Frinton Festival 2024 comments

What a fantastic festival. Thank you!

The concert was amazing!  Very professional, and as good as we could find anywhere.  Thank you and your team so much for a great evening.

Hello robert- BRAVO in every way. It was so lovely to work with you.

 Thank you for a truly exhilarating and brotherhood-affirming experience on Monday. I honestly can’t think of a concert where I have felt such engagement with the audience. What a fantastic experience it must have been for them, to virtually be inside Beethoven’s 9th! I think you absolutely captured the spirit of the piece, and your ideas about audience participation were inspired. There really felt like there was no barrier between orchestra, chorus, soloists and audience. It was a celebration of togetherness. Just brilliant! Congratulations on a massive organisational and musical feat. It was really one of the absolute highlights of my musical life. Thank you so much for having me!

Thank you it was magnificent.

Frinton was amazing, loved it A LOT. Thank you

Wonderful concert, Robert

Thank you for a wonderful Frinton Festival. We were able to attend the concert at All Saints before we left for London and came back in time to attend the concert at St Mary’s on Monday. Both lifted us to the sublime.  It was a privilege to be there.

We thought the concert this year was magnificent, just brilliant. Thank you so much for bringing them all to Frinton.

What an absolutely fabulous 4 days! Incredible variety, humour, skill and complexity - and as for the finale........!!!

Thank you all so much -we have really enjoyed it.

The whole Frinton experience was amazing. Your generous hospitality was lovely, your rendering of Beethoven 9 perfectly captured its bonkersness and your fixer managed supremely well. A perfect if rather poignant day.

Each concert was fabulous, I had seen the piano trio before, so I knew they would be good.  However, Massive Violins and the Beethoven symphony exceeded all my expectations.  It was like being in the Royal Festival Hall but close up! 

What a joyous end to the 10th anniversary Frinton Music Festival! We were almost dancing home on the exuberance of the occasion - lovely! The choral contribution was glorious. Fabulous voice of the baritone…You must be feeling really happy that every concert worked so well - and is pulling in a wider audience as well as more artists - younger as well as those established. The Massive Violins were a surprise (to me) and clearly a very popular concert. Such diversity of talent, a light touch and plenty of humour - we were ‘wowed’. Delightful to hear again Mathilde Milwidsky…together with the other young musicians you have mentored. And as always The Homestead concert is a big treat to hear The Barbican Trio’s accomplished playing in such a perfect setting. It was all terrific. Many congratulations to you, all the artists and the whole team for making it possible. (And not forgetting Mr Wheeler’s delicious wines.)

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed both concerts we attended (Fri and Mon) at the Frinton Festival. A real contrast and a great triumph.

Both events were an amazing experience and it was a very successful weekend. A lot of local people came through the doors who don’t usually come.

We absolutely loved the concert. Robert conducted brilliantly, of course, and the orchestra was of the very highest standard. What a privilege to hear such fabulous music in such an intimate setting. To have the singers appearing out of the audience was such a clever move. An unforgettable evening! 

 A wonderful Festival this year. The best of them all!…I think many Frintonians are enjoying the increased cultural exposure!

I have had the best weekend of music ever. First Friday evening at All Saints then quite a different music experience on Sunday evening with the highly entertaining "Massive Violins", followed by the outstanding Beethoven 9. A truly wonderful 10th Anniversary Frinton Festival. Thanks to all of you who work so hard to bring something of this quality to Frinton.

Thank you for a wonderful concert last night. Two great pieces, of course, but magnificently directed by yourself.

That was incredible Robert. Felt very moved and privileged to be there.

Thank you so much though for all you have all ready done - it is very much appreciated. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend of the Festival…

Thank you, thank you and thank you. My favourite symphony. It cleansed my soul. Please pass on my little party of four's gratitude and appreciation to all who strove so successfully to create and perform last night and although we did not attend the other performances, the week-end of music. A few drops of much needed rain in our cultural desert.

Just want to express my absolute joy with yesterday's performance of the above…This piece of music has been a big part of our life, it was without doubt [my husband’s] go to piece. We have several versions all by different conductors, for [him] it wasn't only the music but the interpretation, I know he would have been moved by yesterday's performance, so a big thank you to everyone…Also enjoying yesterday was our son…who shares [my husband’s] love of music. Music touches people's emotions, the sound created yesterday in St Mary's was beautiful. I hope you will extend my thanks to everyone.

I hope you had a restful night after such an incredible Beethoven Performance.  Congratulations to you on your extremely well timed and executed conducting. It was an honour to see your opening show and witness the Beethoven performance, with so much talent. Thank you so much for the opportunity to sing in your show as Soprano, it will be an event not to be forgotten.

