Festival of Chichester explores rich musical heritage of Vauxhall Gardens

Lynden Cranham has created a very special programme in celebration of the magic and the spirit of Georgian-era London’s famous Vauxhall Gardens.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and also

00:06Chairman of the Festival of Chichester. Lovely to speak to Lyndon Cranham. Now Lyndon, you are such

00:11a supporter, a regular supporter, a regular appear at the Festival of Chichester. Always

00:17interesting to know what you're going to do each year and you've got something truly special this

00:21year, haven't you? Sunday, June the 29th, 4.30pm in St John's Chapel and you are going to be

00:29offering us an excursion to Vauxhall Gardens. What was the significance and when of Vauxhall

00:35Gardens? What does it represent in musical terms? Well, it was an extraordinary flowering

00:41of music by some of the most iconic musicians in England from the 18th century. You've got

00:49Thomas Arne, you've got Handel especially, and they were extremely involved in this writing

00:58music for it, helping to run the concerts. Music was a very, very important part of the

01:07excursion to Vauxhall Gardens. And Vauxhall Gardens was a special place in itself.

01:11It was a very special place, a large area to the south, just on the banks of the Thames.

01:18You'd either go across Vauxhall Bridge and get stuck in a traffic jam in your horse and carriage,

01:25or you'd make the magical journey across the river by boat. See all the, I'm getting quite

01:31emotional thinking about it. Must have just been extraordinary. And then you'd come into the

01:37gardens, very, very large area, long walks with trees and the lights would be lit at a particular

01:46time in the evening. All the way down, they had some way of doing it. It must have seemed like magic

01:53to people. Because you could, you touched something and then the lights just went on all the way down.

02:00I mean, it must have been extraordinary. And you will be capturing the spirit of that then?

02:05Well, the beneath. And asking our imagination to do the rest?

02:07Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. There's a singer singing music, all, you know, written for the gardens.

02:15Cathedral organist Charles Harrison's playing Handel Concerto by Handel.

02:22Oh, I'm joking. And David E. Cook, the cultural historian, is going to be who knows

02:29more than everything there is to know about the gardens. He'll be talking to Roger Parker

02:35about it. And if you'd like to stay on afterwards, there's going to be wine and soft drinks. And

02:42perhaps you'd like to carry on with the conversation about Vauxhall. It's going to be lovely.

02:47It sounds fabulous. So Sunday, June the 29th, 4.30pm. It's an excursion to Vauxhall Gardens

02:55for the Consort of 12th. Lyndon, as always, lovely to speak to you.

03:00Thank you very much. We're looking forward to it. Bye-bye.

03:02Bye-bye.