Spring newsletter 2016

M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L A RT • A R C H I T E C T U R E • G A S T R O N O M Y • A R C H A E O L O G Y • H I S T O R Y • M U S I C

Spring Newsletter

2016

Inside: Company news Lecturers' news Destination highlights Christmas & New Year 2016

Newly-launched tours in 2016 & 2017 London Days Music Festivals in 2017 Full preview of the 2017 programme

Spring Newsletter 2016

Contents

Company news An update on private groups............... 3 Staff announcements............................. 3 News from our lecturers....................... 4 Prof. Maurice Howard awarded obe... 5 MRT supports British Archaeological Association conference in Paris........... 5 Australasian update............................... 6

Destinations Destination highlights......................7–8 Highlights of Myanmar........................ 9

Newly-launched tours Christmas & New Year 2016 Munich at Christmas.....................10–11 Umbrian Christmas.......................12–13 Naples at Christmas.......................13–14

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF

Venice at Christmas............................. 15 Modern Art on the Côte d'Azur at Christmas...................................16–17 In 2016 Verdi in Parma & Busseto.............17–18 In 2017 Oman...............................................19–20 Temples of Tamil Nadu..................20–22 Mozart in Salzburg........................22–23 Kingdoms of the Deccan................24–25 Puccini in Cardiff................................. 26 Piero della Francesca............................ 27 Connoisseur's Rome.......................28–29 Essential Rome................................29–30 Florence...........................................30–31 Venetian Palaces.............................31–32 Normans in the South....................33–34

Music Weekends The Heath at Lavenham................34–35 Music Weekends at The Castle Hotel, Taunton.................. 35

London Days

Our programme in 2016...............36–37

2017 preview

Music Festivals..................................... 38 Tours by date..................................38–40

Booking details

Booking form.................................41–42 Booking Conditions............................ 43 Making a booking............................... 44 Illustrations: (front cover) Menton, watercolour by A.H. Hallam Murray, 1904; (above) Seville Alcácar, engraving c. 1840; (above, right) detail of rug, Iran, 16th century, Carpet Museum, Tehran.

This newsletter was designed in house by Lucy Emanuel.

Virtually all members of staff contributed to its content in some way. It was edited chiefly by Martin Randall, Jo Murray, Liz Brown and Fiona Urquhart.

It went to print on 20 April 2016.

Telephone +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Company News

News from the London office An update on private groups In 2015 we successfully embarked on several new partnerships with museums, societies, institutions and publications, providing tailored tours for members, patrons, alumni and subscribers. Tours ranged from Handel in Rome to the Georgians in Scotland, and focused on private art collections in Venice to grandiose architectural designs in Scotland.

This year, we are delighted to have been appointed for a second time as tour provider to HALI, the world’s leading specialist magazine dedicated to antique carpets and textiles. HALI Tour Decorative Arts of Iran, 22 September–4 October 2016 is accompanied by editor Ben Evans who has extensive travel experience and strong relations with leading scholars and curators. HALI Tours are open to anyone to book. The price does not include flights although these can be provided on request, departing a day before the tour begins (21 September 2016). For more information on this tour, please visit our website, martinrandall.com.

Staff announcements Marketing Manager Liz Brown married Carlo Taczalski on 17 July 2015 in Chiddingfold, Surrey. They then climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for their honeymoon.

Bridget Swithinbank, Executive Assistant to Martin Randall, successfully completed the five-hundred mile camino to Santiago de Compostela in September 2015.

Lizzie Howard (Operations Manager for Italy) married Paul Watson on 19 September 2015 in the Cotswolds. Their honeymoon was spent travelling through Vietnam.

Operations Manager for UK tours, Sarah Pullen and her husband Tom, welcomed baby Isla into the world on 23 September 2015.

Samantha Walls (Operations Supervisor for China and Japan) and her husband Chris, became parents to Ronald Christopher on 23 October 2015.

Rachael Berry, Operations Assistant for Spain, Italy and the UK, married Samuel Díaz-Pinto Montoro on 23 April 2016 in Sussex.

Emily Deaman (Operations Executive for Germany, France and Scandinavia) became engaged to Lawrence Brown in spring last year.

They are to marry in Tuscany in June 2017.

The photograph below was taken in Crystal Palace Park on the annual MRT staff Christmas outing in 2015. We walked a section of the South London Green Chain from Crystal Palace to Dulwich. The day included a tour of Dulwich Picture Gallery, kindly given by the head curator and MRT lecturer Dr Xavier Bray.

Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 Fax +61 (0)7 3371 8288 anz@martinrandall.com.au

Canada Telephone (647) 382 1644 Fax (416) 925 2670 canada@martinrandall.ca

USA Telephone (connects to the London office) 1 800 988 6168

Spring Newsletter 2016

Company News

News from our lecturers Andrew Martin’s new novel, The Yellow Diamond (Faber) is about a unit of the Metropolitan Police that investigates the super-rich of Mayfair. The unit is based in Down Street W1, opposite the closed-down Tube station of that name. Martin Randall recommends it highly. Andrew leads our London’s Underground Railway day.

John McNeill recently co-edited a collection of essays entitled Romanesque & the Mediterranean: Points of Contact across the Latin, Greek and Islamic Worlds c.1000 to c.1250. John leads architectural history tours in England, Italy, France and Spain.

Dr Jeffrey Miller has been named UCL Teaching Fellow in the History and Theory of Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Jeffrey leads German Romanesque and German Gothic this summer.

Charles Allen published his 24th book on South Asia last year, a biography of ‘the father of Himalayan studies’ Brian Hodgson, entitled The Prisoner of Kathmandu (Haus Books).

He is completing a book on South India to be published in 2017, Coromandel: another India (Little Brown). Charles will lead our Arts of India London Day later in the year.

The third edition of Dr Paul Bahn’s book Images of the Ice Age was published by Oxford University Press in February. Paul spent Christmas filming the third in a trilogy of TV documentaries on world rock art for French TV channel France 5; the first part is about Utah, the second Brazil, and the third China.

Paul leads our Cave Art in Spain tour in September.

Professor Tim Blanning’s book, Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was published by Penguin in October 2015, to critical acclaim.

The Sunday Times wrote ‘In Tim Blanning, Frederick has found the ideal biographer…

Blanning evokes Old Fritz in all his coldblooded brilliance, ranging from the king’s operatic tastes to his gastronomic and erotic predilections’. Tim lectures on our Rhine and Danube Music Festivals.

Professor John Bryan’s ensemble, The Rose Consort of Viols, has issued a new CD, Mynstrelles with Straunge Sounds (Delphian) with music from a Bolognese manuscript of 1506 and the court of King Henry VIII (‘totally beguiling’, The Guardian). An earlier Rose Consort CD, Adoramus Te, with music by

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Christopher Newall is the curator of Pre-­Raphaelites – Beauty and Rebellion at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, open until 5 June. The exhibition charts the history of the northern art work which revolved around the Liverpool Academy. Christopher leads our Sicily and Northumbria tours.

William Byrd and Peter Phillips was shortlisted for an early music Gramophone award.

A new edition of Dr Charles Nicholl’s book Shakespeare & his Contemporaries was published in 2015 (National Portrait Gallery Companions series). He leads Walking & Literature in the Lake District and Shakespeare 400 anniversary tour in August.

Congratulations to Professor Dawn Chatty who was made a Fellow of the British Academy in autumn last year. Dawn leads our tour, Oman, in November.

Professor Norman Hammond has been teaching the very first course on Maya archaeology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and is the Honorand of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lectureship in Archaeology, endowed at Cambridge University. In recognition of his long-term research on the origins of Maya civilization, he was presented a Research Award by the Second Shanghai Archaeology Forum. He leads Guatemala, Honduras, Belize in December.

Stephen Parkin, British Library curator, has been involved in planning and preparing the exhibition Aldus Manutius, Il Rinascimento di Venezia at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, and has contributed to the catalogue.

He is co-leader of our new tour, The History of Printing in Italy next year with Dr Michael Douglas-Scott.

Janet Sinclair has left her post at Stansted House to become House & Collections Manager at Petworth House in West Sussex.

Janet leads South Downs and Arts & Crafts in the Cotswolds this year.

Norwegian lecturer, Frank Høifødt, is working at the Munch Museum in Oslo on a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s drawings, and curates a Munch exhibition at Galleri F 15 in Moss, opening on 18 June. Frank leads Norway: Art, Architecture, Landscape in June.

Pianist and lecturer William Howard releases a new solo album in June entitled Sixteen Love Songs on Orchid Classic. The Schubert Ensemble, directed by William, perform at our music weekend at The Castle Hotel, Taunton on 18–20 November.

Congratulations to Professor Lloyd LlewellynJones on his new position as Chair of Ancient History at the University of Cardiff. Lloyd leads our Central Anatolia, Central Macedonia and Persia tours.

Dr Nigel Spivey’s new book, Classical Civilization: A History in Ten Chapters (Head of Zeus) was published in 2015. Nigel leads The Etruscans in September.

Professor Gavin Stamp’s book, Gothic for the Steam Age: An Illustrated Biography of George Gilbert Scott, was published by Aurum Press in 2015. Gavin leads our London Days Great Railway Termini, Hawksmoor and Wren, as well as our Architecture of the British Raj tour.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Company News

MRT lecturer Professor Maurice Howard awarded OBE From this initial spark of interest, Maurice has gone on to research and write many publications including The Early Tudor Country House, The Tudor Image and The Building of Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

Professor Maurice Howard was awarded an obe for his services to architectural heritage and higher education in the 2016 New Year's Honours List. Taking time out of his busy schedule, Maurice talked to MRT Marketing Executive Lucy Emanuel about his award and notable career.

Maurice is delighted to receive the recognition for his work, and especially to be able to represent the art history sector: “I think very few people in the arts receive these honours. Apart from those leading actors and actresses, if you look down the list, there are not that many writers, arts academics, gallery and museum people. So it was very nice to get it for that reason.”

Maurice’s interest in art and architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was first realised during his post-graduate studies in art history at the Courtauld Institute, London: “I really saw an issue with patronage and how people paid for things in Tudor England.”

His infectious enthusiasm can also be seen through his work with the Society of Antiquaries of London, one of the oldest learned societies in Britain. His main aim has been to highlight the importance of heritage work to the public, making the Society “more outward facing” through lectures and exhibitions in Britain and America. The popularity of arts and heritage has increased since Maurice’s student days: “There is now, thanks to media outlets, a deepened interest in the past. I think we have to celebrate this. My main concern is for the preservation and conversation of things of the past. With the current situation in the Middle East of huge destruction and threat, it is ever more important that we value these things.”

With the importance of conservation in mind, Maurice’s next project focuses on material. Following on from his work with the National Portrait Gallery for the Making Art in Tudor Britain exhibition, Maurice will be investigating “what things were made of and how that explains the past”.

Alongside this research work, Maurice is looking forward to leading his first Martin Randall Travel tour, Tudor England, in June: “Everything I hear about MRT means that you meet a lot of interesting people and you learn a lot from them. Looking forward to exploring that.”

Martin Randall Travel supports international scholarship MRT is sponsoring the auditorium for the 2016 British Archaeological Association conference in Paris at the Institut nationale d’historie de l’art (Paris-Sorbonne), from 16–20 July on the theme Paris: The Powers that shaped the Medieval City.

The conference draws together scholars from Europe and the USA (including MRT lecturers Dr Alexandra Gajewski, John McNeill and Dr Jeffrey Miller) to examine the mediaeval art, architecture and archaeology of one of Europe’s great cultural centres.

The conference organisers equally assure us that the fruits of research presented at the conference will not only aid scholarly understanding but will help illuminate MRT tours, and MRT lecturers, long into the future.

Illustrations: (above, left) Burgos, copper engravings c. 1700; (above, right) Hampton Court, Great Hall, watercolour by E.W. Haslehurst, publ. 1930; (left) The Seine in Paris, engraving 1908.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Company News

Australasian update Kelly Ward is the Director of Martin Randall Australasia.

A welcome to our Australasian clients to the “Autumn” Supplement. I have a fairly disparate mosaic of updates from the Australian office so I hope you can stay with me until the end!

Imperial China Our Essential China tour, 10–23 May 2017 in association with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) is now on sale.

A good number of you will have met tour lecturer, Dr Jamie Greenbaum, during his MRT lecture tour in Australia in January.

For those who missed it, his talks gave a fascinating overview of Chinese dynasties and chronology, linguistics and scripts, ethnicity and genetics, art and architecture as well as providing an insight into modern day China, where he has lived for over a decade.

Jamie, who has led many different groups to China, highlighted the distinguishing ingredients of the MRT tour experience.

Indeed, despite being an esteemed sinologist at Renmin University in Beijing, it is only with MRT that Jamie has had access to certain restricted areas of the Forbidden City. He will take our QAGOMA group into Shufangzhai, a beautiful private palace, remodelled by the Qianlong Emperor to host operas during imperial family banquets.

Behind the doors of this occluded suite, lies a wealth of artworks commissioned and collected by the imperial rulers.

Renaissance and Baroque Italy Patronage of the arts as an expression of political power dips its roots well into ancient times. And, of course, in Renaissance Italy where art was fueled by competition between rival families and powers. We get to know some of these families through their commissions on our QAGOMA tour, Genoa, Turin, Milan, 9–20 October 2016, as well as soaking up some of the sublime natural scenery of the Italian Lakes and Portofino.

The tour is led by Dr Luca Leoncini, former Director of the Palazzo Reale in Genoa, who has lived and worked with the echoes of these families and artists. His enthusiasm to impart that intimate knowledge is captivating.

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Melbourne, Parliment House, lithograph c. 1890.

Sponsorship

Future events

Bathetic in our self-aggrandisement, we like to think we are conducting our own patronage of the arts as our tours provide a contribution to QAGOMA, and we are sponsors of the wonderful piano series in Brisbane run by Medici Concerts. We hope to see some of you at Piers Lane’s Chopin by Candlelight on Sunday, 22nd May at QPAC.

