In a year that sees the Coriole Music Festival celebrate its silver jubilee and mark the final year of Simon Cobcroft’s term as Artistic Director, the event’s programming and the excellence of performances reached new heights.

Coriole Music Festival 2025: Simon Cobcroft. Photo © Jamois

The festival was divided into three generous and thoughtfully constructed programs. The first, on Saturday morning – Myths and Fairytales – brought together two Ravel works: the rarely heard Chansons Madécasses and Gaspard de la Nuit.

Chansons Madécasses is a setting of three exotic texts by the poet Évariste de Parny, and mezzo-soprano Victoria Lambourn proved a highly evocative interpreter. She received balanced and atmospheric support from flautist Joshua Batty, Cobcroft on ideally weighted cello, and pianist Mei Yi Foo, whose playing was both sensitive and controlled.

Cobcroft is known for gathering the most appropriate colleagues to accompany him on his musical quests, and Mei Yi Foo proved to be a superb interpreter of the virtuosic, impressionistic sound worlds of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit....