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Dahl and the giant music festival for young people
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent15.12.08
A MUSIC festival inspired by the children's works of Roald Dahl is being held at Kings Place - the new arts centre at King's Cross.
The five-day programme includes concerts of music commissioned by the Dahl estate alongside works written by famous composers when they were young.
The aim is to attract more young people to classical music.
Quentin Blake, Dahl's illustrator; Gerald Scarfe, the caricaturist; and actors Simon Callow and Geraldine James are among those taking part.
Singers Joan Rodgers and Roderick Williams will also feature.
A highlight will be the premiere of a comic-setting by James Brown of the grand high witch's speech from Dahl's The Witches.
There are also compositions based on The Minpins and on the Revolting Rhymes - Dahl's subversive versions of classic fairy tales. School children will perform some of the Revolting Rhymes in three free performances.
The schools taking part are Ilderton primary, Southwark; Haberdasher's Aske's Hatcham College, New Cross; and Boughton-under-Blean and Dunkirk primary from Faversham, Kent.
Several pieces of music inspired by Dahl's writings have been commissioned by the family since his death in 1990.
Felicity Dahl, his widow, said: "Roald often talked about writing something that could be set to music to bring children into the concert hall, but he never got round to doing it. He was sick and tired of Peter And The Wolf and felt children deserved something new."
Donald Sturrock, Dahl's biographer and co-organiser of the festival, said the opening of Kings Place had presented the ideal opportunity to present them together for the first time.
The centre is planning mini-festivals of music of all genres.
James, star of Jewel In The Crown and Little Britain, is to be the narrator for two events, including the gala concert on Friday. A friend of the Dahl family since schooldays, she said: "Children love Roald Dahl so much and Felicity has been brilliant in the way she has kept the stories alive by expanding them into music. Roald thought children's literature should be exciting and he thought children's music should be exciting.
"He never patronised, he never spoke down to children and this music is the same.
"It's not sweet little 'aah' music. It's naughty and supports Roald's wicked words.
"Roald's very particular in his use of language and rhyme and she has managed to find composers that don't squash that."
Born in Wales in 1916, of Norwegian parents, Dahl was one of the great children's authors.
He wrote classic books including James And The Giant Peach, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and The BFG.
The programme also includes works such as Mendelssohn's Octet, written when the composer was 16, and works Mozart produced as a teenager.
The festival opens tomorrow and runs until Saturday.