Our next event is with Barry Millington, on Saturday 26th November in Melbourne.

Please let us know if you would like details when ready. There are few scholars to rival Barry’s knowledge on Wagner and his tour The Ring in Melbourne, 20–29 November 2016, still has some limited availability. We are working with Opera Australia to provide a very special experience for our clients, with premium seats and a number of exclusive arrangements.

Neil Taylor lectures As well as Jamie Greenbaum, we were fortunate this year to welcome MRT lecturer and expert on the former Communist world, Neil Taylor, to Australia with his wife, Tiina.

He spoke in five cities, including at our first ever event in Auckland, touching on the deep historical and political complexities which he unravels on his tours, The Baltic Countries, 3–16 July 2016 and The Iron Curtain, 19 September–3 October 2016.

As a director of Martin Randall Travel instrumental in its foundation, Neil is also an expert on the expansion of the MRT empire and we learnt of early deals concocted around the kitchen table, 'crowd funding' of friends with a well-founded belief in Martin’s vision, the days of paper booking charts and just a sprinkling of staff. With around 250 tours a year, over 40 staff members and a fully-integrated IT system, now, as ab initio, Martin’s vision and commitment hold fast – to stimulate, uplift and inspire – and to craft the mundane practicalities with the dedication and perfectionism of the artist.

Rosanna Reade from MRT London’s Client Team will be coming to Australia to tour manage The Ring in Melbourne. Rosanna will also visit our Brisbane office in September and October while our client manager, Steph Bourgeois, is on leave. We are sending Steph (whose wedding is in May) on St Petersburg, 1–8 September 2016 and Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur, 25–31 October 2016 as intermissions in her European honeymoon.

Finally, I wish to thank the great number of our Australian and New Zealand email subscribers who completed our recent survey. We were heartened to receive so many responses. We are combing through these to gain a clearer insight into the likes and wishes of our Australasian clients. Now the exchange rate is moving in our favour, we hope to see even more of you deciding to travel.

It is always a pleasure to hear from you, and Steph and I are ever eager to assist with any questions you may have.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

Destinations

Destination highlights To create excellent itineraries our staff research, investigate and explore each of our destinations, whether they are the Aztec temples of Mexico or the hills of the Lake District. The aim of each prospecting trip is to gain an exhaustive knowledge of the destination, its amenities and, most of all, its character. Below you can read the highlights from our team who have in the last year spent time reviewing favourite locations we visit time and again, and expanding horizons for a selection of brand new tours that will be launching soon.

Martin Randall travelled to Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Sharjah and Bahrain to research our new tour The Arabian Gulf:

'Beautifully restored pearl merchants’ mansions in Bahrain; startlingly handsome new office and art gallery development at The Gate in Dubai; the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, amazing for its architecture, collections and display; and many, many more.'

Operations Executive, Chloe Thompson gives her highlight on prospecting Slovenia for our tour, The Imperial Riviera, 12–18 September 2016:

'We arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia on a balmy summer night last June. My memory of that first evening walk is of a laid-back city centre given over to pedestrians, of vibrant Art Nouveau buildings, of the welcome of the main square – and its great Baroque salmonpink church.'

Sophie Wright, Operations Manager, recently travelled to central Mexico to research our new archaeological tour, Aztecs to Zapotecs:

'My top three memorable moments: climbing the 75-metre-high Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan; the incredible geometric decorations of the Mixtec site of Mitla and wandering the streets of colourful Oaxaca.'

Amelia Blackie, Operations Executive, prospected for our Literature & Walking in the Lake District tour, which departs 27 June–1 July 2016:

'I recently prospected a walk around Tarn Hows in the low level hills between Coniston and Hawkshead. It was a crisp, sunny morning, the water was still and reflected the snowy peaks on one side, the blue sky above, and the ancient twisted branches of the trees all around. The views were positively stunning.' +44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Destinations

Destination highlights continued George Waine returned to his childhood county of Suffolk to prospect the newest edition to the Music Weekend programme, The Heath at Lavenham, 7–9 October 2016:

'As a Suffolk native, I have long been aware that Lavenham is widely regarded as a gem of the East Anglian countryside, though until recently had never seen it myself. It is a beautiful village, populated by 14th- and 15th-century half-timbered buildings. Undoubtedly the highlight of the trip was the Tudor hall of The Swan Hotel, complete with minstrels gallery and beamed ceiling – I cannot think of a better setting to take in world-class chamber music (and perhaps a scone or two).'

Rachael Berry, Operations Assistant for Spain and Italy, visited Toledo researching for one of our music festivals in 2017, A Festival of Music in Toledo:

'The priority of our recent trip to Toledo was to meet the locals to convince them of the wonder of hosting a Martin Randall Travel festival. We were welcomed into the convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo by a nun who passed a huge metal key to us from behind a hatch and told us to let ourselves into a room where – separated from her by a screen – we ‘met' the Mother Superior. Another meeting was with a Father Superior who showed us around San Juan de Los Reyes in pitch black while we waited for the lights to warm up. The torches on our phones didn’t quite do this 15th-century monastery justice, so it was quite a different experience when we returned to see it in daylight.'

Operations Executive, Emily Deaman recently returned from prospecting towns along the Seine for The Seine Music Festival, 23–30 June 2016:

'For me, the highlight of our recent prospecting trip along the Seine was visiting Château de Maisons-Lafitte, venue for Kenneth Weiss, Lucile Boulanger and Julien Leonard on The Seine Music Festival this June. Impressive from the outside, it is even more so from within, the sumptuous, high-ceilinged rooms being a perfect match for the Baroque programme.'

Tim Greenhalgh, Operations Supervisor, travelled to Albania in March to research our new tour for 2017:

'My recent journey took me along the breathtaking Ionic coast, through rugged mountains and national parks. I visited remote Byzantine churches, Greek, Illyrian and Roman sites and beautiful Ottoman towns, among them, Gjirokaster – a unesco World Heritage site, with row after row of white-painted Ottoman houses climbing up into the hillside.'

Illustrations & photographs from page 7, top to bottom: detail from a map of Europe, c. 1790; The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, taken by Martin Randall; Trieste, watercolour by Mima Nixon, 1916 as visited on The Imperial Riviera; glyphs from the altar of the Temple of the Sun, engraving c. 1840; photograph of Tarn Hows walk, taken by Amelia Blackie. From page 8: (top) The Swan Hotel in Lavenham; (middle) Toledo, lithograph c. 1840; (below) photograph of Château de Maisons-Lafitte, taken by Emily Deaman.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Destinations

Highlights of Myanmar

James Palmer, Operations Supervisor, spent twelve days in Myanmar researching our new tour for 2017.

I arrived into Yangon, formerly Rangoon, and was immediately struck by the sense of calm, the warm welcome from every quarter and the distinct lack of beeping horns. A particular pleasure here was the ability to explore the city on foot. The once majestic buildings of Customs House, the Post Office, Irrawaddy Chambers and the Secretariat stand in varying stages of disrepair, but all hanging onto their histories. Gaining access to these made the stories come alive.

Walking was also the perfect way to see daily Yangon life: commuters stopping for a road side breakfast of mohinga (fish curry with noodles) served with a spicy green mango salad and endless green tea.

Lake Inle is in complete contrast to the colonial grandeur of Yangon. Villages made up of stilted houses dot the lake, set among their floating gardens. I had to keep reminding myself it was not solid land but plots of water hyacinth bedded together and held in place with bamboo canes. Life really does exist on the water and the only means of travel is canoe – motorised or manpowered. Even monks must collect their daily alms this way, by being paddled from house to house.

A market rotates around the lake’s main towns and residents gather to sell their wares.

Pa’O women, with their black tunics and red striped headscarfs sit with heaps of fiery chillis, brought down from the surrounding Shan mountains. There are beans, vibrant vegetables, and fish, some fresh from the lake, still flapping, others dried and pungent.

Register your interest in our Myanmar tour by emailing info@martinrandall.co.uk.

Photographs taken by James Palmer: (top, left) a Pa’O woman sells chillis at Inle Lake 'five-day' market; (top, right) Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon; (middle, right) fisherman on Inle Lake; (above) the floating gardens of Inle Lake.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Christmas & New Year

Munich at Christmas Bavaria’s magnificent capital & its environs 20–27 December 2016 (md 986) 8 days • £2,980 Lecturer: Tom Abbott A wide range of art and architecture in the magnificent Bavarian capital.

Two full-day excursions to some of the most special sights in Bavaria – the beautifully preserved mediaeval town of Regensburg, and the outstanding Baroque church at Wies.

Led by Tom Abbott, cultural historian resident in Germany who has led many tours there.

Munich is everyone’s favourite German city. Not only is it the most prosperous in the country, but the attractiveness of the cityscape, the abundance of cultural activity, the relatively relaxed lifestyle and generally amenable ambience make it the most sought-after place to live and work in Germany.

The seat of the Wittelsbachs, who ruled Bavaria from 1255 until 1918 as Counts, Dukes, Electors and, from 1806, as Kings, Munich was a city which grew up around a court, not one spawned by trade or industry. Consequently, artistically and architecturally it is still one of the best-endowed centres in Europe.

There are fine buildings of every period, and it is also a city of museums. The Alte Pinakothek has one of the finest collections of Old Masters in the world, and the Treasury in the Residenz and the classical sculpture in the Glyptothek are among the best collections of their kind. There are two full-day excursions through beautiful countryside to some of the greatest sights in Bavaria – Regensburg, Linderhof Palace and the Wieskirche.

The accompanying lecturer, Tom Abbott, is a cultural historian with a wide range of knowledge and a deep understanding of contemporary Germany.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 12.00 noon from London Heathrow to Munich (British Airways). Time to settle in at the hotel before dinner.

Day 2. Begin with a visit to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the world’s greatest collections of Old Masters. After lunch continue to the Neue Pinakothek, which houses paintings from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Some free time; you may choose to also visit the Brandhorst Museum, which opened in 2009, the Pinakothek der Moderne or join a guided tour of the Art Nouveau Villa Stuck, a museum and historic house dedicated to the works of the Bavarian painter, Franz Stuck.

Day 3. The Residenz in the centre of the city was the principal Wittelsbach palace and seat of government, a magnificent sprawl of buildings, courtyards, state apartments and museums of every period from Renaissance to the end of the

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Christmas & New Year

19th century. There are fine works of art and sumptuous interiors of the highest importance, especially the Rococo interiors and the Cuvilliés Theatre (subject to confirmation as the theatre can close for rehearsals at short notice). An afternoon walk includes the vast Gothic cathedral and the pioneering Renaissance church of St Michael. There will also be the opportunity to visit the Christmas markets.

Day 4. By coach to see the architecture and monuments on the fringes of the old city, including the monumental Ludwigsstraße, Jugendstil houses and the English Garden.

Disembark at Königsplatz, a noble assembly of Neo-Classical museums, and visit the Glyptothek, an outstanding collection of Greek and Roman sculpture. After lunch visit the excellent collections of sculpture and decorative arts at the Bavarian National Museum.

Day 5, Christmas Eve: Regensburg. Travel by coach to Regensburg, one of Germany’s finest mediaeval cities, with a Gothic cathedral and parliament of the Holy Roman Empire. Return to Munich in plenty of time for Christmas dinner.

There are several musically embellished midnight masses.

Day 6, Christmas Day. The morning is free (a couple of museums are open, and, of course, there are many church services to choose from). In the afternoon visit the Church of St Peter and the Asamkirche, built and decorated by Egid Quinn Asam. The recently reopened Lenbachhaus has an outstanding collection of German Expressionist painting.

Day 7. Linderhof Palace, Wies. Travel by coach to Ettal, site of Linderhof Palace, commissioned by the legendary ‘Swan King’ Ludwig II. The lavish interiors are in Renaissance and Baroque styles and gardens include grottos and Oriental adornments. Continue to the 1740s church at Wies by Dominikus Zimmerman, one of the finest of all Rococo churches.

Day 8. Morning excursion to Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Wittelsbachs with sumptuous interiors. Fly from Munich, returning to London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,980 or £2,840 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,470 or £3,330 without flights.

Included: air travel (economy class) on scheduled British Airways flights (aircraft: A320); travel by private coach throughout; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners with wine; all admissions; tips for waiters, drivers and guides; all state and airport taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Optional music: details of performances will be sent to participants c. 6 months before the tour and tickets can be requested.

Accommodation. Platzl Hotel München (platzl. de): a 4-star hotel located in the heart of the old city. Rooms are modern and comfortable, with a safe, hairdryer and free Wi-Fi access.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking and standing around in museums, and navigation of metro and tram systems. This tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair–climbing. The excursions to Regensburg and Schloss Linderhof involve a fair amount of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 47 miles.

Group size: between 10–22 participants.

Illustrations: (left) Winter in Englilscher Garden, Munich; (right) Vienna, Josefsplatz, engraving c. 1810.

Still to come at Christmas and New Year Music in Vienna at Christmas 21–28 December 2016 Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier Full details available in May 2016 Contact us to register your interest CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

Tom Abbott. Specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a particular interest in German and American modern.

Studied Art History in the USA and Paris and has a wide knowledge of the performing arts. Since 1987 he has lived in Berlin.

Practicalities

Music in Berlin at New Year 29 December 2016–4 January 2017 Lecturer: Tom Abbott Full details available in May 2016 Contact us to register your interest

Combine this tour with: Music in Berlin at New Year, 29 December–4 January.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Christmas & New Year

Umbrian Christmas Perugia, Assisi, Arezzo, Gubbio, Spello & elsewhere 20–27 December 2016 (md 981) 8 days • £2,810 Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott This tour is currently full. To add your name to the waiting list, please contact us.

Based in Perugia, one of the largest, loveliest and artistically well-stocked of Italian hill towns – without the high-season crowds.

