Mozart along the Danube, 28 July–4 August 2024

CELEBRATING MUSIC AND PLACE

28 JULY–4 AUGUST 2024

A musical voyage through Habsburg heartland via Europe’s most sublime waterway

SALZBURG STRING QUARTET FESTIVAL

7–12 MAY 2024

MOZART ALONG THE DANUBE

28 JULY–4 AUGUST 2024

THE DIVINE OFFICE

30 SEPTEMBER–4 OCTOBER 2024

OPERA IN SICILY

18–24 OCTOBER 2024

UK SHORT CHAMBER MUSIC BREAKS:

Consone Quartet | 3–5 November 2023

Mandelring Quartet | 8–10 March 2024

William Howard & the Carducci Quartet 19–21 April 2024

Photograph ©Ben Ealovega

MARTIN RANDALL

4.

INTRODUCING THE FESTIVAL: MOZART ALONG THE DANUBE

6. THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

The day-by-day itinerary including details of the concerts.

Published: August 2023

12. DISCOVER THE PLACE

One of the loveliest lengths of riparian scenery anywhere in the world.

14. MEET THE MUSICIANS

International musicians of the highest calibre.

18. ACCOMMODATION & PRICES

Stay either on board our ship, MS Amadeus Riva, or on land as part of the walking party.

20. TRAVEL OPTIONS

A range of ways to travel to and from the festival.

22. BOOKING

Details of how to book, along with the booking form and our conditions.

MOZART ALONG THE DANUBE

AN INTRODUCTION

Eight private concerts in appropriate historic buildings, world-class artists, illuminating talks, a daily diet of beautiful landscape and picturesque streets, the comfort and convenience of a first-class river cruiser: this iteration of Music Along the Danube follows the winning formula that we first launched in 1994 – with, for the first time, a programme which is mainly Mozart.

MUSIC AND PLACE

The key feature is the combination of music and place. Concerts take place in buildings that are among the most beautiful in the Danube valley – palaces, monasteries, country houses and a historic theatre – and all date to the 18th century. Mozart would have known many of them and probably performed in some.

EXCLUSIVE CONCERTS

The performances are private, being exclusive to the participants who take the festival package (see details opposite).

The small size of the audience and venues leads to an intimacy that engenders a rare intensity of musical communication. Musicians love playing for this festival. Not only are the venues an inspiring change from conventional concert halls, but the audiences are attentive and appreciative.

TRAVELLING IN COMFORT

Chartered exclusively for the festival audience (122 maximum), the MS Riva was launched in 2023. Acting as both hotel and principal means of transport, it enables passengers to attend all the concerts and see some of the finest sights in the region without having to change hotel or drive long distances. In many ways, however, your experience will be far removed from the usual cruising routine. There is little regimentation, no obligatory seating plan, no on-board entertainment, no intrusive announcements – and absolutely no piped music.

THE SPOKEN WORD

Daily talks by music historians enlighten, stimulate, and inform. On board the ship the speaker is Nicholas Kenyon and Richard Wigmore accompanies the walking party – see opposite for their biographies.

FOR YOUR EYES

The itinerary takes you through some of the most enchanting riverine landscape in Europe. This stretch of the Danube is largely flanked by rumpled hills, clad in woodland and pasture and striated by viticulture. We visit deliciously picturesque towns and villages and spend time in the incomparable city of Vienna, magnificent relic of a great empire. Art and architecture of the 18th century are major ingredients of the festival.

THE WALKING ALTERNATIVE

Walking the Danube mixes the concerts with country walks. Five of the concerts are included, and there are five walks of around two hours beside or close to the Danube. Participants stay in hotels rather than on the ship, and have their own speaker and walks leader – the renowned musicologist Richard Wigmore. The group is limited to 22 participants.

THE FESTIVAL PACKAGE

Critic, music historian and arts manager, Nicholas Kenyon is author of the Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart (2005). He was Managing Director of the Barbican Centre

2007–21, Controller of BBC Radio 3 from 1992 and Director of the BBC Proms 1996–2007. Currently he is opera critic of the Telegraph and a visiting scholar in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. Among his other writings are the Life of Music (Yale 2021), the Faber Pocket Guide to Bach (2011) and a biography of Simon Rattle. Twitter: @NickRKenyon

RICHARD WIGMORE

Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and has taught classes in Lieder history and interpretation at the Guildhall, Trinity College of Music and Birkbeck College. He read French and German at Cambridge and later studied Music at the Guildhall. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn . He has led the walking party for the Danube Festival since its inception many years ago. Website: wigmoresworld.co.uk

This festival has been devised and planned by Martin Randall and Lizzie Watson. It follows the format that Martin Randall established 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival

Since then we have organised festivals along the Rhine, Loire and Seine rivers, in Suffolk, York, Oxford, Lincoln, the Cotswolds and the West Country, to Seville, Toledo, Burgos, Santiago, Venice, Rome, Bologna, Sicily, the Veneto, to St Petersburg, Prague, through Thuringia, and the Alentejo.

Access to the concerts is exclusive to those who take the festival package, the price for which includes:

— Eight private concerts.

— Daily talks on the music.

— Accommodation on a first-class river cruiser for seven nights (or in hotels for the walking party).

— Return flights between the UK and Munich – reduced price if you choose to opt out of these. (See page 20 ).

— All meals, with wine and other drinks, interval drinks.

— Coach travel for airport transfers and to the concert venues when not within walking distance of the mooring.

— Tips, taxes and admission charges.

— Programme booklet with full details of the event.

Illustration: Durnstein, steel engraving c. 1860. Photos (except Richard Wigmore) all ©Ben Ealovega.

— Assistance of an experienced team of German-speaking festival staff.

— Optional post-festival tour: King Ludwig II. Full details to be confirmed – please contact us to register your interest.

See page 18 for prices.

NICHOLAS KENYON

MARTIN RANDALL FESTIVALS

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 1

Sunday 28 July

Passau

Fly from London Heathrow or Manchester or make your way to Passau independently. For travel options, see page 20.

The ship is ready for boarding from 4.00pm. Afternoon tea is available upon arrival.

