PETER MEDHURST is well-known in the world of the arts as a singer, pianist, scholar and lecturer, who in addition to his appearances on the concert platform and in the lecture hall, sets aside time to devise and lead tours abroad for small groups of art and music connoisseurs. His particular interests are centred on the music, art and history of Vienna, Salzburg (with its strong Mozart link), Berlin, Halle (Handel’s birthplace), Dresden, Venice, Madrid and Delft (with its Vermeer and 17th century Dutch School connections). He did his training at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg as well as privately in London. TOURS EXPLORING MUSIC AND THE ARTS THOMAS ABBOTT graduated in Psychology and Art History at Carleton College, Minnesota, and studied at the Louvre School JS Bach of Art History in Paris. 1987 he moved to Berlin leading tours in Germany, specialising, in Weimar & Leipzig of course, in the German capital. While in Berlin, Thomas commenced and completed with Peter Medhurst & Thomas Abbott his graduate studies in the history of art and architecture, specialising in the art of the 7 days from £2,769 • Departing 29 March 2019 Italian and German Baroque. FEATURES • Tour limited to 24 passengers • Lectures by Peter Medhurst on Days 2, 4, 5 & 6 • Thomas Abbott - professional tour manager & art historian • 4 private organ recitals • All excursions, entrance fees, guided tours & gratuities for hotel & restaurant staff included • 4* & 5* hotels in Weimar & Leipzig • Lunch included every day • Three dinners included • Direct scheduled flights from London Gatwick to Berlin • Executive coach in Germany • Audio headsets included on Days 2 to 6 WHAT WE WILL SEE • Guided walking tour of Weimar & the Herder Church • Private tour of Weimar Palace • Franz Liszt’s House • Arnstadt • Eisenach & the Bach Museum • Wartburg Castle restaurant • Mühlhausen & St Blasius (Bach’s church) • Heinrich Schütz Museum, Weissenfels • St Wenzel’s Church, Naumburg - guided tour & organ recital • Naumburg Cathedral - guided tour • Köthen Palace • Wörlitz Palace & Gardens • Grassi Museum • Leipzig • Bach Museum in Thomaskirchhof • St Thomas’s Church • Mendelssohn House & the Robert Schumann apartments • Halle museum & musical instrument collection • Halle Cathedral ACCOMMODATION Three nights at the 4* Grand Hotel Russischer Hof in Weimar (www.russischerhof.com), wonderfully located in the heart of historical Weimar, and another three nights at the 5* Steigenberger Grand Hotel in Leipzig (www.steigenberger.com), just a moment’s walk from St Nicholas’ Church. Facilities at both Bach's statue outside St Thomas' Church, Leipzig Bach's statue outside St Thomas' Church, hotels include a restaurant and bar and all rooms are en suite and feature a television and a mini bar. FOR FURTHER ITINERARY INFORMATION CONTACT: Tailored Travel EXTRAS TO YOUR TOUR • Insurance £44 Tel: 020 7064 4970 • Single room supplement £299 • Local accommodation tax to be paid directly to the Email: [email protected] Any air holidays and flights in this hotel (approximately €3.50 per person per night) Further Information relating to the tour can be found online at brochure are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Tailored Flight details may be subject to change. Price based on twin share. http://petermedhurst.com/tours Travel’s ATOL number is 5605 Minimum numbers required. Normal booking conditions apply. JS Bach in Weimar & Leipzig Tour to Weimar, Köthen, Eisenach, Mühlhausen & Leipzig with Peter Medhurst & Thomas Abbott 7 days from £2,769 • Departing 29 March 2019 Day 1 Day 4 We make our own way to London Gatwick Airport Today we leave Weimar for Leipzig and, subject to for our direct scheduled Easyjet flight to Berlin. opening, we plan to visit the Heinrich Schütz Speedy Boarding has been arranged in order to Museum in Weissenfels (Schütz is regarded as the streamline the journey for everyone. On arrival at most important German composer before Bach). Berlin Schönefeld Airport, we are met by Peter We then make our way to Naumburg. Following a Medhurst, our music lecturer, and Thomas Abbott, guided tour of St Wenzel’s Church in Naumburg, the our art historian, and transfer by coach to Weimar. resident organist will give a recital on the 52 stop En route, we enjoy the first of our lunches together organ built by Zacharias Hildebrand in 1746. Bach and then continue on to check in to the Grand Hotel helped to design the instrument. After an included Russischer Hof, a superb 4* hotel which opened its light lunch, we continue on foot to Naumburg doors for the first time in 1805. The hotel is next to Cathedral for a guided tour of this renowned the theatre of Weimar and is situated in the historical landmark of the German late Romanesque. We then centre