Also Assisi, Arezzo, Gubbio, Spello and other astoundingly attractive mediaeval towns.

Art and architecture of the utmost importance and of memorable beauty, particularly from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott, specialist in the Italian Renaissance.

Perugia encapsulates everything that is best about ancient urban Umbria. It combines mediaeval and Renaissance architecture and art of the first rank with magically attractive streets, alleys and squares. Archetypical, age-old landscape can be glimpsed through alleys or surveyed from ramparts, a marriage of man-made and natural aesthetics that is enhanced around Christmas by the relative absence of non-residents. The little hilltop city remains a living, vibrant community.

On the whole, the region is not as popular with visitors as Italy’s big-name cities and yet the artworks and buildings are among the most memorable and important in all Italy. Whoever it was who painted the major fresco cycle at Assisi (the Italian scholarly community now stands largely alone in insisting it was Giotto), it has been seen since Vasari as heralding a new millennium in the history of art. The Pisano family, Perugino, Pinturicchio and Piero della Francesca (though we pop over the border to Tuscany to see his greatest work) are among the other outstanding artists brilliantly represented.

There are visits to the most attractive of the smaller towns in the region. Their compactness makes their cultural magnificence all the more striking, and intensifies the experience by providing glimpses between the buildings of the evocative countryside, with its hills, forests and solitary churches.

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 12.30pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino and drive (3 hours) to Perugia.

Day 2: Perugia. Painting and sculpture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance dominate the morning. The civic fountain (1277–78) by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano is one of the masterpieces of mediaeval sculpture, while the otherworldly repose of Perugino’s paintings can be well appreciated in his home town. The National Gallery of Umbria is housed in one of the most

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impressive mediaeval town halls in all Italy. An afternoon walk includes a rare Etruscan gateway (c. 200 bc), mediaeval city walls and the richly embellished Renaissance façade of the church of S. Bernardino.

Day 3: Gubbio. Spilling down a hillside and offering sensational views across Umbrian countryside, Gubbio is one of the most beautiful and well preserved ancient towns in Italy. The Palazzo dei Consoli is an austerely magnificent mediaeval town hall located beside a square with one side open to the view; it houses the art gallery of the Museo Civico. Higher up, the Palazzo Ducale was built by warlord Federico da Montefeltro, one of the greatest patrons of the arts in the Early Renaissance.

Day 4: Spello, Montefalco. One of the smaller hilltop towns of the region, Spello offers alluring vistas through narrow streets, good Roman remains and the startlingly richly coloured Renaissance frescoes by Pinturicchio in the church of S. Maria Maggiore. Continue to Montefalco, an even smaller hilltop community with magnificent views of the valley below and hills around. The Renaissance treat here is the fresco cycle by Benozzo Gozzoli in S. Francesco.

Day 5: Arezzo. Venture onto the plain of the River Arno in Tuscany to visit Arezzo, which once rivalled Florence for power and influence.

Here in S. Francesco is Piero’s greatest work, The Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle which

was twenty years in the making. The capacious cathedral contains his Mary Magdalen. Other major sights include the Romanesque church of S. Maria della Pieve, location of an altarpiece

by Pietro Lorenzetti (1320) and the house of the 16th-century artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari.

Day 6, Christmas Day: Perugia. The morning is free morning. After lunch, there is a meandering walk through some of Perugia’s most beguiling streets and squares.

Day 7: Assisi. Of austere beauty, Assisi is one of the most consistently mediaeval and captivatingly lovely of Italian hilltop towns. It is was the birthplace of St Francis, who in the early 13th

Dr Michael DouglasScott. Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16thcentury Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and lived in Rome for several years.

He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Christmas & New Year

Naples at Christmas Art, antiquities & architecture century transformed the nature of Christian piety (his legacy includes the Christmas crib). Mother church of the Franciscan Order, S. Francesco contains the greatest assembly of mediaeval fresco painting in the world. The churches of S. Chiara and the cathedral are both of noble simplicity.

21–27 December 2016 (md 980) 7 days • £2,730 Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

Itinerary

Selects the best of the art, architecture and antiquities in Naples.

Day 8: Perugia. Some free time in Perugia before leaving around noon for the drive to Rome Airport. Return to Heathrow c. 7.00pm.

Led by Dr Luca Leoncini, art historian specialising in 15th- to 17th-century Italian painting.

Day 2. A first walk through the teeming old city centre includes the Cappella S. Severo, a masterpiece of Baroque art and craft with multi-coloured marbles and virtuoso sculptures, and S. Chiara, an austere Gothic church with a delightful Rococo tile-encrusted cloister. Also among the treasures seen are the churches of Il Gesù Nuovo and S. Domenico Maggiore.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,810 or £2,620 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,090 or £2,900 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts; 2 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. Hotel Brufani Palace, Perugia (brufanipalace.com): all nights are spent at the Hotel Brufani Palace, a grand 5-star hotel five minutes’ walk from the main square in Perugia.

Situated on the edge of the hill-top historical centre, it has spectacular views down over the surrounding countryside. There is a good restaurant, small indoor pool and roof terrace.

Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

How strenuous? Many visits take place in hill towns, with very steep, uneven inclines leading from the coach park. Agility and sure-footedness are particularly essential. There is a lot of coach travel. Average distance by coach per day: 65 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Illustrations: (left) Perugia, Arco della Conca, etching by Albany Howarth c. 1910; (below) Naples, 19th-century gouache.

Also visits the palaces and gardens at Caserta.

Naples is one of those rare places whose very name kindles a kaleidoscope of conflicting images. A highlight of the eighteenth-century Grand Tour, it is now all but ignored by mainstream tourism. Royal capital of the largest of the Italian kingdoms, in the twentieth century it became a byword for poverty and decline. Once it basked in a reputation for supreme beauty – ‘see Naples and die’; now it enjoys notoriety as a pit of urban ills – chaos, congestion, corruption and Camorra.

Until recently there was some truth in all of these images of modern Naples. But the city has changed – not entirely, but it is one of the most heartening examples of inner-city regeneration of the last decade or so. Traffic is still appalling, but much of the historic centre is now pedestrianised.

A burst of prosperity has transformed the ancient shopping and artisan districts.

Restoration of buildings and works of art has further increased the beauty of the city, and more churches and museums are more often open and accessible. These museums display some of the finest art and antiquities to be found in Italy, and major architectural and archaeological sites are located nearby.

Naples is a city of the south. In many ways it has more in common with Seville or Cairo than with Florence or Milan. It is a city of swaggering palaces and stupendous churches, of cacophonous street life and infectious vitality.

Exciting, exhausting, energising.

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.30pm from London Gatwick to Naples (British Airways).

Day 3. The Castel Nuovo, also known as ‘Maschio Angioino’, is a mediaeval castle located on the waterfront in Piazza Municipio. It houses the Civic Museum and its Cappella Palatina contains frescoes by Giotto. Also seen are two works by Caravaggio: his Seven Acts of Mercy in the chapel for which it was commissioned and his Martyrdom of St Ursula in a bank. The Villa Pignatelli on the Riviera di Chiaia is one of the most important examples of neo-classical architecture in Naples.

Day 4: Caserta. Situated a few miles outside Naples, the royal palace at Caserta, begun 1751, is Italy’s most magnificent and accomplished emulation of Versailles. An awesome absolutist statement, the apartments are superbly decorated and furnished and it is set within parkland and gardens equally magnificent in scale. Lunch is at a private villa.

Day 5: Christmas Day. Free morning, with a range of options for a church service, followed by Christmas lunch.

Day 6. The morning is spent at the National Archeological Museum, one of the world’s greatest collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. Many items come from the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. High on a hill which provides stunning views over the city and the Bay of Naples, the monastery of S. Martino has a church of extraordinary lavishness

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

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Naples at Christmas continued

of art and decoration and a museum of fine and decorative arts.

Day 7. Free morning. In the afternoon, drive into the hilly suburbs to visit the palace of Capodimonte, originally a giant hunting lodge.

Here is located one of Italy’s greatest art galleries, with a magnificent range of art from the Middle Ages onwards. Fly from Naples to London Gatwick, arriving at c. 9.00pm.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,730 or £2,420 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,070 or £2,760 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 2 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. Hotel Excelsior, Naples (eurostarsexcelsior.com): a 4-star hotel on the waterfront about 15 minutes on foot from Piazza Plebiscito, with spectacular views of Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. Rooms are all of a good size. Single rooms throughout are doubles for sole use. Sea views are available on request and for a supplement.

How strenuous? A large swathe of central Naples is inaccessible to traffic, certainly to coaches.

Pavements are often uneven, some roads are steep, traffic can be unpredictable. Participants need to be averagely fit and able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without any difficulty. Average coach travel per day: 13 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Dr Luca Leoncini. Art historian specialising in 15th-century Italian painting. His first degree and PhD were from Rome University followed by research at the Warburg Institute in London. He has contributed to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art and has written on Mantegna and Renaissance drawings.

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

'The wonders of Naples were shown to us in a good order.

The lecturer was a very entertaining, knowledgeable and approachable man.'

Illustration: (right) Venice, etching by Jan Vondrous, 1924.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Christmas & New Year

Venice at Christmas Painting, sculpture & architecture in the world’s most beautiful city 21–28 December 2016 (md 982) 8 days • £3,070 Lecturer: Dr Susan Steer Wide-ranging survey of art and architecture with an emphasis on the Renaissance.

Private after-hours visit to the Basilica di San Marco.

Led by Dr Susan Steer, art historian specialising in Venice, with a PhD focused on Venetian Renaissance altarpieces.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 12.30pm from London Gatwick to Venice. Cross the lagoon by motoscafo (water taxi) to the hotel.

Day 2. Cross the lagoon by motoscafo to the island of Torcello, once the rival of Venice but now scarcely inhabited. Virtually all that remains of the city is the magnificent Veneto-Byzantine baptistry and cathedral with its 12th-century mosaics. Continue to the pretty glass-making island of Murano to see the churches of S. Pietro Martire and SS. Maria e Donato. In the evening there is a special after-hours private visit to the Basilica of S. Marco, an 11th-century Byzantine church enriched over the centuries with mosaics, sculpture and various precious objects.

Day 3. The morning walk includes S. Zaccaria and S. Giovanni in Bragora, two churches with outstanding Renaissance altarpieces by Vivarini, Bellini and Cima. The Scuola di S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni has a wonderful cycle of painting

by Carpaccio. In the afternoon visit the vast gothic church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo and the early Renaissance S. Maria dei Miracoli with its multicoloured stone veneer.

Day 4: Padua. A day trip to Padua, among the most illustrious of Italian cities, and a leading centre of painting in the 14th century. The great fresco cycle by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel is a major landmark in the history of art. Colourful and lively works by Altichieri and Giusto de’ Menabuoi are in the vast multi-domed Basilica di S. Antonio, the Oratorio di S. Giorgio and the Baptistry. See also Donatello’s equestrian statue, Gattamelata.

Day 5: Christmas Day. A free morning, opportunity perhaps to attend a service in S. Marco or the English church. Before lunch see the palaces on the Grand Canal from the most Venetian of vantage-points, a gondola.

Day 6. Visit the Ca’ Rezzonico, a magnificent palace on the Grand Canal, now a museum of 18th-century art. Cross the Grand Canal to the San Polo district, location of the great Franciscan church of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari which has outstanding artworks including Titian’s Assumption, and the Scuola Grande di S. Rocco, with dramatic paintings by Tintoretto.

Day 7. In the morning see the incomparably beautiful Doge’s Palace with pink Gothic revetment and rich Renaissance interiors. Spend the afternoon in the Accademia, Venice’s major art gallery, where all the Venetian painters are well represented.

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Day 8. Free morning. Travel by motoscafo to Venice airport. Fly to London Gatwick, arriving c. 6.00pm.

Dr Susan Steer. Art historian and lecturer specialising in Venice. Her PhD focused on Venetian Renaissance altarpieces, followed by work as researcher and editor on the National Inventory of European Painting, the UK’s online catalogue. She has taught History of Art for university programmes in the UK and Italy.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £3,070 or £2,960 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,590 or £3,480 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Boeing 737); travel between Venice Airport and hotel by private water-taxi, some journeys by vaporetto and one by gondola; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 2 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips for waiters, porters; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Accommodation. Westin Europa & Regina, Venice (westineuropareginavenice.com): elegant and historic 5-star hotel on the Grand Canal, opposite the Salute. Rooms are elegantly furnished and decorated.

How strenuous? The nature of Venice means that the city is more often than not traversed on foot. Although part of her charm, there is a lot of walking and crossing of bridges; standing around in museums and palaces is also unavoidable.

This tour should not be undertaken by anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stairclimbing.

Weather: not warm, snow is possible (if unlikely) and rain probable, though sunshine and blue skies are also likely. Acqua alta (high water) is possible.

Group size: between 8 and 18 participants

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

For the world’s most beautiful city, Venice had an inauspicious start. The site was once merely a collection of mudbanks, and the first settlers came as refugees fleeing the barbarian destroyers of the Roman Empire. They sought to escape to terrain so inhospitable that no foe would follow.

The success of the community which arose on the site would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of the first Venetians. By the end of the Middle Ages Venice had become the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean and possibly the wealthiest city in Europe. The shallow waters of the lagoon had indeed kept her safe from malign incursions and she kept her independence until the end of the eighteenth century. ‘Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee, and was the safeguard of the West, Venice, eldest child of liberty.’

Trade with the East was the source of that wealth and power, and the eastern connection has left its indelible stamp upon Venetian art and architecture. Western styles are here tempered by a richness of effect and delicacy of pattern which is redolent of oriental opulence. It is above all by its colour that Venetian painting is distinguished.

And whether sonorous or poetic, from Bellini through Titian to Tiepolo, there remain echoes of the transcendental splendour of the Byzantine mosaics of St Mark’s.