Piled up on promontories at the confluence of three rivers, the Bavarian city of Passau is crammed with historic buildings, dominated by the great Baroque cathedral. It was one of the most important episcopal seats in Central Europe and served as a refuge for the Habsburg court in times of danger.

The ship sails at 6.30pm. A reception is followed by dinner.

Walkers: fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna. Drive to Dürnstein, perhaps the loveliest little town on the river, where two nights are spent. Walk up to the ruins of a castle where Richard the Lionheart was once imprisoned, and which cling to a steep hill behind the town.

Day 2

Monday 29 July

Grein, Melk

Moor at Grein, a charming little town squeezed between the Danube and the hills with a 16th-century Schloss rising to one side. The series of daily lectures begins.

It is a short walk from the ship to the main square where the tiny theatre lies hidden within the town hall. Constructed in 1791, it is the oldest working theatre in Austria.

Concert, 10.45am

More about the concerts: see page 11 for what to expect.

Grein, Stadttheater

Michael Collins clarinet

Minetti Quartet

Clarinet Quintets

Inspired by his friend Anton Stadler, Mozart was the first composer to exploit the full potential of the clarinet, that beautiful latecomer to the woodwind family. His ever-popular quintet, rich in alluring melody and capped by a Papagenoish finale, is complemented by the entertainingly theatrical quintet by Carl Maria von Weber, whose Fantasia slow movement gives a distant pre-echo of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Return to the ship for lunch and sail downstream through the Wachau, one of the most beautiful stretches of the Danube.

Illustration: Grein, lithograph by A. Kunike c. 1840.

‘It was so nice to be travelling again in the care of such a competent organisation.’

Day 3

Tuesday 30 July

Vienna, Klosterneuburg

In the early afternoon, the domed abbey of Melk appears ahead on an outcrop beside the river. Its formidable bulk presents to the world an image of awesome power, and there is no diminution of this impression inside. Stone, stucco, paint, gold and all the media at the disposal of craftsmen and artists in the 18th century combine to create some of the giddiest heights ever attained in Baroque art.

A tour of the abbey passes through a sequence of ceremonial courtyards, guest apartments, hall and library, culminating in a church of unsurpassed decorative richness.

The concert takes place in the Kolomanisaal, the summer refectory of the abbey. Walls and vault are covered in frescoes by Gaetano Fanti and Paul Troger, the leading fresco specialists of their time in the Austrian empire.

Concert, 4.45pm

Melk Abbey, Kolomanisaal Vienna Chamber Orchestra

Wolfgang Redik violin, concertmaster Mozart Symphonies

While it is a romanticising fallacy to view No.s 39, 40 and 41 as Mozart’s symphonic testament, he does seem to have designed the trilogy as a showcase for the fullest range of his art. No. 40 in G minor veers between lyrical pathos and a violence unmatched in eighteenthcentury symphonies, while the ‘Jupiter’, No. 41, with its stupendous contrapuntal finale, crowns a long Austrian tradition of ceremonial symphonies in C major. In more relaxed mode are the delightful violin Rondo and Adagio, composed for the Salzburg concertmaster Brunetti.

Wake up at a mooring 20 minutes from the centre of Vienna.

Principal seat of the Habsburgs for over 600 years, Vienna became capital of a vast agglomeration of territories that encompassed much of central and eastern Europe. The fabric of the city is a glorious mix of the magnificent and the charming, the imperious and the unpretentious. It remains one of the world’s greatest centres for the arts, and has no rivals for its dominant place in the history of music.

The morning is free to explore the city and visit a museum or two. The Kunsthistorisches Museum should not be missed, the Belvedere Palace has paintings by Klimt, the Beethoven apartment is fascinating, MAK an exciting museum of decorative arts. We will give guidance.

Walkers: a morning walk (c. 6km) begins in woods of pine, beech and birch to the sound of tumbling streams before descending through upland pastures and farmland. Walk on moderately gentle woodland paths and quiet roads, with glimpses of the Danube, the few steep sections being fairly short. An included lunch precedes the short journey to Melk, a guided tour of the abbey and the first concert for this group. Return to Dürnstein for dinner and the second of two nights.

In the early afternoon there is a short coach journey to Klosterneuburg Abbey, where guided tours precede the lateafternoon concert.

Founded in 1114, Klosterneuburg Abbey is best known as the ‘Austrian Escorial’, a Baroque monastery-palace begun by Emperor Charles V in 1730 but left incomplete 100 years later. From the Middle Ages there remain a beautiful cloister and some astonishing artworks. The concert takes place in the Augustinus Hall, a charming Rococo room off a quiet courtyard.

Return to the ship for dinner and sail overnight to Vienna.

Photograph ©Bill Knight ( Music along the Danube 2014).

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 4

Wednesday 31 July

Schloss Hof, Bratislava

Concert, 4.00pm

Klosterneuburg Abbey, Augustinus Hall

Duo Pleyel (piano ‘for four hands’) Mozart’s Real Father

Mozart was rarely one to go overboard about fellow composers. But he retained a special affection for J.S. Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian, who had befriended the boy Mozart in London. As the solo and duo sonatas here reveal, Christian was a master of euphonious galanterie, and perhaps the crucial influence on Mozart. In this beguiling programme of solo and duo sonatas you might even be forgiven for mistaking one composer for the other!

Return to the ship by coach. Dinner on board while sailing downstream.

Walkers: depart Dürnstein and drive up the Leopoldsberg, a high hill with fine views over the capital and the Danube valley. Walk down through beech woods, vineyards and salubrious ivy-clad suburbs on a 5.5km walk on footpaths, country roads and quiet streets. Lunch is included, before a short drive to Klosterneuburg Abbey for a guided tour and afternoon concert. Drive on to Vienna, for dinner and the first of two nights.

transfer by coach to Schloss Hof.

Schloss Hof was enlarged by Lukas von Hildebrandt, the great architect of the early 18th century, as a grand hunting lodge for Prince Eugene of Savoy, the most distinguished soldier ever to have served the Habsburgs. It was later occupied by members of the imperial family. A major programme of restoration in the last 20 years has rescued the house and gardens from near dereliction.

