20 Concerts of Chamber Music Starting at 1.00Pm

THE AUGUST MUSIC FESTIVAL 2014 20 concerts of chamber music starting at 1.00pm

‘Be not afeard, the Isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not’

We celebrate Shakespeare in this his 450th anniversary year, together with another of the six greatest composers of all time, Mozart.

Friday 1st The festival opens with the soprano Zoe South, the actor Jonathan Oliver and the organist Catherine Ennis. Central to their programme is Richard Wagner’s magnificent Wesendonck Lieder, and Richard III will make his presence felt in both music and the spoken word.

Monday 4th The MELICUS DUO, soprano Marie Vassiliou, and pianist Nico de Villiers, will include the Four Shakespeare Songs, Op 31 by Erich Korngold as part of their debut recital with the Festival.

Tuesday 5th The tenor Neil Jenkins returns to our summer music together with the pianist Terence Allbright, in a performance of one of the most famous song cycles, Schumann’s Dichterliebe Op 48, which he composed in 1840 – his annus mirabilis.

Wednesday 6th This is first of three concerts in which the SILK STREET STRING QUARTET – Henry Tong and Oliver Cave, violins, Jordan Bowron, viola, and Joel Sandelson, cello, will perform one of the six Mozart string quartets dedicated to Haydn. They begin with No 16 in E flat major K428, composed in 1783.

Thursday 7th SONG IN THE CITY – soprano Holly Marie Bingham, mezzo-soprano Natalie Davies, tenor Eduard Mas Bacardit and baritone Christian Valle with Libby Burgess and Gavin Roberts sharing the keyboard present the ravishing Lieberslieder Waltzes Op 52 by Brahms.

Friday 8th The gifted young mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones, in partnership with the pianist Chad Vindin have created a veritable Shakespearian banquet of song entitled All the World’s a Stage. The electrifying scena by Joseph Horovitz, Lady Macbeth, is not be missed!

Monday 11th David Horwich, horn, Christiane Eidsten Dahk, violin and Chad Vindin, piano form TRIO SOL. Their programme will include one of Brahms’ most famous chamber works, the Horn Trio in E flat major commemorating the death of his mother, Christiane in 1865.

Tuesday 12th The pianist Walid El-Yafi makes a very welcome return to the festival in a programme which, in keeping with this year’s theme, includes Mozart’s ravishing Sonata in A minor K310.

Wednesday 13th This concert, the second festival appearance of the SILK STREET STRING QUARTET, brings another of the Mozart Haydn quartets – No 17 in B flat major K458 (The Hunt), composed in 1783.

Thursday 14th The international baritone, Stephan Loges together the pianist, Sholto Kynoch present a lieder programme which will include three Shakespearean settings by Schubert as well as Beethoven’s greatly loved, An die ferne Geliebte.

Friday 15th HEXACHORDIA – Sarah Diog, Jane and Tony Scheuregger, a trio of early music specialists offer The Food of Love, a programme inspired by the Bard of Avon – John Dowland’s lute song, Sleep Wayward Thoughts, The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin by Orlando Gibbons, and much more.

Monday 18th For her programme this year the pianist Tessa Uys has chosen to highlight Prokofiev’s Transcription Romeo and Juliet Op 75, movements 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10, premiered in 1937 by the composer.

Tuesday 19th An opportunity to hear a special instrumental twosome, the UTAH DUO, saxophonists Daniel Gooch and Hannah Peters together with the pianist (TBA). They will include an arrangement of Mozart’s Serenade No 11 in E flat, K375 in their fascinating and unusual programme.

Wednesday 20th For the SILK STREET STRING QUARTET’S last appearance in this year’s festival, they will play the final quartet which Mozart dedicated to Haydn; No 19 in C major K465 (The Dissonance), composed in 1785.

Thursday 21st Twin violinists, Iain and Mark Gibbs, are joined by the cellist Hannah Lewis for a programme to include one of Mozart’s finest chamber works, the wonderful Divertimento in E flat, K563.

Friday 22nd We are fortunate to have the international guitarist, Raymond Burley with us this year. His South American programme will conclude with one of the guitar repertoire’s most brilliant and celebrated works, the Seria Americana by the Argentinian composer, Hector Ayala (1914 – 1990).

Tuesday 26th Katie Stevenson, mezzo-soprano, Chris Ma, piano, and Hannah Lewis, cello, have created a programme to include the beautiful Viola Songs, Op 91 by Brahms. Fascinating to hear the cello instead of the more usual viola in these songs! Wednesday 27th The cellist Peteris Sokolovskis and the pianist Peter Limonov have programmed Beethoven’s Seven Variations on Mozart’s Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen, a duet from arguably the greatest opera in the repertoire Die Zauberflöte.

Thursday 28th For the festival’s final voice and piano recital we are fortunate to have the company of the soprano, Ilona Domnich and the pianist, Benjamin Frith. They will highlight the great Russian poet, Pushkin, and his love of the music of Mozart.

Friday 29th The festival closes with one of the best and most remarkable chamber works in the repertoire, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major K581. Playing us out, the clarinettist Max Mausen, the EKA String Quartet:- Jonathan Chan and Jan Bislin, violins, Luba Tunnicliffe, viola with Sergio Serra, cello.

Our steps will have a spring in them as we look forward to 2015!