That Venice survives so comprehensively from the days of its greatness, so little ruffled by modern intrusions, would suffice to make it the goal of everyone who is curious about the man-made world. Thoroughfares being water and cars nonexistent, the imagination traverses the centuries with ease. And while picturesque qualities are all-pervasive – shimmering Istrian limestone, crumbling stucco, variegated brickwork, mournful vistas with exquisitely sculpted details – there are not half-a-dozen cities in the world which surpass Venice for the sheer number of major works of architecture, sculpture and painting.

Venice in winter has one overwhelming advantage over other seasons: fewer tourists.

With most of the noisy, gaudy trappings of the tourist industry packed away, the beauties of the city are more readily appreciated, and the sense of her past greatness even more captivating.

There may be rain, there will probably be morning mists and it will be overcast for at least

some of the time, but equally likely are days of unbroken sunshine and brilliant blue skies, with a wonderful clarity in the air.

'The highlight was sitting in the Basilica of St Marco in the dark and then the lights slowly revealing the amazing interior...and all without the crowds.'

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Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur at Christmas 21–27 December 2016 (md 979) 7 days • £2,780 Lecturer: Monica Bohm-Duchen Europe’s greatest concentration of classic modern art, in a setting of idyllic scenery and pretty towns.

Bonnard, Braque, Léger, Miró, Giacometti, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir.

The lecturer is Monica Bohm-Duchen, art historian, curator and writer specialising in 20thcentury art.

Stay in Nice throughout, in a comfortable 4-star hotel on the Promenade des Anglais; all rooms have a sea view.

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR

Natural resources and climate have drawn invaders and visitors to Nice and its surroundings from the Greek colonists of classical times to the jet-set of today. But from the late nineteenth century a special category of visitor – and settler – has transformed the Côte d’Azur into the greatest concentration of modern art in Europe.

Monet first visited Antibes in 1884; Signac bought a house in the fishing village of St-Tropez in 1892; Renoir moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1895 and remained there for the rest of his life. Matisse’s first visit to the Midi in 1904 transformed his art, and from 1918 he spent more time on the Côte d’Azur than in Paris.

Matisse, Chagall and Picasso are merely among the most illustrious of the artists who chose to live in the South of France. Many of their fellow modernisers followed suit: Braque, Bonnard, Dufy, Picabia.

This tour is an extraordinary opportunity to see how modernity relates to the past as well as the present, and how gallery displays can be centred on the art, the location or the patron/collector. In Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire at Vence, traditional arts and crafts have been revived by a modern genius, as in the monumental mosaic and glass designs of Léger which can be seen at Biot.

There are also echoes of collecting habits of earlier eras in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.

The mixture of past and present and the juxtaposition of the Goût Rothschild with the beauty of its location are breathtaking. (Graham Sutherland drew exotic flowers and plants in the extraordinary gardens.)

At Antibes the Picasso Museum is housed in the Château Grimaldi, lent to Picasso as studio space in 1946 where he produced life-affirming paintings.

Old and new galleries abound, such as the Fondation Maeght, St-Paul-de-Vence, whose building (designed by José Luis Sert, 1963) makes it a work of outstanding sympathy to its natural surroundings, in gardens enlivened by Miró’s Labyrinthe and other sculptures.

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Itinerary Day 1: Nice. Fly at c. 11.45am from London Heathrow to Nice. There is an afternoon visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Cheret, concentrating on their 19th- and early 20thcentury holdings (Monet, Renoir, Dufy, etc.). All six nights are spent in Nice.

Day 2: Nice, Vence, Cagnes-sur-Mer. The Musée Matisse unites a wide range of the artist’s work; sculpture, ceramics, stained glass as well as painting. Vence, an artists’ colony, has the Chapel of the Rosary, designed and decorated by Matisse. Renoir’s house at Cagnes-sur-Mer is set amidst olive groves, a memorial to the only major Impressionist to settle in the south.

Day 3: Nice. The Marc Chagall Museum has the largest collection of the artist’s works, notably the seventeen canvases of the Biblical Message, set in a peaceful garden in a salubrious Nice suburb. The afternoon is free in Nice; there is an optional visit to the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain with its excellent collection of post-war art.

Day 4, Christmas Eve: Antibes, Vallauris. Most of the paintings Picasso produced in his studio in the Château Grimaldi in 1946 have been donated to the town of Antibes. Vallauris is a centre of contemporary pottery revived by Picasso, whose masterpiece War and Peace is here.

Day 5, Christmas Day: St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, StPaul-de-Vence. Drive east to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to see the paintings, sculpture and furniture of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a mansion set in attractive gardens. The Maeght Foundation at St-Paul-de-Vence is renowned for its collections (Picasso, Hepworth, Miró, Arp, Giacometti, but not all works are shown at once) and for its architecture and setting.

Day 6: St-Tropez, Biot. Drive west to St-Tropez, which has been popular with artists since Paul Signac settled here in 1892. The Musée de l’Annonciade is one of France’s finest collections of modern art (Signac, Maillol, Matisse, Bonnard, Vlaminck, Braque). Continue to Biot and visit the renovated Musée National Fernand Léger, built to house the artist’s works bequeathed to his wife.

Day 7: Le Cannet, Nice. The first museum dedicated to the works of Bonnard opened in Le Cannet in 2011. Fly from Nice arriving at London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

Nice, etching c. 1925 by Frederick Farrell.

Monica Bohm-Duchen.

Lecturer, writer and curator specialising in 20th-century art.

She obtained her MA in Art History from the Courtauld and has lectured for the National Gallery, Tate, Royal Academy, Courtauld, Sotheby’s and Birkbeck College. Her latest book Art & the Second World War was published in 2013.

'An enjoyable itinerary with an excellent local lecturer.

A very happy group. Thank you.'

'A terrific formula, and the attention to detail which makes all the difference.'

'I really did feel like a traveller and not a tourist.'

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Tour in 2016

Verdi in Parma & Busseto Giovanna d’Arco, Masnadieri & Il Trovatore in historic theatres 19–24 October 2016 (md 919) 6 days • £2,510 (including tickets to 3 performances) Lecturers: Dr John Allison & Dr R. T. Cobianchi Three operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Giovanna d’Arco, I masnadieri, and Il trovatore.

Performed in a trio of beautiful and historically important theatres.

Visits Verdi’s place of birth at Le Roncole and his place of death at Villa Sant’Agata. Time also for the sights of Parma and Cremona.

Led by two lecturers: Dr John Allison, editor of Opera magazine, who gives talks on the music, and Dr R. T. Cobianchi, art historian.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,780 or £2,650 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,090 or £2,960 without flights.

Accommodation. Hotel La Pérouse (leshotelsduroy.com): stylish 4-star hotel partially built into the cliff and overlooking the Promenade des Anglais. Rooms are furnished in modern Provençal style and all have a sea view.

Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking and standing around in museums.

Average distance by coach per day: 40 miles Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

Itinerary Day 1: Parma. Fly at c. 10.30am from London Heathrow to Milan Linate (British Airways).

Drive to Parma, one of the loveliest of the smaller cities in Italy and the base for all five nights of the tour. There is time in the afternoon for a visit to the cathedral and baptistry, among the finest Romanesque buildings in Italy, the former with dazzling illusionistic frescoes by Correggio.

Day 2: Parma. Court city of the Farnese dynasty, Parma is a treasure house of art and architecture.

Morning visits may include a backstage tour of the Teatro Regio, subject to rehearsal schedules.

Free afternoon. Evening opera at the Teatro Farnese, used only rarely for performances: Giovanna d’Arco, Jader Bignamini (conductor), Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway (directors); Luciano Ganci (Carlo VII), Vittorio Vitelli (Giacomo), Vittoria Yeo (Giovanna), Cristiano Olivieri (Delil) and Luciano Leoni (Talbot).

Day 3: Parma, Le Roncole, Busseto. A free morning, followed by an afternoon excursion to the territory where Verdi was born, grew up and lived intermittently for much of his life. Visit his birthplace in the hamlet of Le Roncole, and Busseto, where he lived for the earlier part of his life. Evening opera at the Teatro Verdi, Busseto: I masnadieri, Simon Krecic (conductor); Leo Muscato (director).

Day 4: Sant’Agata, Cremona. An excursion begins with the villa that Verdi built for himself at Sant’Agata, and continues to Cremona. The

TOUR IN 2016

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); private coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and 5 dinners (with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips for waiters and drivers; all taxes; the services of the lecturer; hire of radio guides for better audibility of the lecturer.

The Festival Verdi takes place on the stretch of country where the composer was born, schooled, learnt his trade, and, despite youthful resentments, where he bought a farm and built a villa as a haven and retreat for the last 50 years of his life. Lying then within the Duchy of Parma, it remains predominantly rural, with the attraction of a kind of unchanging, authentic ordinariness.

This was the mis-en-scène which gave rise to an artistic oeuvre displaying a range of tumultuous passions and human empathy equalled perhaps only by Shakespeare.

A striking feature is that it uses three theatres which are of the highest historical importance and beauty. The Teatro Regio in Parma was built in 1829 by ex-Empress Maria-Luisa, modelled on La Scala in Milan. The small horse-shoe Teatro Verdi at Busseto dates to 1856 and was built within what had been the local magnate’s residence. Similarly embedded, this time in the vast ducal palace at Parma, the Teatro Farnese was constructed in 1628 and boasts the earliest surviving procenium arch.

Dating from the very middle of Verdi’s middle period, and occupying central place in the famous early 1850s trilogy also including Rigoletto and La traviata, Il trovatore is one of the best-known of all Verdi titles yet something of a rarity on stage these days. Caruso once remarked, famously if discouragingly, that all a good performance of Il trovatore needed were the four greatest singers in the world, but its celebrated numbers are not all solo and include two stirring choral scenes, the Miserere and Anvil Chorus. Recently a more nuanced approach to Manrico’s character, a great tenor role – he is a troubadour, after all – has helped to increase our understanding of the opera.

But this autumn’s festival also features two real rarities dating from the composer’s ‘galley’ years. While Giovanna d’Arco – which plays fast and loose with history by allowing Joan of Arc to die on the battlefield – is sometimes counted amongst his ugly ducklings, any banality to be found here is more than compensated for by some

of his best early music. Also based on Schiller, I masnadieri (‘The Brigands’) contains much more fine music than its neglect would suggest.

Commissioned for London, it was premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket in 1847.

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Verdi in Parma & Busseto continued

birthplace of Monteverdi, Stradivarius and Guarini and still a centre of violin making, Cremona has a splendid central square formed of cathedral, campanile (Italy’s tallest), baptistery and civic palaces. The cathedral is richly embellished with 16th-century paintings, the baptistry with Romanesque sculpture and the municipal fortresses are red-brick Gothic.

Day 5: Parma. Morning visits include a return to the vast Farnese Palace where an excellent picture collection is displayed. Free afternoon. Evening opera at the Teatro Regio: Il trovatore, Massimo Zanetti (conductor), Elisabetta Courir (director); George Petean (Il Conte di Luna), Dinara Alieva (Leonora), Enkelejda Shkosa (Azucena), Murat Karahan (Manrico), Carlo Cigni (Ferrando), Sara Rossini (Ines), Antonio Corianò (Ruiz).

Day 6. Fly from Milan Linate to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.30pm.

John Allison. Editor of Opera magazine and music critic of The Daily Telegraph. He was born in South Africa and completed his PhD degree while playing the piano and working as assistant organist at Cape Town cathedral.

Since moving to London in 1989 he has written for publications around the world, authored two books, contributed chapters to several other volumes and served on the juries of many international competitions.

Before working on The Daily Telegraph, he held positions as music critic on The Sunday Telegraph and the Times.

Dr R. T. Cobianchi. Art historian and lecturer. He completed his PhD at Warwick University, was a Rome Scholar at The British School in Rome and was fellow of both the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome, and Villa I Tatti, Florence­. His research includes iconography and patronage of the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,510 or £2,400 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,810 or £2,700 without flights.

TOUR IN 2016

Included: tickets to three performances (see below); flights (economy class) with British Airways (Airbus A320); private coach for transfers and excursions; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine; tips for waiters, drivers, guides; state and airport taxes; the services of two lecturers.

Music: tickets for 3 performances are included, costing c. £400. We have obtained top category tickets for Giovanna d’Arco and Il Trovatore in Parma. The tickets for I Masnadieri in Busseto are of a lower category, in the central gallery, but the theatre is very small and sight lines are good.

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Accommodation. Hotel Stendhal, Parma (hotelstendhal.it): a quiet 4-star hotel, the best located in the middle of the historic centre, run

by Mercure hotels.

How strenuous? Some walking is unavoidable as coaches are not permitted into historic town centres. Average distance by coach per day: 53 miles.

'A very good short break intellectually conducted in brilliant weather and with some interesting fellow travellers.'

'The two lecturers were superb!'

Group size: between 8 and 22 participants.

Illustrations: (above) Parma, theatre in the Ducal Palace, lithograph 1822; (right) etching 1927 by E. J. Detmol.

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Oman Peoples, customs & landscapes of Arabia 5–15 November 2016 (md 935) 11 days/10 nights • £4,730 Lecturer: Professor Dawn Chatty 7–17 January 2017 (md 110) 11 days/10 nights • £4,830 Lecturer: Professor Dawn Chatty Remarkable landscape, hill forts, traditional souqs, archaeological sites.

The toehold of Arabia, with a diverse population reflecting its mercantile past.

Accompanied by a social anthropologist long involved in the Middle East.

All the hotels are comfortable, some are superb, plus a night in a desert camp.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 9.05pm from London Heathrow (Oman Air) for the seven-hour overnight flight to Muscat (currently the only direct flight from London).

Day 2: Muscat. Land at c. 8.20am. Hotel rooms are at your disposal for the morning. Greater Muscat is spread out along the coast with a dramatic mountain backdrop. Visit the privately owned Bait al Zubair housing the family collection of Omani artefacts. First of two nights in Muscat.