Concert, 11.15am

Schloss Hof, Festsaal Quatuor Van Kuijk

String Quartets: Lodi, Dissonance, Rider

As an aperitif to two contrasting Classical masterpieces the Van Kuijk Quartet offer the teenaged Mozart’s very first quartet, a sparkling, serenade-like work composed in the Italian town of Lodi. Fifteen years later the tortuous, dissonant slow introduction of Mozart’s otherwise sunny C major Quartet became something of a cause célèbre . Written for London, Haydn’s socalled ‘Rider’ Quartet contains a beautiful hymnlike Largo in a remote key and a coursing finale that gives the work its nickname.

Sail downstream to Bratislava.

Now capital of Slovakia, Bratislava was for 70 years the second city of Czechoslovakia and for 300 years before that the capital (as Pressburg) of the Habsburg rump of Hungary while Ottoman Turks occupied most of the country. Its compact historic centre is a dense mesh of unspoilt streets, squares and restored façades. There is a choice of museums and historic buildings to visit before an early-evening concert.

Of the many mansions in Bratislava, the grandest is the Primatial Palace, formerly the seat of the Archbishop of Hungary and now the Town Hall. It was completed in 1781 to designs by Melchior Hefele. The concert takes place in the Mirror Hall, the main reception room.

Recital, 5.15pm

Bratislava, Primatial Palace

Peter Donohoe

Mozart Piano Sonatas

The 19-year-old Mozart composed these, his earliest surviving keyboard sonatas, both for his own performance and for publication – though in the event only the last and most brilliant of the set, the D major, K284, was published. After playing all six sonatas on a new fortepiano in Augsburg he wrote euphorically to his father that ‘the last one, in D, sounds absolutely marvellous on Stein’s fortepiano’. Peter Donohoe caps this Mozart programme with Liszt’s fiendishly challenging Fantasy on themes from Don Giovanni . Far from being a mere potpourri, the Fantasy is a powerfully concentrated work that illuminates Mozart’s drama in ingenious new ways.

Return to the ship for dinner and sail upstream overnight to Vienna.

Walkers: transfer by coach from Vienna to Schloss Hof for the morning concert and lunch. Continue to the small town of Berg for a moderate circular walk on the Königswarte which finishes at Schloss Kittsee (6.5 km). The walk offers views towards Bratislava and over the Pannonian Basin. Return to Vienna for the second of two nights.

‘The music is sublime.’

Day 5

Thursday 1 August Vienna

Moor again at Nussdorf in Vienna. Most of the day is free to continue to explore the wealth of museums and galleries.

The winter palace of the Habsburg emperors, the Hofburg is a vast agglomeration of buildings which grew during the course of six centuries of building and refurbishment. Our concert takes place in the Rittersaal, a mideighteenth-century hall with white and gold Rococo stucco and woodwork and red silk wall hangings.

Concert, 4.30pm Hofburg, Rittersaal

The Mozartists (five solo voices)

Ian Page piano

The A–Z of Mozart Opera

Mozart was a born theatre animal, never happier than with the whiff of greasepaint in his nostrils. In their operatic A-Z

The Mozartists present an ingenious chronological journey that travels from A (the Latin drama Apollo et Hyacinthus,

composed when he was eleven) to Z ( Die Zauberflöte, from his hectic final year, 1791). En route they take in solos and ensembles from rarities such as the sparkling Italian comedy La finta semplice and the unfinished harem opera Zaide .

Dinner on board, though lingering in Vienna is an option. Sail upstream in the early morning.

Walkers: a free day in Vienna with the option of a walking tour of Vienna’s musical history with a local guide. Attend the afternoon concert, before travelling by coach back to Dürnstein, where two more nights are spent.

Illustrations:

left: Bratislava, 20th-century woodcut; right: Vienna, Hofburg, steel engraving c. 1860. Photograph ©Bill Knight ( Music along the Danube 2014).

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 6

Friday 2 August

Maria Taferl

A day of sailing through the beautiful Wachau Valley takes us from Vienna to the church of Maria Taferl. With its towers, gilded interior and hilltop site, Maria Taferl is one of Austria’s finest sights as well as one of the most important pilgrimage churches in the Alpine region. Construction took from 1660 to 1720, Carlo Lugaro and Jakob Prandtauer being the principal architects. Fitting out and decoration continued into the later 18th century.

Concert, 6.00pm

Pilgrimage Church of Maria Taferl

Vienna Chamber Choir

Sacred Mozart

The headline work in this programme is Mozart’s popular Solemn Vespers setting, K339, with its limpid ‘Laudate Dominum’ for soprano – a Mozartian desert island choice for many. Sacred and secular often blur here and in the lesser known works (‘Te Deum’ K141, ‘Venite populi’ K260, Church Sonata No.6, K212) likewise written for Salzburg Cathedral. All three are full of that worldly exuberance characteristic of Mozart’s sacred music, while the offertory ‘Venite populi’ deploys a double choir in thrilling displays of counterpoint.

Sail overnight to Linz.

Walkers: a morning walk of c. 6.5 km starts with a climb of 15 minutes on a small road into the vine-clad hills overlooking the Danube and dips periodically into shaded gullies with butterflies, abundant wildflowers and red-roofed villages in the valley below. The terrain is easy underfoot as the walk is predominantly on quiet, shaded roads. Return to Dürnstein for some free time before travelling by coach to Maria Taferl for the early-evening concert. Return to Dürnstein for dinner and the final night of the tour.

Day 7

Saturday 3 August

Linz

Arrive in Linz in the early morning. The historic capital of Upper Austria, Linz is a picturesque maze of streets, alleys and historic buildings grouped around a huge market square, only yards from the mooring. There is time for some independent exploration before coaches depart for the early-afternoon concert.

Photograph: ©Bill Knight ( Music along the Danube 2014).

Founded in the eighth century, the Monastery of St Florian became one of the richest in the Austrian Empire. Wholesale rebuilding took place between 1686 and 1751, Austria’s great period of political and military confidence and architectural ambition. The concert takes place in the Sala Terrena (Garden Hall), a room used for music making.