Thanks so much for giving some of [the] lads from TMVC the opportunity to sing in such a wonderful work...we thoroughly enjoyed it…! Yes...I loved singing in the evensong as choice music was so varied...thanks to Duncan! I also loved the evening of The Massive Violins too...a great weekend.

It really was a fabulous day and the Beethoven was amazing! Well done you. I’ve been trying to explain to my non-musician friends the pleasure I got from listening to the bassoons and contra play those chords together at the beginning of the Oompah band bit. It was one of the most fantastic sounds I have ever heard! It brought to mind a wonderful splodge of thick dark purple oil paint. They all think I’m a bit odd...

We all had a lovely day in Frinton… I had too much fun belting out those high As :) 

I wanted to say thank you so much for inviting me to play at the last Frinton festival, I feel very honoured! It’s an amazing achievement to have done 10 years of the festival and I know how much hard work and love goes into putting it on…It is rare to play with such wonderful, thoughtful and caring musicians on such great music. I had such a fun time on stage and I wish that every concert I play has that amount of spontaneity, joy and genuine music-making. I feel very lucky to have been part of it…

Huge thanks and many congratulations for a splendid Festival 2024!  You gave us a wonderful selection of music over the weekend and we could not have had a more spectacular finale than the performance of Beethoven’s 9th.

We are so fortunate to have this wonderful festival on our doorstep in Frinton and [we] send our thanks and warmest wishes to you and all your marvellous team who work so hard and make every event so enjoyable.

A week on and the music is still ringing in my ears! It was an absolute honour to be part of this and such a profound and spiritual experience, and I say that as a Christian. I loved your interpretation - having the soloists and singers amongst the audience…the whole event felt inspired from above! Thank you too for your cheerful encouragement of the choir - you certainly brought out the best in us! 

It is so good to read these tributes to our performance last Monday. I wanted to write to you to tell you how much it had meant to me…for me, part of the joy was in sharing the passion you communicated to us about the meaning of the words and how Beethoven himself managed to communicate the message in the way he created the music. It was certainly one of the highlights of my very amateur singing life…Thank you again for making is possible to be so immersed in B9 and everything it means.

It was a joy to play under your baton and you engaged so wonderfully with the orchestra. It was indeed an exhilarating concert. The audience clearly loved it and I even saw a couple of tears shed at the end…and what a beautiful part of the world! It was my first but definitely not my last time to Frinton.

Fabulous Frinton Festival! Again a wonderful  achievement. The highlight for me was taking part in the Beethoven 9th symphony, the pinnacle of my Choral singing career, a performance I shall remember for the rest of my life.

It was such a brilliant experience to sing together, fabulous soloists and orchestra and you were so energising, a really memorable concert.  The atmosphere and occasion was really special. Our…singers from Harwich and Dovercourt choral that took part enjoyed it so much.  A real treat for us to sing with a large chorus…we had a brilliant time,  thank you so much!

It truly was a pleasure to have sung in Beethoven with the symphony orchestra, who were superb, and I hope you enjoyed conducting the event too. You certainly brought the energy, I’m always inspired by musical conductors by their skill in making an event so special, you certainly did. I am still singing it even now.

Thank you for providing such a wonderful festival last weekend. We are so lucky to have such music here in Frinton.

Thank you so much, Robert for inviting additional singers like myself to join your performance of B9. Like most people, I was familiar with the piece, but I had never actually sung it before, so it was a great experience and treat for me. It was also the fastest version that I have ever heard! Fantastic...your enabling attitude and support also encouraged everyone to really do their best! And we did.....

It is extraordinary!  I am still meeting people who are endlessly raving about this year's Festival. The B9 concert will become a Frinton legend!

It was such a huge pleasure to play this incredible repertoire with you and the whole group! Fauré quartet is a new favourite now. What a wonderful few days. Happy memories. Thank you again for all of your care and brilliance in making it all happen!

Thank you for a wonderful festival once again this year.

We really enjoyed this year’s concerts, particularly the variety of entertainment from the Massive Violins to Beethoven!

It was delightful to bring the children to your Great Holland Church concert. Very special for us. 

We're all delighted that the Festival went so well - again!  And many thanks to you for all your hard work. Beethoven's 9th was a wonderful achievement and experience.

We were delighted by the concerts we attended. The Choral was magnificent to watch and listen to.

 It was an amazing weekend once again and I thoroughly enjoyed helping out.

We had our AGM of the Clacton Choral Society last night.  B9 was mentioned as the highlight of the year.  Members were thrilled and inspired by the event.  It had such an impact.