Day 3: Barka, Nakhl. By 4-wheel-drive to the traditionally furnished 17th century fortified house Bait Na’aman. Continue onto the impressive Rustaq and Nakhl Forts, the latter perched grandly on the foothills of the Western Hajar Mountains. Overnight Muscat.

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Day 4: Muscat, Jabrin. With seven minarets, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is impressively ornate. Leave Muscat by 4-wheel- drive for Nizwa. The most impressive fort in Oman is at Jabrin; sensitively restored, the plasterwork, wood carvings and painted ceilings are magnificent.

First of two nights in Nizwa.

Day 5: Nizwa area. Visit to the 17th century Nizwa Fort, palace, seat of government and prison. Some free time to explore the fascinating souqs and markets. Bahla is home to a range of craft workers, pottery being particularly noteworthy. Bahla Fort, dates from pre-Islamic times (World Heritage Site, interior closed for restoration). The rarely-visited archaeological site of Al Ayn is a collection of Bronze Age beehive tombs sitting atop a rugged ridge with the Jebel Misht as a backdrop. Overnight Nizwa.

Day 6: Nizwa, Wahiba. Drive to Ibra, the once opulent market town which stood on the trade route linking the interior to the coast. Arrive at Wahiba Sands, a sea of high rolling dunes. Watch the sunset and camp overnight in the desert.

Day 7: Wahiba, Sur. After a free morning travel by 4-wheel-drive through the spectacular desert scenery. Until the 20th century Sur was famous throughout Arabia as a major trading port with East Africa. See the charming fishing village of Al Aijah, the shipyards still in operation and the displays of traditional dhows at Fath al Khair Park. Overnight Sur. Day 8: Sur, Salalah. 4-wheel-drive to Muscat, via the ancient port of Qalhat, to catch an afternoon flight to Salalah, which despite its size is considered Oman’s second city and capital of the Dhofar region. First of three nights in Salalah.

Day 9: Khor Rori. Spend the morning at the lush Wadi Darbat before visiting the ruins at Khor Rori. Formerly known as Sumhuraman, the settlement was an important frankincense trading port 2,000 years ago, forwarding this precious commodity to Damascus and Rome.

Overnight Salalah.

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Wilfred Thesiger was motivated to cross the Empty Quarter not only by his desire to gain further recognition as a traveller but by the hope that he would find peace and solitude in the remote desert landscapes. He also yearned to gain the friendship of the Bedu who journeyed with him and whom he encountered during his traverse. The possibility of travelling to little-visited locations, relaxing in inspiring surroundings and developing understanding with new peoples is no less possible in Oman in 2015 than it was in 1946.

The country provides a diverse range of extraordinary natural beauty: deserts, mountains, wadis, beaches. Visitors also experience the kindness and friendliness of the Omanis. With relatively few, although gradually increasing number of visitors a year, Oman is still not over-developed, unlike some of its neighbouring Gulf states.

Evidence of settlement dates back to the fourth millennium BC with early indications of dependence on trade. First copper and then frankincense (southern Oman is one of the few places in the world where the ‘sacred frankincense’ still grows) played a key role in the country’s history. Desire to control the supply of frankincense led to incorporation in the Achaemenid and Sassanian empires until the Persians were forced out in the seventh century.

Omanis readily embraced Islam and submitted to the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphate. Trade and naval power continued to expand. Occupied by the Portuguese from 1507 to 1650, Oman flourished again after their departure with an empire reaching into East Africa, particularly Zanzibar, and the Indian Ocean. Treaties agreed with the British to protect communications with India marked the beginning of a special relationship, which continued beyond the formal termination of the protectorate in 1971.

Meanwhile, the division of the Omani empire between the sultan of Zanzibar and the sultan of Muscat in 1856 resulted in economic decline

for both and internal conflicts in the latter.

Successive sultans failed to tackle the problems and Oman stagnated.

The coming to power of Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970 heralded a new era. Though its oil revenues are relatively small, they have been used wisely to the benefit of the Omani people, for infrastructure, employment and education.

Development has been rapid but controlled, guided by a determination to preserve Omani traditions.

Our comprehensive itinerary includes the highlights of this vast country: from the inland forts of Nizwa and Jabrin to the little-visited archaeological sites of Al-Balid and Khor Rori, from the mountain scenery in the Western Hajar to the remoteness of the Wahiba Sands, from the bustling capital Muscat to the contrasting landscapes of the southern region of Dhofar.

Other features of this tour are the opportunity to camp overnight in the Wahiba Sands, stay by the Indian Ocean and shop in souqs suffused with the scent of frankincense. Oman is opening up to a privileged few.

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Oman continued

Temples of Tamil Nadu Architecture, sculpture & ancient rituals

Professor Dawn Chatty. Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford.

She has long been involved with the Middle East as a university teacher, development practitioner, and advocate for indigenous rights. She has carried out research among Bedouin sheep herders in Syria and Lebanon and camel nomads in Oman. Dawn was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.

Day 10: Al Balid. Ancient Zafar, flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries and was visited by Marco Polo. The museum exhibits finds from the ruins of Al Balid and other artefacts from the area. The afternoon is free to relax by the Indian Ocean.

Overnight Salalah.

Day 11. A mid-morning flight to Muscat connects with the early afternoon flight to London, arriving Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities Price 2016 – per person. Two sharing: £4,740 or £4,050 without flights. Single occupancy: £5,360 or £4,670 without flights.

Price 2017 – per person. Two sharing: £4,830 or £4,230 without flights. Single occupancy: £5,470 or £4,870 without flights.

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. We will arrange for these to be issued on arrival if travelling with the group, the costs of which are included in the tour price.

TOURS IN 2017

Accommodation. Al Bustan, Muscat (ritzcarlton.com): recently-renovated 5-star hotel within an exclusive resort. Nizwa Golden Hotel, Nizwa (goldentulipnizwa.com): comfortable if slightly drab 4-star hotel with a swimming pool. Desert Nights Camp, Wahiba Sands (desertnightscamp.com): luxury camp; individual tents with private facilities. Hotel Plaza, Sur (omanhotels.com/surplaza ): modern 4-star hotel.

Hotel Crowne Plaza, Salalah (crowneplaza.com): 5-star hotel, high standards of comfort. Single rooms are doubles for sole occupancy throughout.

How strenuous? This is an active tour and participants need fitness. There are long journeys by 4x4 vehicles or coach (average per day: 102 miles), two internal flights and 4 changes of accommodation. Walking is often on uneven terrain.

Group size: between 10 and 18 participants.

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23 January–5 February 2017 (md 126) 14 days • £4,960 Lecturer: Asoka Pugal The art and architecture of Hinduism, and its chronological development, in the southernmost state of the Subcontinent. Includes Mamallapuram, Thanjavur, Srirangam and Madurai.

The tour looks at other aspects of India in Pondicherry, the Chettinad region and elsewhere.

Lush tropical landscapes, rice paddies, sugar cane, coconut groves, neat colourful villages.

Since its formative phase in the seventh century ad, the southern or Dravida tradition of Indian temple architecture has shown an extraordinary continuity up to the present day, reflecting the continuity of religious practices it has framed.

This tour traces the development of that tradition throughout its history, offering an experience of its whole range of expression, from sensuous intimacy to monumental grandeur.

Like the architectural tradition, the tour begins with the seventh-century temples of the Pallava dynasty at their seaport of Mamallapuram: rock-cut cave sanctuaries where mythological moments are presented in overwhelming relief carvings, and monolithic shrines conceived as palaces of the gods. The famous shore temple belongs to the eighth century. By this time the Pallava rulers could aspire to the status of universal monarch, and Rajasimha, at his capital Kanchipuram, built the great Kailasanatha (Lord of Mount Kailasa), a ‘temple mountain’ that represents the entire cosmos, linking the human world with the heavens.

Smaller temples were the rule, however, erected in villages and at sacred sites as agriculture and Hindu society expanded across the region. The tour includes examples from the Chola period (ninth to thirteenth centuries) in the Cauvery basin, noted for their exquisite sculpture in granite. From this fertile heartland the cultural influence of the Chola realm spread across the seas to Southeast Asia.

In complete contrast to the human scale of local shrines, the imperial Chola temples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are India’s most colossal religious monuments. With its 60m-high tower, the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur (Tanjore) uses forty times as much stone as the average Chola temple. Assigned to this establishment were no fewer than four hundred dancing girls.

The later Chola temples initiated the trend towards ever larger temple complexes, with concentric enclosures entered through towering gopurams (gateways). These ‘temple-cities’ reached their apogee under the Nayaka rulers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), enclosures and gopurams being added on an increasingly

Madurai, temple gate, watercolour by W.S. Bagdatopulas, 1935.

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monumental scale, the precincts including water tanks and great pillared halls. Temple complexes became powerful economic units, housing a multiplicity of functions – ritual, administrative, artistic, musical, educational and charitable.

The tour covers several of these later complexes, each of them still thronging with life as a thriving cult centre. To wander in the streets of temple towns such as Chidambaram and Srirangam reveals how the temple determines the nature of the whole settlement, both in its formal layout and in the ritual and processional activities that punctuate the religious calendar.

As well as the dazzling range of sculpture that forms an inseparable part of South Indian temple architecture, there are rare remnants of early Indian painting which developed in parallel.

The tour enables participants to examine traces of painting from the Pallava period, the unique eighth-century murals in the Jain cave temple at Sittanavasal, and the wonderful Chola murals in the Brihadishvara, Thanjavur, as well as works of the Nayaka period and the later Tanjore school.

Other aspects of the tour complement the focus on temples. The courtyard houses of Chettinad were the homes of Chettiar merchants, a community whose patronage of temples in the colonial period helped to ensure the continuation of the Dravida tradition. The former French colony of Pondicherry contains interesting architectural examples of cross-cultural interaction.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Chennai (Madras). Fly from London Heathrow at c. 1.00pm direct to Chennai, and after a 5½ hour time change, reach the hotel at c. 5.30am on Day 2. Those not taking our group flights can check in from 2.00pm on Day 1.

Day 2: Chennai. Nothing is planned before lunch.

In the afternoon, visit the bronze collection of the Government Museum. Overnight Chennai.

Day 4: Mamallapuram. The elegant Shore Temple combines shrines to Shiva and Vishnu.

The 7th-century monolithic shrines, including the so-called five rathas (chariots), are a veritable catalogue of the architectural possibilities inherent in the Dravida tradition at this early stage, which clearly evolved out of the early wooden architectural tradition. Overnight Mamallapuram.

Day 5: Kanchipuram. Once the Pallava capital and still an important holy city, Kanchipuram is

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Day 6: Pondicherry. Pondicherry (two hours by coach) is a former French enclave acquired in 1674 which retains much of its colonial charm.

Two respective walks in the French Quarter and the Tamil Quarter highlights the dual cultural heritage of this pleasant seaside town. Overnight Pondicherry.

Day 7: Chidambaram, Gangaikondacholapuram. The temple town of Chidambaram is planned on the mandala principle around the 12th-century Nataraja Temple. Home to Shiva as the cosmic dancer, there is sculpture depicting classical dance and lively 17thcentury narrative ceiling paintings. Continue to Gangaikondacholapuram, the ‘City of the Chola who conquered the Ganges’: the Brihadishvara is a gigantic imperial Chola temple erected by Rajendra I (1012–44). The composition of the tower is subtle and complex. First of two nights in Veppathur, near Kumbakonam.

Day 8: Kumbakonam, Darasuram, Swamimalai.

Kumbakonam is a thriving town with numerous temples from the Chola period and later, including the Nageshvara which has some of the finest early Chola sculpture. The Mahamakam tank (17th-century) is said to unite the waters of all India’s sacred rivers. At Darasuram, the Airavateshvara temple (12th-century) is a late Chola masterpiece (1146-72), beguilingly sensuous and architecturally lucid. The Sthala Puranam Temple at Swamimalai, dedicated to Lord Murugan (son of Shiva), is on a hill with city views. Overnight Veppathur.

Day 9: Thanjavur. Drive to Thanjavur to visit the Brihadishvara, Rajaraja I’s colossal imperial temple (c. 1010). The compound is entered via the earliest of the truly monumental gopurams and also contains a variety of subsidiary shrines, including the finely chiselled Subrahmanya (17th-century). The museum in the Nayaka palace houses a fine collection of Chola sculpture, including bronzes. Lunch is at a resort on the attractive banks of the Cauvery River. In the afternoon, drive to the Chettinad region for the first of two nights in Kanadukathan.

Day 10: Srirangam, Nattarmalai, Sittanavasal.

Srirangam is a classic temple town dominated by the concentric enclosures of the huge Ranganatha temple complex (13th century onwards). Among the numerous structures is the Rangavilasa Mandapa with columns teeming with sculpture.

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Day 3: Chennai, Mamallapuram. Drive to Mamallapuram, in the morning. After lunch, visit the 7th-century cave temples with mythological relief panels, including the extraordinarily dynamic Mahishasuramardini (Durga slaying the buffalo demon) and the great Arjuna’s penance relief (Descent of the Ganges). Overnight Mamallapuram.

full of ancient temples. The Kailasanatha Temple, the cosmic mountain of Pallava ruler Rajasimha (c. 700–728) dedicated to Shiva, is within a walled compound and girdled with shrines. The rarely visited Vaikunta Perumal Temple has a sculptural programme depicting the origin and history of the Pallava kings. The Ekambareshvara Temple, with its towering gopurams of the Vijayanagara period (16th-century), gives a first taste of a large temple complex still very much in use. Overnight Mamallapuram.

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Temples of Tamil Nadu continued

The 9th-century Vijayalaya-Cholishvara temple is set in a beautiful hilly landscape at Nattarmalai.

Continue through enchanting countryside to the Arivar Koil cave temple (8th-century) containing vibrant mural paintings evoking the abundance of nature. Overnight Kanadukathan, near Karaikudi.