Concert, 2.30pm

St Florian Monastery, Garden Hall Akademie der Alte Musik Berlin Finale: Serenades

Either side of a charming wind nocturne by the unfairly maligned Antonio Salieri are two Mozart serenades that raised the art of wind-band music (Harmonie) to new heights. Both the E flat Serenade and the so-called Gran Partita for twelve wind instruments and double bass delight and astonish with their melodic allure and kaleidoscopically varied colours. In the play and film Amadeus it was the celestial Adagio of the Gran Partita that first convinced Salieri of Mozart’s divinely inspired genius.

Sail upstream overnight from Linz to Passau, with a reception and dinner against a backdrop of river and wooded hills receding into the dusk.

Walkers: travel by coach to Vienna Airport (no concert today). Return to Heathrow at c. 2.15pm.

‘One of the best organised holidays in my experience.’

Day 8

Sunday 4 August Passau, Munich

The ship moors at Passau and coaches leave for Munich city centre and the airport between 8.30 and 9.30am. See page 20 for the options available for return travel to London.

Selecting Option 2 allows for an afternoon of independent sightseeing in Munich.

More about the concerts

Private. All the performances are planned and administered by us, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the festival package.

Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want.

Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls.

Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs, airlines alter schedules: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.

Floods and droughts. We cannot rule out changes to the programme arising from exceptionally high or low water levels on the Danube, either of which may bring river traffic to a halt. These might necessitate more travel by coach or the loss of a concert, though we would always try to minimise the impact on the itinerary.

Illustrations: left: Linz, main square and Old Cathedral, aquatint c. 1930; above: Munich, lithograph c. 1850 after Samuel Prout.

THE RIVER DANUBE

The stretch of river between Passau and Bratislava is one of the loveliest lengths of riparian scenery anywhere in the world.

To write about the Danube is to embark on the life story of a large part of Europe. Unlike every other long river between the Urals and the Bay of Biscay, this majestic stream has never been the possession of any single state or even of any single empire – whether Frank or Slav, Magyar, Teuton or Turk. Through all geo-political obsessions, the Danube has moved with serene impartiality.

This is simply the biggest river of Europe. From its origins in south-western Germany, the Danube flows to the Black Sea over a course of about 1,750 miles, gathering force from waters which drain 300,000 square miles and passing through ten countries. More than 300 often furious tributaries pour their national waters into the Danube, but the river placidly swallows them all.

To travel with the Danube is a European experience. There may be no better way of growing into the knowledge of why Europe, even this middle Europe of so many conflicts in the past, has been more than the sum of its parts; and of why these parts, however little they may have seemed to belong to each other (much less love each other), have remained members of one body and segments of one civilisation.

A wonderful diversity of scene complements the ethnic, linguistic and national variety. The stretch between Passau and Bratislava is one of the loveliest lengths of riparian scenery anywhere in the world. Its monuments are many and remarkable. And nowhere on Earth can match the Danube region for its contribution to the canon of classical music over the course of several hundred years.

Illustration: Dürnstein, early 20th-century etching by Luigi Kasimir.

MEET THE MUSICIANS

AKADEMIE FÜR ALTE MUSIK BERLIN (AKAMUS)

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus) celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022. Founded in Berlin in 1982, the ensemble is now one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras playing historically informed music. For four decades, the orchestra has demonstrated its versatility with exciting concert projects and musical voyages of discovery, for example making a significant contribution to the rediscovery of the music of C.P.E. Bach and Telemann.

Whether in New York or Tokyo, London or Buenos Aires, Akamus is a regular and much sought-after guest on the most important European and international concert stages. In its anniversary year, the orchestra performed at venues including the Concertgebouw, the Vienna Musikverein and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. As artist in residence (2022), Akamus also performed regularly at Wigmore Hall and at the Augsburg German Mozart Festival. Akamus is a central pillar in the cultural life of its home city of Berlin, with a concert series at the Konzerthaus Berlin for over 35 years.

Akamus works regularly with internationally renowned soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Kit Armstrong and Bejun Mehta. The ensemble’s recordings, which now number around 100, have won all the major recording awards, including the Grammy Award, Diapason d’Or, Gramophone Award, Choc de l’année and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics.

DUO PLEYEL

Duo Pleyel takes its name from Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr’s pet piano – a beautiful instrument made in 1848 by Chopin’s preferred maker, Pleyel. The Duo has been working for the past five years to bring the rich and exciting repertoire for piano ‘for four hands’ to a wider public.

They record for LINN Records, and their releases of Schubert and Dussek have received excellent reviews. Their latest release entitled ‘Mozart’s Real Musical Father ’, was BBC Music Magazine ’s Instrumental recording of the month in January 2023. It explores the close relationship, both musical and personal, between J.C. Bach and Mozart.

May 2023 saw the start of a threeyear recording project of the complete Beethoven Symphonies in extraordinary four-hand arrangements by his undervalued student Carl Czerny. Other plans include programmes and recording of music by Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Stravinsky, as well as a Christmas album.

Born in Moscow, Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya studied piano and early keyboards in Moscow, Amsterdam and Munich.

Born in Lincoln, Richard Egarr studied piano and early keyboards in Manchester, Cambridge, London and Amsterdam.

MICHAEL COLLINS

Michael Collins is one of the most distinguished musicians of his generation. With a continuing, distinguished career as a soloist, he has in recent years also become highly regarded as a conductor.

In January 2021 Michael gave the debut performance of Wigmore Soloists, a new ensemble taking the name of one of the world’s most iconic concert halls (the first time an ensemble has been granted this honour). The group gives regular concerts at Wigmore Hall and in other major venues around the world.

Michael Collins has been committed to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet for many years. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2007 in recognition of his pivotal role in premièring repertoire by some of today’s most highly regarded composers. In great demand as a chamber musician, Collins performs regularly with the Borodin, Heath and Belcea quartets, András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Stephen Hough, Mikhail Pletnev, Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis.

His ensemble (London Winds) celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2018, and the group maintains a busy diary with high calibre engagements such as the BBC Proms. He is one of the world’s most recorded clarinettists, having made no fewer than 20 discs for Chandos alone. Collins was awarded an MBE for his services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015.

