Musical Opinion review just in for Presteigne Festival 2024

In his comprehensive Festival round up by Paul Conway wrote:

Mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones joined the orchestra’s string players for an
emotionally committed account of Richard Blackford’s Songs of Nadia Anjuman (2022), five
keenly responsive settings of poems by the Afghan poet, Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005). The
performers captured the wide range of emotional states conveyed by these thoughtful, finely
tuned treatments, from affection and confidence to despair and alarm. The soloist’s cogent,
directly communicative interpretation of the solo lines, clear, dignified and ardent, had a
powerful effect on the audience and the orchestra’s expert handling of Richard Blackford’s
varied and finely shaded string writing was equally compelling.