Day 11: Alagarkovil, Madurai. A relaxing morning walk through the small Chettinad town of Kanadukathan. Visit a family mansion, a fine example of shared accommodation according to the Chettiar tradition. In the afternoon drive to Madurai, via Alagarkovil, a hilltop temple dedicated to Kallalagar, a form of Vishnu. First of two nights in Madurai.

Day 12: Madurai. The vast Meenakshi Temple complex, mostly erected in the 17th century under the Nayaka rulers when Madurai was an independent kingdom, is the epitome of a South Indian ‘temple-city’. Its towering gateways, swathed in coloured figures, rise up to 60m. The Pudu mandapa is an open hall with huge and exuberant sculpted piers with portrait sculptures of Nayaka kings and ministers. The grand pillared Celestial Pavilion is all that remains of the 17th-century Thirumalai Nayaka Palace.

Overnight Madurai.

Day 13: Thiruparankundram, Chennai. The 8thcentury Pandyan Temple at Thiruparankundram, cut into a granite hill, is considered one of the sacred abodes of Murugan. The shrine contains depictions of Durga and Ganesh and is approached by a series of mandapas (17thand 18th-cents.). Afternoon flight Madurai to Chennai; overnight Chennai.

Day 14: Chennai to London. The only direct flight from Chennai leaves at c. 5.30am and arrives at London Heathrow at c. 12.00 noon.

TOURS IN 2017

Asoka Pugal. Historian and lecturer. Born in Tamil Nadu, he graduated from the University of Madras followed by postgraduate studies at Madras Law College. He has worked in the tourist industry for many years and has produced TV documentaries. In 2001, he joined the Board of studies in Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Madras.

‘Having a local lecturer who really knew his subject and who had numerous local contacts made all the difference.’

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Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £4,960 or £4,250 without international flights.

Single occupancy: £5,720 or £5,010 without international flights.

Included meals: 11 lunches (including 2 packed lunches) and 9 dinners with wine or beer Accommodation. Taj Coromandel, Chennai (tajhotels.com): a comfortable heritage hotel catering for both the business and leisure traveller. The Art Deco rooms are wellappointed and bathrooms have bathtubs and separate showers. Radisson Blu Temple Bay, Mamallapuram (radissonblu.com): a seafront resort with direct access to the beach. Rooms are spacious and neat. Palais de Mahé, Pondicherry (cghearth.com): an attractively restored 18thcentury mansion in the heart of the French Quarter. Each room is elegantly decorated with vintage furniture and all modern amenities.

Mantra Resort, Veppathur, near Kumbakonam (mantraveppathur.com): set in a peaceful, rural location, immersed in a garden of coconut palms with a pool. The cottage rooms are simple but comfortable, traditional in style, with outside seating on a porch. Visalam, Kanadukathan, near Karaikudi (cghearth.com): an attractive and sensitively restored mid 20th-century Chettinad mansion in the heart of a small town. Rooms are large with period touches, and some open out on to the surrounding garden, where there is a pool.

Taj Gateway, Madurai (thegatewayhotels.com): set in 60 acres of lush garden on Pasumalai Hill, this is a comfortable hotel with well-equipped rooms furnished in colonial style. Trident Hotel, Chennai (tridenthotels.com): a well-run 4-star hotel conveniently located for access to the airport.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty and are reliably surefooted, these tours are not for you.

A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided.

Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some fairly steep ascents to temples. Usually there are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Combine this tour with: Kingdoms of the Deccan, 10–23 February 2017.

Mozart in Salzburg 28 January–2 February 2017 (md 105) 6 days • £3,340 (including tickets to 8 performances) Lecturer: Richard Wigmore Daily attendance at the Mozartwoche, the annual festival celebrating the composer’s work in the town of his birth.

An outstanding programme, performed by leading orchestras, chamber groups and soloists.

The best-preserved Baroque city in northern Europe in a wonderful alpine setting.

Five-star hotel close to the Mozarteum.

Led by Richard Wigmore, music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3.

Salzburg is that rare thing, a tiny city with world-class standards in nearly everything the discerning visitor – and resident – would want.

It is miraculous that such charm, and such grandeur, and, above all, such unparalleled weight of musical achievement, should be concentrated in so small a place.

A virtually independent city-state from its origins in the early Middle Ages until its absorption into the Habsburg Empire in the nineteenth century, Salzburg’s days of glory had all but slipped into the past by the time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born there. He became the unwitting instigator, post-mortem, of Salzburg’s transformation from minor ecclesiastical seat to the world’s foremost city of music festivals. There are five of them. The Mozartwoche (Mozart Week) held in January every year celebrates Salzburg’s most famous son with musicians famed worldwide for their Mozart interpretations.

Our tour allows the concerts to be interspersed with a gentle programme of walks and visits to see some of the finest art and architecture in the city. But there is also plenty of free time to relax and gather energies for the performances, and for individual exploration.

The city has several museums – a recent addition is a Museum of Contemporary Art in a cliff-top location overlooking the city, and the city’s principal museum has been re-established in a part of the Archbishop’s palace known as the Neue Residenz.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 9.30am from London Gatwick to Salzburg (British Airways). An introductory lecture and early dinner before an evening concert at the Großes Festspielhaus with Thomas Hengelbrock (conductor), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Mozart, Overture from Don Giovanni K.527, Piano Concerto in D minor K.466; Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Op.55, ‘Eroica’.

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Day 2. Morning concert at the Mozarteum with Sir András Schiff (conductor & piano) and Cappella Andrea Barca: Haydn, Keyboard Concerto No. 11 in D (Hob. XVIII/11); Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D K.504, ‘Prague’; Haydn, Symphony No. 101 in D (Hob. I/101), ‘The Clock’; Mozart, Piano Concerto No.23 in A K.488. An afternoon walk through the heart of the old city with a local guide includes a churche by the greatest master of Austrian Baroque, Fischer von Erlach, the late-Gothic Franciscan church and the mighty cathedral, the first major Baroque building north of the Alps.

Evening concert at the Mozarteum with Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor) and the Orchestra of the Mozarteum Salzburg: Haydn, Symphony No.94 in G (Hob.I/94), ‘Surprise’, Symphony No.96 in D (Hob.I/96), ‘Miracle’, Symphony No.100 in G (Hob.I/100), ‘Military’.

Day 3. A second guided walk includes a visit to the 18th-century Mirabell Gardens and the former Mozart family home. Then a private guided tour of the Mozarteum’s Autograph Vault, containing original letters and manuscripts.

Evening concert at the Mozarteum with Camerata Salzburg and Fazil Say (piano): Haydn, Symphony No.22 in E-flat (Hob.I/22), ‘The Philosopher’; Mozart, Piano Concerto No.4 in G, K.41; Piano Concerto No.5 in D, K.175; Piano Concerto No.6 in B-flat, K.238; Haydn, Symphony No.8 in G (Hob.I/8), ‘Le Soir’.

Day 4. Morning concert at the Mozarteum with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski (conductor), Johannes Hinterholzer (horn): Haydn, Symphony No.83 in G (Hob.I/83), ‘The Hen’; Mozart, Horn Concerto No.3 in E-flat, K.447; Haydn, Symphony No.92 in G (Hob.I/92),

Oxford. Afternoon visit to Mozart’s birthplace, now an excellent museum. Evening concert at the Mozarteum with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Robin Ticciati (conductor) and Maria João Pires (piano): Dvořák, Legends, Op.59; Mozart, Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K.467; Haydn, Symphony No.104 in D (Hob.I/104).

Day 5. Morning concert at the Mozarteum with Renaud Capuçon (violin) and Kit Armstrong (piano): Mozart, Sonatas for piano and violin in F, K.376; in E, K.380; in G, K.379; in A, K.526.

Optional afternoon visit to the Alte Residenz, a complex dating back to the 16th century, housing a sequence of a dozen impressive state rooms, of which several were redesigned in the Baroque style by Erlach and Hildebrandt. The adjoining Residenzgalerie contains a collection of 16th–19th-century European painting, including works by Rembrandt and Rubens. Evening concert at the Großes Festspielhaus with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet Séguin (conductor) and Roland Villazón (tenor): Mozart, Symphony No.39 in E-flat, K.543; Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550, and a selection of arias for tenor and orchestra.

Day 6. The flight from Salzburg arrives at London Gatwick c. 11.30am.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £3,340 or £3,230 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,630 or £3,520 without flights.

Included: air travel (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus A319); accommodation

as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 3 dinners with wine; private coach for the airport transfers; all admissions to museums; tips for waiters, drivers and local guides; all state and airport taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Music: tickets (top category) for 8 performances are included, costing c. £1,100.

Accommodation. Hotel Bristol (hotel.bristolsalzburg.at): 5-star family-run hotel, excellently located two minutes walk from the Mozarteum and just across the river from the Festspielhaus (600 metres). Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking within the old town centre where vehicular access is restricted. The tour is planned on the expectation that participants walk to and from the concert venues.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Richard Wigmore.

Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and and has taught classes in Lieder history and intepretation at Guildhall, Trinity Laban and Birkbeck College. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

Illustration: Panorama of Salzburg.

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Kingdoms of the Deccan Art & architecture, sixth to eighteenth centuries 10–23 February 2017 (md 143) 14 days • £5,210 Lecturer: Asoka Pugal Islamic architecture in the four cities of the Bahmani sultanate founded in the 14th and 15th centuries (Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Golconda).

Hindu architecture of the Chalukyas from the 6th to the 12th centuries (Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal).

Hyderabad was one of India’s largest princedoms and retains a rich artistic heritage.

Hampi was capital of the leading Hindu power from the 14th to 16th centuries, a most beautiful and fascinating centre.

The Deccan plateau has distinctive, dramatic, rocky landscapes.

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Vijayanagara, the City of Victory, was founded in 1336 and its eponymous empire ruled the Deccan until its defeat by the Islamic forces at the battle of Talikota in 1565. This political entity is often regarded by historians as the last Hindu power of the region. It marks the transition between the early Hindu kingdoms, such as the Chalukyas who ruled from the sixth century to the twelfth, and the Muslim sultanates which succeeded them and continued to rule until Independence in 1947.

The Chalukyas’ architectural tradition developed from the early rock-cut caves at Aihole and Badami to the free-standing structural Hindu temples in Pattadakal. This evolution is clearly confined to sacred architecture.

By contrast, the Vijayanagara empire, while further developing and standardising the sacred architecture of Hinduism, also developed an imperial idiom, mixing sacred and vernacular elements and gradually integrating Islamic elements borrowed from the emerging sultanates.

From the fourteenth century onwards, the Deccan saw a sequence of four Islamic sultanates, each with its own capital. In 1347, Ala-ud-Din Bahman founded his capital in Gulbarga after declaring his independence from the Delhi sultans. The capital was later shifted to Bidar in 1425. Bijapur and Golconda later gained importance following the demise of Bidar.

The foundation of every new capital gave impetus to the local building traditions. Unlike in north India where most Islamic centres were built on existing Hindu cities, the Deccan sultanates built their capitals anew and a distinct Islamic architecture developed.

A feature of the tour is time spent visiting places where very few tourists venture. This involves some long coach journeys and two overnight stays in fairly simple accommodation, but the reward is the thrill of deserted citadels with their superb palaces and mosques and impressive fortifications.

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Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Hyderabad. Fly from London Heathrow at c. 2.45pm direct to Hyderabad, and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in Hyderabad at c. 7.15am on Day 2. Those not taking our group flights can check in from 2.00pm on Day 1.

Day 2: Hyderabad. The morning is free. In the afternoon walk in Lal Bazaar, the centre of the historical city; see the Char Minar, the monumental gateway to the new 16th-century palace complex. Overnight Hyderabad.

Day 3: Golconda. Now within Hyderabad, Golconda was the first Islamic settlement in the area. The citadel of the Qutb Shahis, protected by three concentric walls built 1512–1687, is an excellent example of the Bahmani military architecture. Nearby are grand royal tombs, with bulbous domes and elaborate stucco, and the Badshahi Ashurkhana is a very fine example of the Shia architectural tradition. Lunch today is in the former Nizam’s palace. Overnight Hyderabad.

Day 4: Hyderabad. Today’s visits focus on Hyderabad after it was annexed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1687 and subsequently ruled by the Nizam. The Chaumahalla Palace was completed in 1750 and comprises four mansions set around a garden. The Durbar Hall (public meeting space) with its Belgian crystal chandeliers is an indication of the Nizam’s wealth and taste for things European. The day ends with a special visit to a private collection of Indian paintings and textiles. Overnight Hyderabad.

Day 5: Bidar. A four-hour drive to Bidar, the capital of the Bahmani Sultanate from 1425 until its annexation to the kingdom of Bijapur in 1619.

Of particular interest are the 16-pillared mosque and the Rangeen Mahal, the Palace of Colours, so called because of the wall tiles and mother-ofpearl inlays. Following a visit to the Royal Tombs at Ashtur, continue to Gulbarga. Overnight Gulbarga.

Day 6: Gulbarga, Bijapur. The small town of Gulbarga is of major historical importance.

The first Bahmani capital in the Deccan, it was founded in 1347 before being abandoned in

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‘Very well planned and paced.

Combined some very well-known sites with great surprises.’

1424 in favour of Bidar. The Jami Masjid (Friday Mosque), similar to the Cordoba Mezquita in form and dimensions, is unique in south India as it is fully covered and has no minarets; one theory claims it was built as a palace. A five-hour drive to Bijapur, arriving in time to visit the Gol Gumbaz, a monumental domed tomb, before sunset. Overnight Bijapur.

Day 7: Bijapur, Badami. In the morning there is a walk through the old town to see the many historic buildings. The walk continues around the city walls and gates. The Ibrahim Rauza tomb complex consists of two intricately carved twin buildings finished in 1626, the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah II and the mosque. In the afternoon we leave the Islamic region and drive for four hours to the centre of the former Hindu Chalukya kingdom. First of three nights in Badami.