MINETTI QUARTET

The Austrian Minetti Quartet has been based in Vienna since it was founded in 2003, when the quartet met at the Vienna University of Music. The name ‘Minetti’ refers to a play by the writer Thomas Bernhard, who lived in the Salzkammergut where two of the quartet grew up. Since being nominated as ‘Rising Stars’ by the European Concert Hall Organisation in 2008/09, the Minetti Quartet has performed repeatedly in the most renowned concert halls in Europe. It has enjoyed an international reputation, with tours in Europe, Asia, North and South America. The quartet has had its own concert cycle in the MuTh, Vienna’s newest concert hall, since 2017/18.

The Minetti Quartet has won numerous international chamber music competitions (Schubert Competition, Haydn Competition) and has also received the Austrian ‘Great Gradus ad Parnassum Prize’, a start-up grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry and the Karajan grant. As a participant of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), it also received significant support from Ferenc Rados, Alfred Brendel and members of the Artemis, Amadeus and Hagen quartets.

Since 2009, it has released four highly acclaimed CD recordings (string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert, and clarinet quintets with Matthias Schorn). The quartet is very active teaching abroad – in Finland, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, and the US – as well as at Austrian universities such as the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

Photographs: opposite: Akamus ©Uwe Arens; this page, clockwise from top left: Michael Collins ©Ben Ealovega; Duo Pleyel ©Marco Borggreve; Ian Page ©Ben Ealovega; Minetti Quartet ©Irene Zandel.

THE MOZARTISTS

Under the direction of conductor Ian Page, The Mozartists (formerly Classical Opera) have established themselves among the most exciting period-instrument ensembles in Europe, attracting recognition for their fresh, dramatic and stylish performances, their imaginative and innovative programming, and their ability to discover and nurture outstanding young artists.

On stage and in concert, they have performed many of Mozart’s operas, and given the UK premières of operas by Gluck and Telemann (among others). They appear regularly at the most prestigious venues in London , and presented Mozart’s La finta semplice and Il re pastore at the Royal Opera House. They have also performed at many of the leading festivals in the UK and in Europe.

In 2015, the company launched MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year project following the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Each year MOZART 250 explores the music being composed and performed by Mozart and his contemporaries exactly 250 years previously, and this major initiative has already incorporated music by over 40 composers.

The Mozartists’ extensive discography has attracted widespread acclaim. In 2012 they embarked on a major new recording cycle of the complete Mozart operas, and the first seven releases in the series have all received outstanding reviews.

IAN PAGE

Ian Page is the founder, conductor and artistic director of The Mozartists, and has established an outstanding reputation as one of the world’s leading interpreters of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries.

With The Mozartists, he has conducted most of Mozart’s operas, including the world premières of the ‘original’ version of Mitridate, re di Ponto and a new completion of Zaide . He has also conducted the UK premières of Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito and Telemann’s Orpheus among others, and the first new staging for 250 years of J.C. Bach’s Adriano in Siria .

He made his Royal Opera House début conducting his own new performing edition of Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes

Other engagements have included English Touring Opera’s 25th anniversary production of Le nozze di Figaro , the opening two concerts at the 2016 Eisenstadt Haydn Festival, and Handel’s Ariodante – with Ann Hallenberg in the title role – at the 2019 Drottningholm Festival in Sweden.

PETER DONOHOE

Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. He studied at Chetham’s, Leeds University, the Royal Northern College of Music and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen. He is acclaimed for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique, as one of the foremost pianists of our time.

Donohoe has performed with all the major London orchestras, as well as orchestras from across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Vienna Symphony and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras. He also played with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director. He made his 22nd appearance at the BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival. He is also in demand as a jury member for international competitions.

Donohoe’s most recent discs are two volumes of Mozart Piano Sonatas with SOMM Records. Disc 1 was BBC Music Magazine ’s ‘Recording of the Month’ in April 2019; and disc 2 has received high praise from Gramophone Magazine , Classical Ear and Musical Opinion .

Donohoe is an honorary doctor of music at seven UK universities, and was awarded a CBE for services to classical music in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.

QUATUOR VAN KUIJK

‘Style, energy and a sense of risk. These four young Frenchman made the music smile.’ The Guardian

The Van Kuijk Quartet has won numerous accolades, including First, Best Beethoven, and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition. They were BBC New Generation Artists from 2015–17, and ECHO Rising Stars (2017/18).

Following such early success, the ensemble has quickly established a presence at major international venues, such as Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein, Berliner Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and at festivals, including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Heidelberg, and Aix-en-Provence.

Upcoming tours will see the Quartet make highly anticipated debuts at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Its debut recording, Mozart , was released to outstanding critical acclaim, winning both Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte awards. Following celebrated discs of Debussy and Ravel, and Schubert, they return to their exploration of Mozart with two further releases this season.

VIENNA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (WIENER KAMMERORCHESTER)

Founded in 1946, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra is one of the world’s leading large chamber ensembles.

Grounded in the works of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven, the orchestra has been shaped by decades of intense collaboration with master musicians, including Yehudi Menuhin. From 2023/24 Jan Willem de Vriend will become the orchestra’s Principal Conductor.

The orchestra has a rich history. Just some of the milestones include: Benjamin Britten appearing as a conductor in 1946; Daniel Barenboim making his debut at the age of nine in 1952; and Alfred Brendel performing with the orchestra in 1964.

The orchestra performs numerous international concerts each year. With the end of pandemic-related restrictions in Europe, it has resumed its busy touring schedule, with visits to Japan, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Romania and Belgium.

Its own concerts are presented in cycles at the Wiener Konzerthaus, and the orchestra is also a long-standing partner of the Theater an der Wien and the Wiener Kammeroper – performing as a guest ensemble for stage productions at both houses since 2012/13.

Photographs: opposite, clockwise from top left: Peter Donohoe ©Sussie Ahlberg; Vienna Chamber Orchestra; Quatuor Van Kujik ©Svend Andersen; above: Wolfgang Redik. Right: Vienna Chamber Choir ©Alexander Chitsazan.

WOLFGANG REDIK

Born in Graz, the violinist Wolfgang Redik studied in his home town and later completed his studies at the Vienna Music Academy. Redik has devoted much of the past 25 years to chamber music (string quartets 1987–1992, founding member of the Vienna Piano Trio 1988–2012), but these days he spends more and more of his time as a leader, soloist and conductor, frequently leading the Camerata Salzburg, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony, among others. Kent Nagano personally invited him to lead and conduct the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on a regular basis.

