So here’s the story. I drop off my dog with Joe, one of a team of friends who look after said dog when I’m on the road. Joe is a fascinating man – a Canadian Attenborough figure who makes films about cheetahs. We have a quick coffee, during which Joe mentions his South African colleague Grant, composer of soaring orchestral scores that reflect the majesty of said cheetahs. You guys should have a coffee, Joe says, you’d get along. Grant is in town to hear his new songcycle for baritone and double bass at Wigmore Hall. Scroll through more coffees a few days later, a couple of swift emails to Roddy Williams and Leon Bosch and – cue drum roll – Grant McLachlan’s The Silence of the Day will now appear as the centrepiece of Roddy’s Saturday night recital.

If an English Song Weekend is not to become stale and repetitive, we need to be open to outside inspiration. And to happenstance. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be typing in the title of a Les Mis number, I’d have laughed a scornful laugh. Blame that James Newby. A much grander coffee at the Oxford and Cambridge Club led to Jeremy Dibble persuading me that the Stanford Centenary just had to be celebrated. Meanwhile I was looking through scores of a composer I’d never heard of, posted to me by a gentleman who’d come across them thirty years ago in a second hand shop in Leicester. Jessy Reason lived a seemingly conventional married life in Tonbridge between the wars, bursting into creativity under the influence of Eugene Goossens. James will sing three of her ambitious settings of Rabindranath Tagore.

So far, so random. Other inspirations were more direct. John Bridcut has long been a friend to the Weekend. When I saw his magnificent TV portrait of Michael Tippett I vowed not only to screen it in Ludlow but to invite John to talk. Tippett, Parry, Janet Baker, Winterreise – where will Katy’s conversation lead him? We will hear Tippett’s two major contributions to the song repertoire: Boyhood’s End and The Heart’s Assurance. I love both; but as both boast piano parts best described as knucklecrunchers, I’m delighted to hand them over to the expert knuckles of my younger colleague Ian Tindale. Ian has programmed two of the Weekend’s recitals, incorporating both Christopher Churcher’s exciting new commission Skysongs and a selection of Derri Joseph Lewis’s 9 Songs for Barts. These two recitals introduce some faces and voices new to Ludlow: Harriet, Olivia, Andrew and Jerome all ooze talent. They are a llmost welcome.

Elgan Lŷr Thomas returns, restoring an ever welcome Welsh element to the Weekend. Other first timers are the irrepressible Jess Walker, guiding us through British travesti traditions on Friday night, and James Newby. I’ve been trying to lure James to Shropshire for what seems an eternity, only to be told in an annual phone call to his agent, sorry, he’s too busy. Finally, mission accomplished. By a neat symmetry James’s teacher Robert Dean will drive over from his beautiful house in Herefordshire on Sunday morning, ready to impart wisdom to the young in our Masterclass. And talking of annual phone calls,

I’m delighted that Roddy Williams will once more grace us with his unique presence, on Saturday night. Now that he’s accustomed to global exposure, what with singing for coronations, you couldn’t blame Roddy for moving on from his earlier fanbase. It is a thing of wonder that he comes back, and we are all grateful to him.

From Stanford to Les Mis, from Finzi to Churcher, we have a feast to offer -compact and, we hope, intense. As annoying waiters now say as they serve your dinner, please enjoy.

Have a great Weekend.

Iain Burnside