The Red Violin Festival 2007, Cardiff 1-9 October: A preview from Bill Kenny (BK)

NB. Limited free tickets for the opening are available.

Big Ffidil -  Picture © Rosie Jones

Ten years ago Madeleine Mitchell started the Red Violin  festival in Cardiff, the first eclectic celebration of the fiddle across the arts, inspired by Le Violon Rouge paintings  by Dufy and Pougny.  The first festival was a great success over 10 days -  some  highlights included Ms Mitchell  playing impromptu violin duos with the legendary Ivry  Gitlis at a primary school and Madeleine's interview with Lord Menuhin  for the BBC documentary  on the festival hosted by George Melly. This second festival should be even better.

Red Violin is about enjoyment with free exhibitions and foyer concerts every day, violin stars from all manner of different backgrounds, lots of home grown  talent as well as Red Violin paintings created by  Cardiff school children. It  aims at providing a very inclusive and accessible  festival of the highest quality.

Cardiff in early October is the  perfect place for an international festival,  and St David’s Hall and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have again provided the springboard for planning the programme. The big new thing since 1997 is the development of the  Wales Millennium Centre and the Welsh  Assembly in Cardiff Bay both of which are strongly featured as well as  the city's  bijou Norwegian Church.

Two very different giants of early twentieth century violin music are highlighted this time -  Stravinsky and Elgar. The violin is essentially a singing instrument and in Welsh to play the  violin is can’ur ffidil (to ‘sing the violin’) so this year's schools' project  is called ‘The Violin sings.'  Students  from the Royal College of Music, London (where Madeleine Mitchell is a professor) will team up with others from the  Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama  and  the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and  Drama.

A full programme of concerts, exhibitions and impromptu musical events takes place at various venues in Cardiff,  all of them celebrating violin and fiddle playing in all conceivable genres. Guest artists include Rachel Podger, Madeleine Mitchell herself, jazz violinist Billy Thompson, the Arcata Ensemble and the Live Music Now Virtuoso Violin Duo. There are many other guests too including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and folk fiddlers Eliza Carthy and Chris Stout. The entire programme is available at www.redviolin.co.uk. Limited free tickets are available for the opening and can be obtained by e -mailing  info@redviolin.co.uk

During the Festival the Wales Millennium Centre will play host to the Big Ffidil. Big Ffidil measures about 15' in length, is painted red and looks just like a violin but without the top so you can see inside. Children and others can step over the sides of the open violin on the floor and make sounds and activate tunes by touching the fingerboard.

Big Ffidil was programmed by Stuart Jones  and built by StageTec, Cardiff. The 4 strings are wired with sensors underneath and linked through a computer with a sampler of violin sounds (donated by the Philharmonia Orchestra)  to a sound system. When people  put their hands on the string it will sound the actual note that the violin would play. No knowledge of how to play a violin is required and no bow, so everyone can discover  the sounds produced by different strings  at different positions on the fingerboard. More than one child can experiment at the same time so some very interesting musical sounds will be produced. 

Big Ffidil will be installed in the main foyer of Wales Millennium Centre for the duration of the Red Violin festival and then dismantled for further potential use.  Big Ffidil will be officially unveiled for the public by Red Violin Patron Lord Elis-Thomas at 5.30 on Monday 1st October with a short demonstration. The title pays bi-lingual tribute to both Welsh and English (like the Artistic Director herself who is half Welsh but lives in England) as well as the spirit of enjoyment built into in the Red Violin festival. 

Bill Kenny

For more information email info@redviolin.co.uk

Full programme details from www.redviolin.co.uk