Solo appearances have included performances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Belgique, the English Chamber Orchestra, the AustroHungarian Haydn Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has given concerts in Tokyo, Shanghai, Milan, Toronto, Chicago and Geneva, and performed at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Vienna Musikverein, London´s Wigmore Hall and Zurich´s Tonhalle. He has a discography of over 80 recordings, many of them highly acclaimed (Echo Klassik Prize in 2010).

After teaching for almost two decades at the music academies in Graz, Essen and Leipzig, he was appointed as a professor at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg in 2007. Since 2019, he has been professor and head of chamber music at the Hochschule ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin.

MICHAEL GROHOTOLSKY

Since its founding in 1947, the Vienna Chamber Choir (Wiener Kammerchor) has developed into a trend-setting international ensemble for the modern interpretation of choral music. It occupies a place on the Austrian cultural scene and at a range of important European festivals that would otherwise be difficult to fill.

Known for their amicable style of working together, the members of the choir are always ready to accept new challenges in their effort to provide high-quality performances noted for musical precision and perfection. The choir is also frequently invited to take part in renowned festivals and choral competitions. It has produced a large number of CD recordings, several for the famous choral music publishers Helbling and Carus.

The Vienna Chamber Choir is a regular partner of the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Wien Modern, Neue Oper Wien, Bruckner Festival in Linz, Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Liszt Festival in Raiding and Styriarte in Graz. The Choir has worked with Ádám Fischer (Haydn Philharmonic, Danish National Chamber Orchestra); Rubén Dubrovsky (Bach Consort Vienna), Michaela Gaigg (L’Orfeo Barockorchester), Martin Haselböck (Wiener Akademie), Stefan Vladar (Vienna Chamber Orchestra) and Cornelius Meister (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra).

Born in Vienna, Michael Grohotolsky began his musical career as an alto soloist with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Since 2006, he has been a lecturer in conducting and the direction of vocal and instrumental ensembles at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna.

He was awarded the Erwin Ortner Fund’s Promotional Prize for Young Choral Directors in 2003. Currently artistic director of the Vienna Chamber Choir he was previously director of the Chorus Viennensis, the male choir composed of former members of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. He is also choirmaster of the Neue Oper Wien (since 2001) and artistic director of the Vienna Youth Choir (since 2009), as well as the choir of the Choral School at the Vienna University of Music and the Performing Arts.

In addition to his activities as conductor and choirmaster, he is also in demand as a guest lecturer, workshop leader and member of the jury at a variety of choral competitions in Austria and abroad.

VIENNA CHAMBER CHOIR (WIENER KAMMERCHOR)

ACCOMMODATION & PRICES

THE SHIP

Launched in 2023, the Amadeus Riva is one of the newest and most comfortable cruisers on the waterways of Europe. The multinational crew is dedicated to the highest standards of service.

With a floor area of 16m 2 (Haydn deck) or 17.5m 2 (Strauss and Mozart decks) the cabins are reasonably spacious by the standards of river cruisers. All have windows to the outside and are equipped with the facilities one would expect of a first-class hotel such as adjustable airconditioning, telephone, TV and safe.

Bathrooms have showers only. Special attention has been paid to noise insulation.

In layout and furnishings the cabins are identical, the significant differences being the size of windows and height above water level (higher cabins enjoy better views and fewer stairs).

Cabins on the top decks (Mozart and Strauss) are the most desirable, with floorto-ceiling windows which slide open and minibars. There are twelve suites (Mozart) measuring 26.4m 2 with a corner sofa area and small balcony. Cabins on the lowest (Haydn) deck have smaller windows which don’t open. There are no single cabins as such but we are allocating some twin-bed cabins for single occupancy.

The public areas include the lounge and bar, a library area and a restaurant that can seat everyone at a single sitting. The sun deck has a tented area for shade.

www.lueftner-cruises.com

PRICES

Haydn deck – lowest

Two sharing: £3,670 per person

Single occupancy: £4,320

Strauss deck – middle

Two sharing: £4,390 per person

Single occupancy: £5,240

Mozart deck – top

Two sharing: £4,910 per person

Single occupancy: £5,810

Suites – Mozart deck

Two sharing: £5,780 per person

Not available for single occupancy

No flights: if you choose not to take one of the flight options on page 20, there is a price reduction of £220 per person.

THE WALKING PARTY

Richard Löwenherz, Dürnstein (richardloewenherz.at): a lovely oldfashioned hotel occupying a historic building with garden and outdoor pool. Hotel Bristol, Vienna (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse, traditionally furnished and decorated.

Two sharing, per person:

£3,740 or £3,480 without flights

Single occupancy:

£4,220 or £3,960 without flights

Fitness for the festival: see page 21 for our guidelines.

Cabin: Haydn deck (16m 2)

Cabin: Strauss/ Mozart deck (17.5m 2)

Suite: Mozart deck (26.4m 2)

Cabin photos, left:

Above: cabin on the Strauss/ Mozart deck.

Below: suite on the Mozart deck.

Photo at top of page ©Bill Knight ( Music along the Danube 2014).

TRAVEL OPTIONS

Flights with Lufthansa from London or Manchester to Munich are included in the price. Or you can choose to make your own arrangements for travel to and from the festival, for which there is a price reduction.

Actual flight schedules for July/ August 2024 are not yet available. These are the most likely times (they rarely change) but they will be updated as soon as the times for next summer are released.

THE ‘NO GROUP TRAVEL’ OPTION

You can choose not to take any of our flight options and to make your own arrangements for joining and leaving the ship. You are welcome to join our airport coach transfers if your flights or trains coincide with any of the options above.

Price reduction for ‘no flights’: £220.

FESTIVAL FLIGHT OPTIONS

OPTION 1: Heathrow, lunch at Landshut

Sunday 28 July: Heathrow to Munich (LH 2471) departing at 09.00 and arriving at 11.50. Break the drive to Passau with lunch at Landshut, a former capital of Bavaria. There are two hours here; it should be possible to see the main street with its Renaissance and Baroque house fronts, the great Gothic church of St Martin or the precociously Italianate Renaissance ducal palace.