Day 8: Aihole, Pattadakal. Numerous Jain and Hindu temples are scattered around the village of Aihole, a clear sign of its religious significance from the 6th to the 12th centuries. The sculptures of the Durga temple are among the finest of the Chalukya period. The World Heritage Site of Pattadakal nearby is celebrated for embodying the last stage of Chalukyan architecture, 8th–9th centuries. This is a unique site where the three distinct styles of Indian religious architecture are found in close proximity. Overnight Badami.

Day 9: Badami. The capital of the early Chalukyas from the 6th to the 8th centuries, Badami has superb examples of early sacred architecture, both rock-cut and free-standing.

Moreover, the sculptural programme of the cave temples provides a fascinating insight into the Hindu iconographic development of this period.

Overnight Badami.

Day 11: Hospet, Hampi. The ruins of the Vijayanagara capital, 1336–1565, lie in a remarkable landscape strewn with granite boulders and spread along the Tunghabhadra river. The extensive site is organised around two main areas, the Sacred Centre with its concentration of temples and shrines, and the Royal Centre. The Sacred Centre is close to the river and includes the Virupaksha Temple in the middle of the village and Hemakuta Hill with its numerous shrines and commanding views of the area. Overnight Hospet.

Day 13: Hospet, Belgaum. Depart in the early morning to drive to Belgaum airport for a midday flight to Mumbai (Bombay). The afternoon is free.

Overnight Mumbai.

Day 14: Mumbai. Drive to the airport to board a flight departing at c. 1.15pm. Arrive at London Heathrow at c. 5.45pm.

Asoka Pugal. Historian and lecturer.

Born in Tamil Nadu, he graduated from the University of Madras followed by postgraduate studies at Madras Law College. He has worked in the tourist industry for many years and has produced TV documentaries. In 2001, he joined the Board of studies in Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Madras.

half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard.

Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require some vigilance. There are fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples and long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. Average distance by coach per day: 56 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Combine this tour with: Temples of Tamil Nadu, 23 January–5 February 2017.

Illustrations: (left) 'The Welcome of Hyderabad', watercolour

by Donald Maxwell c. 1930; (below) Charl miar, Hyderabad, steel engraving c. 1850.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £5,210 or £4,490 without international flights.

Single occupancy: £5,750 or £5,030 without international flights.

Included meals: 12 lunches (including 3 packed lunches) and 12 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Some of the hotels on this tour are less than luxurious, but they are adequately clean and comfortable and all the rooms have en suite bathrooms. Taj Krishna, Hyderabad (tajhotels.com): grand and comfortable 5-star hotel, modern if a little dated. Lumbinis Grand Hotel, Gulbarga (lumbinisgrandhotel. com): fairly simple though the best in town; clean and not uncomfortable, rooms are spacious and have en suite facilities. Madhuvan International, Bijapur: basic but friendly hotel, similar to Gulbarga. Badami Court, Badami (hotelbadamicourt.com): a pleasant hotel with willing service around a garden with a small pool.

Heritage Resort, Hampi (heritageresorthampi. com): the newest and best in town, located 6 km from Vijayanagara World Heritage Site. The Leela, Mumbai (theleela.com): a conveniently located 5-star hotel with all modern amenities.

TOURS IN 2017

Day 10: Badami. Free morning in Badami, now a charming small town beside a lake overlooked by rugged red sandstone cliffs. In the afternoon there is a five-hour drive through remote and rural countryside to Hospet, our base to visit the World Heritage Site of Hampi. First of three nights here.

Day 12: Hampi. Following a visit to the Vitthala temple, today’s visits focus on the Royal Centre and its secular buildings. Most striking is the Lotus Mahal in the Zenana enclosure with its cusped arches and pyramidal towers, a superb example of the syncretic architecture of Vijayanagara. Overnight Hospet.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least

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Puccini in Cardiff La Bohème, Madame Butterfly & Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé

5–18 February 2017 (md 148) 4 days • £1,080 (including tickets to 3 performances) Lecturer: Simon Rees Two legendary productions of two of the best loved operas by Giacomo Puccini, La Bohème and Madama Butterfly.

Also a rare opportunity to hear Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé, a 20th-century variant on the Tristan and Isolde legend.

Stay in a 5-star hotel within walking distance of the opera house, and see some of the highlights of Cardiff ’s arts and heritage.

Led by Simon Rees, writer, lecturer and former dramaturg of Welsh National Opera.

TOURS IN 2017

‘Fresh, open and heartfelt, Annabel Arden’s lovely new production of La Bohème is marked by a filmic fluidity and simplicity. Parisian landscapes and images of night skies and snowfalls are projected on to gauzy scrims, with minimal props and costuming suggesting the fin de siècle era…. There are no tricks, nothing seems faux or grafted… Arden’s unassertive direction makes the joy and disillusion of these young people real and their tragedy immediate.’ So wrote Rupert Christiansen in 2012, when the production was new and praised universally.

Joachim Herz’s Madama Butterfly is another hugely successful Welsh National Opera (WNO) production; it has been repeatedly revived for nearly four decades. The staging is classic, traditional even, with each scene like a sepia photograph through which we glimpse

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a vanished world. ‘It now seems a model production… stylishly Japanese when required in the first act, cleverly westernising later as Cio-Cio San practises being Mrs Pinkerton. Reinhart Zimmermann’s delicate sliding screens are ideal as design and perfection as a practical, mobile setting… expressive of the culture clash which… is both the landscape and the cause of its tragedy.’

(John Walsh, 2013.)

David Pountney, who has led WNO since 2011, programmes seasons which bring together thematically linked works, often with two familiar operas and one rarity. Frank Martin (1890–1974) is an unjustly neglected Swiss composer who composed Le Vin Herbé in 1941 to a libretto based on Joseph Bédier’s Roman de Tristan et Iseut from 1900. The result is an intimate, exquisite and elegant tragedy.

In its programming and productions WNO strives to combine adventurousness with accessibility, and commitment to developing new audiences with musical and dramatic integrity.

The company punches far above its weight and it is one of the most admired centres of operatic exellence in Europe.

In 2004 WNO moved into their current home, the Wales Millennium Centre. The architectural brief was to build something ‘unmistakeably Welsh and internationally outstanding.’ The winning firm, Percy Thomas, came up with a monumental yet accessible structure of slate, glass, steel and timber built to withstand the lashings of the elements on its coastal location.

Itinerary Day 1. The tour begins at 4.00pm with a short walk from the hotel across the Cardiff Bay development to the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) for a lecture and pre-opera dinner.

Opera: La Bohème, Annabel Arden (original director), Stephen Brimson Lewis (designer), Manlio Benzi (conductor), Tim Mitchell (lighting designer), Nina Dunn (video designer), Philippe Giraudeau (choreographer), Marina CostaJackson, Dominick Chenes, Gary Griffiths, Lauren Fagan, Gareth Brynmor John.

Day 2. By boat along the River Taff to the city centre. Cardiff Castle has some Roman and mediaeval masonry but it is celebrated for its extraordinary Victorian interiors, a creative collaboration by the Marquess of Bute and the architect William Burgess. Return to Cardiff Bay for some free time before a back-stage tour of the WMC, a lecture and the opera: Le Vin Herbé (Frank Martin 1941), Alexander Martin (conductor), Polly Graham (director), April Dalton (designer), Jurgita Adamonytė (Isolde), TBA (Tristan). Dinner is in the hotel.

Day 3. Cardiff’s civic centre is perhaps the grandest in regional Britain, with a number of magnificent Edwardian buildings around a rectangular park. Visit the City Hall and the National Museum of Wales which has an art

collection outstanding for French Impressionists and British 20th-century painting. Some free time, lecture, dinner, opera: Madama Butterfly, Joachim Herz (director), Caroline Chaney (revival director), Reinhart Zimmermann (designer), Eleonore Kleiber (costume designer), John Waterhouse (lighting designer) Lawrence Foster (conductor), Linda Richardson, Paul Charles Clarke, David Kempster, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones.

Day 4. Begun in 1268, Caerphilly Castle was the first in Britain to adopt concentric defences, and is the second largest castle in the country.

It remains immensely impressive and its moats are filled with water. Intended as an occasional summer retreat, Castell Coch is another Gothic fantasy confected by Burgess for Bute, reputedly the world’s richest man at the time. The coach drops off at Cardiff Central Station by 3.00pm and at the hotel shortly after.

Simon Rees. Simon writes programme articles and surtitles for many British opera companies, and reviews for Opera, Opera Now, Musical Opinion, Early Music Today, Bachtrack and a range of other publications. A novelist, poet and librettist, from 1989 to 2012 he was dramaturg at Welsh National Opera.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £1,080. Single occupancy: £1,270.

Included: travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 3 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Music: tickets (first category) for 3 operas are included, totalling c. £105.

Accommodation: St David’s Hotel & Spa (thestdavidshotel.com). This is a striking new building on the waterfront at Cardiff Bay, 15 minutes on foot from the opera house. The AA gives it a 5-star rating, rooms are pleasingly contemporary in design and service is excellent.

Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Illustrations: (left) Giacomo Puccini, c. 1900. (right) Florence, steel engraving c. 1850.

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Piero della Francesca From Umbria to Milan 17–23 February 2017 (md 150) 7 days • £2,460 Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley A journey to nearly every surviving work in Italy by the Early Renaissance master.

The lecturer is Dr Antonia Whitley, expert art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

An extended itinerary with more time in Milan and Florence, and a visit to Rimini.

Big cities and tiny country towns – visits in Urbino, Monterchi, Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Perugia.

This tour is an exhilarating study of one of the best-loved and most intriguing artists of the fifteenth century. It also takes you to a select handful of some of Italy’s loveliest places and best-stocked galleries, and through some of her most enchanting countryside.

Though the theme is a specialised one, the tour is by no means intended only for serious students of the subject. Few art lovers are untouched by the serenity and beauty of the highkey palette of Piero’s works; even fewer would be unmoved by seeing most of his surviving works in the towns and landscapes in which he created them.

Born about 1412 in the small town of Sansepolcro on the periphery of Florentine territory, Piero spent little of his life in the Tuscan capital to which most provincial artists flocked.

Though he was not without influence, he had no ‘school’ or direct successors. A mathematician, his images beguile with their perfect perspective, architectonic form and monumentality.

There is little documentation for his life, and he seems to have been a slow worker. Few works survive, despite the fact that he lived until the age of 80.

della Misericordia, a panel of St Julian, and the marvellous Resurrection fresco are housed. (At the time of going to print, the Resurrection fresco is only partially visible due to restoration work, but should be visible by February 2017). Walk around the town centre, passing Piero’s house and the Romanesque Gothic cathedral.

Day 3: Urbino, Monterchi. Drive through mountains to the hilltop town of Urbino. As one of the most enlightened and creative courts of the Renaissance, it has an importance in the history of art out of all proportion to its small size. Piero possibly contributed to the design of the beautiful Ducal Palace, which houses his exquisite Flagellation of Christ and the Madonna di Senigallia. Visit S. Bernardino, where Federigo da Montefeltro was buried. In the afternoon visit Monterchi to see Piero’s beautiful fresco The Madonna del Parto.

Day 4: Arezzo, Florence. See Piero’s great fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross, executed over a twenty year period, at S. Francesco, Arezzo. In the cathedral see his fresco of Mary Magdalene. Continue on to Florence where one night is spent. In the late afternoon visit the Uffizi, which contains portrait panels of Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his wife Battista Sforza.

Day 5: Florence. Some free time in Florence. In the afternoon, travel by first class rail to Milan for the first of two nights.

Day 6: Milan. In Milan the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum and the Pinacoteca di Brera contain paintings by Piero. Visit the Renaissance church of S. Maria delle Grazie; the refectory houses Leonardo’s Last Supper.

Day 7: Milan. The morning is free. Fly from Milan Linate to London Heathrow, arriving at c.

4.45pm.

Itinerary

Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,460 or £2,320 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,790 or £2,650 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); travel by private coach and first-class rail; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 5 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Accommodation. Hotel Tiferno, Città di Castello (hoteltiferno.it): a central 4-star hotel, renovated respecting the original architecture; a successful blend of old and new, with helpful staff. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location. Rosa Grand Hotel, Milan (starhotels.com/en/our-hotels/rosagrand-milan): a smart 4-star hotel excellently located directly behind the Duomo. Rooms are well appointed in a clean, modern style. Single rooms throughout are doubles for sole use.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. There is a lot of walking over unevenly paved ground. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving.

Average distance by coach per day: 62 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Dr Antonia Whitley.

Art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

She obtained her PhD from the Warburg Institute on Sienese society in the 15th century and has published on related topics. She has lectured for the National Gallery, organises adult education study sessions and has led many tours in Italy.

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Day 1. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Rimini to visit the outstanding Tempio Malatestiano, designed by Leon Battista Alberti for the tyrant Sigismondo Malatesta. See Piero’s fresco of St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.

Continue on to the hotel in Città di Castello for the first of three nights.

'Well considered itinerary which enabled me to understand how Piero della Francesca’s life and work progressed.’

Practicalities

Day 2: Perugia, Sansepolcro. Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is one of Italy’s most beautiful towns. The National Gallery of Umbria in the mediaeval town hall has a polyptych with The Annunciation by Piero. There is a wealth of other monuments, including a fine merchants’ hall with frescoes by Perugino. In the afternoon visit Borgo Sansepolcro, Piero’s birthplace and home town. Visit the museum in the former town hall, where Piero’s early masterpiece, Madonna

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Connoisseur’s Rome With private visits including the Sistine Chapel out of hours 28 February–5 March 2017 (md 159) 6 days • £2,810 Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott 7–12 November 2017 (me 679) 6 days • £2,810 Lecturer: Dr Kevin Childs Artistic riches which are difficult to access or are rarely open to the public, including an out-ofhours visit to the Sistine Chapel.