of Weimar. We stay here for three nights. In continue on to Leipzig and check in for a three night the evening we have a private drinks reception stay at the 5* Steigenberger Grand Hotel, which is followed by dinner at the hotel with wine included. just a moment’s walk from St Nicholas’ Church Bach's statue outside St Thomas' where Bach gave the premiere of his St John Church, Leipzig Day 2 Passion. After checking in to the hotel there will be It was at the Weimar Court that JS Bach spent the some free time to do a little exploring of the city. (subject to opening). Schumann – along with Liszt first third of his career (1708-18) and our lecture Before our included dinner this evening, we re- – was a founder of the Bach-Gesellschaft in 1850, this morning introduces the events of this important convene for a lecture on Bach and his Leipzig period who furthered his fascination for Bach by part of Bach’s life. Afterwards, we go on a guided (1723-50). performing and making arrangements of Bach’s walking tour of Weimar, during which we visit the music. In the evening we enjoy a farewell dinner at Herder Church – where Peter will play the organ – Day 5 the hotel. and then take a private tour of Weimar Palace, After a morning lecture on Bach’s Brandenburg visiting its state rooms and art collection. A light Concertos, we travel by coach to Köthen and visit Day 7 lunch is included and followed in the afternoon with the Palace where Bach spent the middle period of After checking out of the Steigenberger Grand Hotel, a visit to Franz Liszt’s House in Marienstraße. The his working life (1716-23) and where he wrote the we travel back to Berlin for our flight home. En route pianist-composer Liszt was a Bach enthusiast and concertos that we studied this morning. We then we will travel to Halle to visit the museum and not only performed Bach’s keyboard pieces in his travel to Wörlitz and after an included lunch, we visit musical instrument collection dedicated to the life concerts, but made numerous transcriptions of the famous palace and gardens. Wörlitz Palace, of Handel – JS Bach’s exact contemporary. We then Bach’s music for the piano. This evening is at finished in 1773, was the residence of Duke Leopold make our way to Halle Cathedral where GF Handel – leisure. and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt, and and Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – was the first Neoclassical building in present-day played the organ, and where Peter will give the last Day 3 Germany. We return to Leipzig, but with time of his organ recitals. We also enjoy a final included Prior to his musical appointment at the Weimar permitting, we visit the Grassi Museum containing lunch together, after which we continue to Court, Bach spent his formative years in Eisenach, an excellent musical instrument collection. The Schönefeld Airport in good time for our early and held organist posts at nearby Mühlhausen and evening is at leisure. evening flight back to London Gatwick. Arnstadt. These places are on our agenda today. So, after breakfast we make our way to Arnstadt for a All the while you are reading this brochure, two brief visit to the church after which we travel by Nasa Voyager probes are whizzing through coach to Eisenach (where Bach was born in 1685) space and are at this moment way beyond the to visit the Bach Museum. There will be plenty of boundaries of our solar system. They have time to explore and enjoy this magnificent testament been on the go since 1977. To represent man’s to Bach’s life. We follow this with lunch at the achievements in the field of music, the probes Wartburg Castle restaurant at the Romantik Hotel. contain recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s In the afternoon we make our way by coach to Mass in B Minor, one of his violin partitas, and Mühlhausen for a walk around the old town and a the first prelude and fugue from his famous visit to St Blasius (Bach’s church) where Peter will play the organ. On our return to Weimar the evening ‘48’. The biologist who suggested that Bach be will be at leisure. Organ console in Mühlhausen Church a musical ambassador to alien life said that to have included the complete works of the Day 6 composer "would just be boasting." This morning’s lecture examines some of the Our tour to Weimar and Leipzig celebrates the highlights of Bach’s church cantatas. The rest of the life and achievements of this greatest of day is spent in Leipzig. We start with a visit to the Baroque composers. It does so by visiting the Bach Museum in Thomaskirchhof and take a tour of places and localities where Bach lived and the adjacent St Thomas’s Church where Bach spent worked, by exploring his music, and by the last 27 years of his life as director of the choir.