Sunday 4 August: Munich to London Heathrow (LH 2476) departing at 14.45 and arriving at 15.45.

OPTION 2 : Heathrow, free time in Munich

Sunday 28 July: London Heathrow to Munich (LH 2473) departing at 10.50 and arriving at 13.40. Drive directly from the airport to the ship at Passau, a journey of under two hours.

Sunday 4 August: Munich to London Heathrow (LH 2480) departing at 18.40 and arriving at 19.40. Coaches take you first to the centre of Munich, where you have about four hours of free time.

OPTION 3: Manchester

Sunday 28 July: Manchester to Munich (LH 2501) departing at 10.45 and arriving at 13.40. Drive directly from the airport to the ship at Passau, a journey of under two hours.

Sunday 4 August: Munich to Manchester (LH 2502) departing at 15.55 and arriving at 17.00. Coaches take you first to the centre of Munich, where you have about two hours of free time.

Illustration: Passau, wood engraving c. 1880.

RAIL

It is possible to travel by train from London to Passau, c. 18 hours (with an overnight in Brussels), departing Saturday evening (27th July) and arriving Sunday afternoon (28th July). The return journey takes c. 11 hours via Cologne and Brussels. We are able to advise on but not book individual train tickets. Contact us for more information and recommendations for booking agents.

POST-FESTIVAL TOUR

The price for post-festival tour King Ludwig II includes the option of a return flight – out at the start of the festival, and back at the end of the tour.

All post-festival tour participants depart from the UK on festival flight option 2.

We charge for flights, if you are taking them, as part of your post-festival tour booking. You therefore pay the ‘no flights’ price for the festival.

Details of the post-festival tour to be announced shortly – please contact us to register your interest.

Quite a lot of walking is necessary to reach the concert venues and to get around the towns visited. The ship has a lift, but some of the venues do not. Participants need to be averagely fit, sure-footed and able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty.

We ask that you take the simple fitness tests described on page 22 before booking.

If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.

A higher fitness level is required for Walking the Danube. This is a walking tour, graded ‘moderate’. It is essential for participants to have appropriate walking footwear, be in good physical condition and to be used to country walking with uphill and downhill content. There are a few moderately steep climbs, but no walk is more than 6 miles or 3 hours. There is not always the opportunity to return to the hotel to freshen up before every concert or dinner. (Please see www. martinrandall.com/about-us for our walking tour grading system).

Illustration: Vienna, Josefsplatz, engraving c. 1810.

Fitness for the festival

MAKING A BOOKING

1. BOOKING OPTION

We recommend that you contact us first, or visit our website, to make a booking option which we will hold for 72 hours. To confirm it, please send the booking form and deposit within this period – the deposit is 10% of your total booking price.

2. DEFINITE BOOKING

Fill in the booking form and send it to us with the deposit. It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage (see page 25), and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of the date the festival begins.

3. OUR CONFIRMATION

Upon receipt of the booking form and deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions. Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.

FITNESS TESTS

By signing the Booking Form, you confirm that you have taken these tests.

1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least eight times in 30 seconds.

2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone. Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least 60 times in two minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object three yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under seven seconds.

An additional indication of the fitness required, though we are not asking you to measure this, is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand for at least 15 minutes.

Photograph: ©Bill Knight ( Music along the Danube 2014).

MOZART ALONG THE DANUBE 28 JULY–4 AUGUST 2024 (MK 373)

NAME(S) – as you wish them to appear on the list of participants. Please note that we do not use titles:

Participant 1: Participant 2:

Contact details for all correspondence:

Address

Telephone (home)

E-mail

Postcode/Zip Country

Mobile

Tick if you are happy to receive your festival and booking documents online where possible (confirm your e-mail address above).

Please complete this section, even if you have told us your preferences before:

By post

Yes No

E-newsletter

Yes No

What prompted this booking? It is very helpful for us to know how you first heard about this event, and if you can be specific, e.g. if in an advertisement, the name of the publication it appeared in; if we sent you a communication, what type? (e-mail or post?): How would you like to be kept informed about our future tours and events?:

ACCOMMODATION & TRAVEL – STAYING ON-BOARD THE SHIP, 28 July–4 August 2024

Deck – tick one

type – tick one

Single occupancy cabin

Haydn – lowest

Strauss – middle

Mozart – top

THE WALKING PARTY

Twin cabin with beds separate

Twin cabin with beds together

Suite with beds separate – Mozart only

Suite with beds together – Mozart only

the Danube’ 28 July–3 August 2024 (mk 372)

Room-type – tick one

Double for single occupancy

Double – two sharing

Twin – two sharing

Travel option – tick one

Including flights: London–Vienna return

No flights. Making your own arrangements for joining and leaving the group.

Travel option – tick one

Option 1: Heathrow–Munich return, with lunch in Landshut on the first day.

Option 2: Heathrow–Munich return, with free time in Munich on the final day.

Option 3: Manchester–Munich return.

No flights. Making your own arrangements for joining and leaving the festival.

FURTHER INFORMATION. Please notify us of dietary restrictions (for example, religious, medical or if you are vegetarian or vegan). Please also use this space to request room upgrades, or extra nights, etc.

Cabin

‘Walking

PASSPORT DETAILS & NEXT OF KIN

Essential for airlines and the ship/hotels, and in case of emergency. Please use capital letters for your passport details.

PAYMENT

We prefer payments by bank transfer. We cannot currently accept payment through our website. All money paid to us is fully protected regardless of payment method. Please tick one option:

BANK TRANSFER Please use your surname and the festival code (mk 373, or mk 372 for Walking the Danube) as a reference and ask your bank to allow for all charges.

Account name: Martin Randall Travel Ltd.

Bank:

Barclays, 1 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HP

Account number: 4054 4558

Sort code: 20-96-63

Transfers from non-UK bank accounts: please instruct your bank to send payment in pound sterling (GBP)

IBAN: GB19 BARC 2096 6340 5445 58 Swift/BIC code: BARC GB22

DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD. I authorise Martin Randall Travel to contact me by telephone to take payment from my Visa credit/Visa debit/Mastercard/AMEX.

