ballard School in Eartham, final weekend of
00:22the Festival, Saturday July 20th at 6.30pm. Now Andrew, it's great that you have become
00:28a fixture, a very important fixture of our Festival and it's lovely that you want to
00:33come back and you clearly enjoy the Festival don't you?
00:36Well we love making friends and you know it was fabulously inspiring last year to open
00:43the Festival in the Cathedral with Trinity Laban, St John's College.
00:46Of course you were at the opening day weren't you?
00:48Yes, side by side, we had the third year undergrads with us and we played Hulse Planets just 20
00:57feet from where Hulse rests, that was fantastic and the very first concert we did was Stradivarius
01:03Piano Trio in I think Holy Trinity Church actually and it's a real honour to close the
01:08classical parts of the Festival this year. What is basically a fabulous country estate,
01:13I mean Eartham House is such a historic venue and Sue Jay who owns and is the custodian
01:21really, she's been such a friend. So I feel we've made new friends that are here to stay
01:27in Festival of Chichester so thanks for inviting us back.
01:29Well it's a pleasure to have you and tell me about the trio, the trio goes back 15 years
01:34or so doesn't it? What was the aim when you set it up?
01:38Well we really felt that the three of us just found we connected incredibly well like three
01:44best friends and everyone started saying musically, you've got a magic combination you three,
01:50it's special, something very special and so we started A, working together more and B,
01:56being asked to do a lot more concerts just because of that kind of fizz and magic that
02:00comes with this and Johnny and Maria are the most outstanding musicians and when I see
02:06them it's like being amongst my two best friends, you know, it's fantastic.
02:10And that magic you're talking about, it's not something you can manufacture,
02:14it's either there or it's not presumably.
02:15Yeah, it's all about trust and about trust in a concert and sharing and so we're going
02:22to be sharing the music with everyone in a very intimate way in this beautiful room
02:27at Earthen House and sharing Nightimber, our spectacular sponsors, Nightimber,
02:33we're so grateful that they support us so well and we're looking forward to sharing
02:39the world's finest sparkling wine amongst the concerts, amongst all the pieces.
02:45Fantastic, well it's lovely that you're back, Andrew, always lovely to speak to you,
02:49take care and have a great time at the festival.
02:52Thank you.
02:52Thank you for having us, thanks for having us, Phil.