Please tick payment amount, and then ensure you sign at the bottom of this form:

EITHER Deposit 10% of total booking cost.

OR Full balance

Required if you are booking within 10 weeks of departure.

Add carbon offset (£5 per person). Tick to offset the emissions generated by your booking. Read about the project we currently support through carbon offsets by visiting martinrandall.com/sustainable-tourism.

TOTAL: £

I have read and agree to the Booking Conditions and Privacy Policy (www.martinrandall.com/privacy) on behalf of all listed on this form.

Signature:

Date:

Martin Randall Travel Ltd

10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH, United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355

From North America: 1 800 988 6168

info@martinrandall.co.uk

www.martinrandall.com

Martin Randall Australasia

PO Box 1024

Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Tel 1300 55 95 95

New Zealand 0800 877 622

anz@martinrandall.com.au

PLEASE READ THESE

You need to sign your assent to these Booking Conditions on the booking form.

OUR PROMISES TO YOU

We aim to be fair, reasonable and sympathetic in all our dealings with clients, and to act always with integrity.

We will meet all our legal and regulatory responsibilities, usually going far beyond the minimum obligations.

We aim to provide full and accurate information about our holidays. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.

If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.

ALL WE ASK OF YOU

That you read the information we send to you.

SPECIFIC TERMS

Our contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd.

Eligibility. You must be in good health, free of infectious illness, and have a level of physical and mental fitness that would not impair other participants’ enjoyment by slowing them down or by absorbing disproportionate attention from the tour leaders. Please read ‘Fitness for the festival' on page 21 and take the self-assessment tests described there; by signing the booking form you are stating that you have understood what we are asking of you and are fit to participate. If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss this with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure. If during the festival or tour it transpires, in the judgement of the tour leaders, that you are not able to cope, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits or to leave altogether. This would be at your own expense. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advice. Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website to ensure you understand the travel advice for the places to which the festival or tour goes. Non-UK citizens should look at the advice issued by their governments, which may differ significantly.

Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance cover. The insurance must cover, at minimum, medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and loss of payments to us in the event that you cancel your booking. If you are making your own arrangements for international travel, please ensure you have insurance that protects you in the rare event of Martin Randall Travel cancelling the festival or tour. Experience indicates that free travel insurance offered by some credit card companies is not to be relied upon.

Passports and visas. British citizens must have valid passports for travel outside the United Kingdom. The passport needs to be valid for 6 months beyond the date of the festival and/ or tour. For Schengen countries, your passport must have been issued less than ten years before the date you enter the country and valid for at least three months after the day you

leave. Non-UK nationals should ascertain whether visas are required in their case.

If you cancel. If you have to withdraw from a festival or tour on which you had booked, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before departure the deposit would be forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of your booking will be due:

Up to 57 days: deposit only

Between 56 and 29 days: 40%

Between 28 and 15 days: 60%

Between 14 days and 4 days: 80%

Within 72 hours: 100%

Additional costs for individual arrangements (including but not limited to flight upgrades, flight amendments, extra nights at hotel(s), room upgrades and airport transfers) are subject to the same cancellation charges, apart from in the instance where we have previously notified you that an additional cost is non-refundable.

If you cancel your booking in a shared room but your travelling companion chooses to continue to participate, the companion would have to pay the single-occupancy price.

We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive written confirmation of cancellation.

If we cancel. We may decide to cancel a festival or tour if there were insufficient bookings for the it to be viable (though this would always be more than 8 weeks before departure). We would refund you with everything you had paid us.

Safety and security. Cancellation may also occur if civil unrest, war, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure arise in the region to which the festival or tour was due to go. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel, we would either cancel or adjust the itinerary to avoid risky areas.

Health and safety. We have a safety auditing process in place and, as a minimum, request that all of our suppliers comply with local health and safety regulations. However, we operate tours in parts of the world where standards are lower than those you are used to at home, particularly in the areas of accessibility, handrails and seatbelts. We ask that you take note of the safety information we provide.

The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour or festival except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.

If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating a tour or festival exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour or festival we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not in your view an adequate substitute, we would give a full refund.

Financial protection for UK residents. Any money you have paid to us for a holiday which includes an international flight is protected by our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL, number 3622). Payments for holidays which do not include a flight from/to the UK are protected by ABTOT – The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited. So, in the (highly unlikely) event of our

insolvency in advance of the festival or tour, you would get your money back, or if we failed after it had begun, it would be able to continue and you would be returned to the UK at its conclusion. Clients living elsewhere who have arranged their own flights should ensure their personal travel insurance covers repatriation in the event of holiday supplier failure.

Financial protection – the official text. We are required to publish the following:

We provide full financial protection for our package holidays which include international flights, by way of our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 3622. When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive holiday from us you receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. Most of our flights and flight-inclusive holidays on our website and in our brochure are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. In order to be protected under the ATOL scheme you need to be in the UK when you make your booking and/or one of the flights you take must originate or terminate in the UK with the group.

We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight, by way of a bond held by ABTOT – The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited.

We will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where we aren’t able do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.

English Law. These conditions form part of your contract with Martin Randall Travel Ltd and are governed by English law. All proceedings shall be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Privacy. By signing the booking form, or by booking online, you are stating that you have read and agree to our Privacy Policy (available online at www. martinrandall.com/privacy).

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL LTD

10 Barley Mow Passage

London W4 4PH

United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

Contact the London office from the USA and Canada:

Tel 1 800 988 6168 (toll free) usa@martinrandall.com

MARTIN RANDALL AUSTRALASIA

PO Box 1024

Indooroopilly QLD 4068

Australia

Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL…

is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural travel and one of the most respected tour operators in the world.

MRT aims to produce the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, architecture, archaeology, history, music and gastronomy, and are spread across Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Japan and the Americas.

For 2024 we have planned around 185 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10–20 participants), four music festivals of our own devising (such as Mozart Along the Danube), several short history and music breaks, an extensive programme of online talks, and single days in London.

For over 35 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and improvement, setting the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards.

To see our full range of cultural tours and events, please visit www.martinrandall.com