Highlights of the Renaissance and Baroque.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott and Dr Kevin Childs, both specialists in Renaissance Italian art.

As appealing for those new to the city as for frequent visitors.

Many of Rome’s artistic riches are not easily accessible to the visitor. The emphasis of this tour is on places which are difficult of access or are rarely open to the public – on treasures which lie beyond normally impenetrable portals.

Privileged access also takes the form of visits to places outside their normal opening hours.

Instead of sharing the Sistine Chapel with hundreds of others, around forty Martin Randall Travel clients, from two tours which do not otherwise meet, will have the place to themselves for a couple of hours. The two tours overlap so that the high cost of private admission to the Vatican museums is spread between the two.

What we manage to include varies each time we run the tour. Though it is likely that most of the places mentioned in the itinerary given below will be visited, arrangements depend on the generosity of owners and institutions and

are occasionally subject to cancellation, but our network of contacts and know-how would enable us to arrange alternatives.

Some better-known and generally accessible places are included in the itinerary as well, so the tour should appeal both to those who are unfamiliar with the city as well as to those who have been many times before.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 12.45pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino.

Day 2. See Bernini’s oval church of S. Andrea, and in the attached monastery the rooms of St Stanislav Kostka with sculpture by Pierre Legros. The ceiling fresco by Guido Reni in the Casino dell’Aurora in the garden of the Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi is one of the greatest works of 17th-century classicism. In the afternoon visit the Sancta Sanctorum, adjacent to St John Lateran, part of the mediaeval papal residence and decorated with Cosmati mosaics dating to 1278.

Day 3. In the morning visit the stunning collection of sculpture and painting in the Villa Borghese. Continue to the Villa Ludovisi, which houses Caravaggio’s early ceiling painting Jupiter, Neptune & Pluto. In the evening there is a private visit to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel and the adjacent Stanze. With Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco, his Last Judgement on the end wall and the quattrocento wall frescoes, together with Raphael’s frescoes in the Stanze, this is the most precious assemblage of painting in the western world.

Day 4. Visit the 16th-century Villa Medici, now the seat of the French Academy. Palazzo della Cancelleria, begun in 1485 by Cardinal Raffaele Riario, is a masterpiece of Early Renaissance secular architecture and has frescoes by Vasari of the life of Pope Paul III. The delightful Villa La Farnesina has frescoes by Raphael.

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Day 5. Palazzo Colonna is an agglomeration of building and decoration of many centuries, and has a collection which includes works by Bronzino, Titian, Veronese and Guercino. The 17th-century Great Hall is surely one of the most magnificent secular rooms in Europe. Palazzo Doria Pamphilj holds a famous picture collection (Caravaggio, Velasquez), and S. Ignazio has an illusionistic ceiling painting by Andrea del Pozzo.

Day 6. Some free time. Fly from Rome Fiumicino, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 7.00pm.

This gives a fair picture of the tour, but there may be substitutes for some places mentioned and the order of visits will probably differ.

Illustrations: (left) Rome, Fountain of the Rivers by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Piazza Navona, 18th-century engraving; (right) View of St Peters from river by A. Pisa.

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Essential Rome The complete spectrum of art, architecture & antiquities Dr Michael DouglasScott. Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16thcentury Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and lived in Rome for several years.

He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.

Dr Kevin Childs. Writer and lecturer on culture and the arts with a focus on the Italian Renaissance.

He obtained his doctorate from the Courtauld and has been a Fellow of the Dutch Institute in Florence and the British School at Rome.

He blogs for The Huffington Post and has published in The New Statesman.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,810 or £2,620 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,220 or £3,030 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 320); travel by private minibus; hotel accommodation; breakfasts; 1 lunch and 3 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions, including a private visit to the Vatican Museums; all tips for waiters, drivers and guides; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. Hotel Bernini Bristol (berninibristol.com): 5-star hotel excellently located on the Piazza Barberini. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

'It was truly wonderful to have a private visit to the Vatican Museum and have the Sistine Chapel to ourselves. A fantastic experience and privilege.'

Major buildings, monuments and works of art, a representative selection of all periods from Ancient Rome onwards.

Led by Dr Thomas-Leo True, an art historian specialising in Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Rome, and Assistant Director of the British School at Rome.

Private visit to the Sistine Chapel, shared with participants travelling on Connoisseur’s Rome.

Rome presents three major challenges to the cultural traveller. First, it is big. Items of major importance – many of which on their own would make any town in the world worth visiting – are generously strewn through an area that is approximately four miles in diameter. The second problem is that there are hundreds of such places in the city.

The third is that these items are from such a wide span of time, well over two millennia, for much of which Rome was the pre-eminent city in its sphere – as capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, as centre of western Christianity, a role regained with consequent splendour with the triumph of the Catholic Reformation and finally, from 1871, as capital of a united Italy.

Over the years MRT has devised many tours to Rome, but apart from at Christmas hitherto they have all attempted only a single episode or theme – Ancient, Mediaeval, Baroque; Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael, music. This is our only tour that selects from the whole range of Rome’s heritage.

The key has been generally to give preference to geography over chronology, proximity over theme. Meandering walks explore a particular district, picking out the most significant buildings and works of art, enjoying alluring vistas as they arise, glimpsing major and minor treasures – whatever period they belong to. It is fair to say that the itinerary includes most of the most important places and works of art in Rome.

There is a lot of walking, though regular use is made of minibuses and taxis (rarely of cumbersome coaches, which are highly restricted in the city centre). Not every place seen is mentioned in the description below, and the order may differ. There is, incidentally, almost no overlap with Connoisseurs’ Rome except for the private visit to the Sistine Chapel.

Day 2. Among today’s highlights are the Pantheon, the best preserved of Roman monuments (whose span was only twice exceeded in the next 1,750 years); the lively and wonderfully adorned Piazza Navona, which retains the shape of the Roman hippodrome on which it was built; and the 5th-century church of Sta. Sabina, as perfect an Early Christian basilica as survives anywhere. See also S. Ivo, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture with a cupola designed by Borromini, and two Roman temples, of Vesta and Fortuna Virile.

Day 3. The Basilica of St Peter in the Vatican was the outcome of the greatest architects of several generations – Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, Michelangelo – and contains major sculpture.

Originally Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, Castel S. Angelo became a fortress in the Middle Ages and a residence in the Renaissance. After some free time, return to the Vatican in the evening for a private visit to see Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in peace, together with Raphael’s frescoes in the adjacent Stanze.

Day 4. The morning includes the superb sculpture of the Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis) erected

by Augustus, paintings by Pinturicchio and Caravaggio in Sta. Maria del Popolo, and a walk in the Pincio Gardens (good views across Rome) to the Spanish Steps. The Palazzo Barberini is a great palace which became Rome’s National Gallery, with paintings by most of the Italian Old Masters. The Galleria Borghese is Rome’s finest collection of painting and sculpture.

Day 5. Drive in the morning to three contrasting churches largely or partly dating to the early Middle Ages: the 6th-century circular Mausoleum of Sta. Costanza, the historically complex but exceptionally beautiful Basilica of S.

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How strenuous? Unavoidably, there is a lot of walking on this tour. The historic area is vast, and vehicular access is increasingly restricted.

Minibuses are used on some occasions but otherwise the city is traversed on foot. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Fitness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 9 miles

28 February–6 March 2017 (md 158) 7 days • £2,780 Lecturer: Dr Thomas-Leo True

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 9.30am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome. The tour starts with the glorious Byzantine mosaics in the churches of Sta. Maria Maggiore and Sta. Prassede.

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Essential Rome continued

Florence Cradle of the Renaissance

Clemente, and St John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome. The afternoon is free.

Day 6. The day is largely devoted to Ancient Rome, beginning with the Colosseum, largest of all amphitheatres, completed ad 80. The Forum has evocative remains of the key temples and civic buildings at the heart of the Roman Empire.

The present appearance of the Capitol, first centre of ancient Rome, was designed by Michelangelo, and the surrounding palazzi are museums with outstanding ancient sculpture and a collection of paintings.

Day 7. Before departing for the airport, visit two churches to see paintings by Caravaggio, S. Agostino (Loreto Madonna) and S. Luigi dei Francesi (St Matthew series). Return to London Heathrow at c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,780 or £2,590 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,190 or £3,000 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); travel by private minibus or taxi; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions, including a private visit to the Vatican Museums; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. Hotel Bernini Bristol (berninibristol.com): 5-star hotel excellently located on the Piazza Barberini. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

How strenuous? There is unavoidably a lot of walking. The historic area is vast, and vehicular access is increasingly restricted. Minibuses are used on some occasions but otherwise the city is traversed on foot. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 9 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

TOURS IN 2017

Dr Thomas-Leo True. Art historian specialising in Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Rome and the Papal States, and Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from September 2015. He received his doctorate from Cambridge University, and also studied at the British School at Rome, where he was Rome Scholar (2009–10) and Giles Worsley Fellow (2013). He has lived in Le Marche region of Italy and is currently writing his first book on the Marchigian Cardinals of Pope Sixtus V.

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6–12 March 2017 (md 164) 7 days • £2,340 Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley The world’s best location for an art-history tour: here were laid the foundations of the next 500 years of western art.

The lecturer is Dr Antonia Whitley, expert art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

Still retains an astonishingly dense concentration of great works of art. The Renaissance is centre stage, but mediaeval and other periods also feature prominently.

Can be combined with A Festival of Music in Florence, 13–18 March 2017.

Avoids the crowds of busier months, and a smaller group than usual, 8–18 participants.

A first visit to Florence can be an overwhelming experience, and it seems that no amount of revisiting can exhaust her riches, or stem the growth of affection and awe which the city inspires in regular visitors.

For hundreds of years the city nurtured an unceasing succession of great artists. No other place can rival Florence for the quantity of first-rate, locally produced works of art, many still in the sites for which they were created or in museums a few hundred yards away.

Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo – these are some of the artists and architects whose works will be studied on the tour, fully justifying Florence’s epithet as the cradle of the Renaissance.

Florence is, moreover, one of the loveliest cities in the world, ringed by the foothills of the Apennines and sliced in two by the River Arno.

Narrow alleys lead between the expansive piazze and supremely graceful Renaissance arcades abound, while the massive scale of the buildings impressively demonstrates the wealth once generated by its precocious economy.

It is now a substantial, vibrant city, yet the past is omnipresent, and, from sections of the mediaeval city walls, one can still look out over olive groves.

Though the number of visitors to Florence has swelled hugely in recent years, it is still possible in the colder months, and with careful planning, to explore the city and enjoy its art in relative tranquillity.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 11.15am (British Airways) from London City to Florence. In the late afternoon visit the chapel in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi which has exquisite frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli.

Day 2. Visit Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library,

whose architectural components would herald the onset of Mannerism. A Medici morning includes S. Lorenzo, the family parish church designed by Brunelleschi and their burial chapel in the contiguous New Sacristy with Michelangelo’s enigmatic sculptural ensemble.

In the afternoon see the Byzantine mosaics and Renaissance sculpture in the cathedral baptistry, and the cathedral museum.

Day 3. Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital, begun in 1419, was the first building to embody stylistic elements indisputably identifiable as Renaissance. See Michelangelo’s David, the ‘Slaves’ in the Accademia and the frescoes and panels of pious simplicity by Fra Angelico in the Friary of S. Marco. In the afternoon visit Piazza della Signoria, civic centre of Florence with masterpieces of public sculpture, then continue to the Uffizi which has masterpieces by every major Florentine painter as well as international Old Masters.

Day 4. In the morning visit S. Maria Novella, the Dominican church with many works of art (Masaccio’s Trinità, Ghirlandaio’s frescoed sanctuary). See the Rucellai Chapel in the deconsecrated church of S. Pancrazio, now part of the Museo Marino Marini. Free afternoon.

Day 5. Visit the Bargello, housing Florence’s finest sculpture collection with works by Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and others.

Walk to the vast Franciscan church of S. Croce, favoured burial place for leading Florentines and abundantly furnished with sculpted tombs, altarpieces and frescoes. Lunch is at a restaurant on the Piazzale Michelangelo before a visit to S. Miniato al Monte, the Romanesque abbey church with panoramic views of the city.

Day 6. In the morning visit the redoubtable Palazzo Pitti, which houses several museums including the Galleria Palatina, outstanding particularly for High Renaissance and Baroque paintings. Visit S. Spirito, Brunelleschi’s last great church, with many 15th-century altarpieces, and the extensive Boboli Gardens, at the top of which is an 18th-century ballroom and garden overlooking olive groves. See the Masaccio/ Masolino fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel, a highly influential work of art which influenced all subsequent generations of Renaissance artists.

Day 7. See the Renaissance statuary at the church-cum-granary of Orsanmichele, and there

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

Tours in 2017

Venetian Palaces The best-preserved palaces of La Serenissima 21–25 March 2017 (md 185) 5 days • £2,410 Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott 28 November–2 December 2017 (me 720) 5 days • £2,410 Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott is a second, selective visit to the Uffizi. Fly from Florence Airport, arriving at London City at c.

9.00pm, or stay in Florence to join A Festival of Music in Florence.

Final day of the festival. Fly from Florence Airport, arriving at London City at c. 12.15pm.

Dr Antonia Whitley. Art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance. She obtained her PhD from the Warburg Institute on Sienese society in the 15th century and has published on related topics. She has lectured for the National Gallery, organises adult education study sessions and has led many tours in Italy.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,340 or £2,150 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,600 or £2,410 without flights.

Included: flights (City Flyer) with British Airways (Embraer 170); travel by private coach for airport transfers; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch, 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

If combining this tour with 'A Festival of Music in Florence', we charge you the ‘with flights’ price for this tour, and the ‘without flights’ price for the festival.

Accommodation. Hotel Santa Maria Novella (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful, recently renovated 4-star hotel in a very central location.

Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

Explores many of the finest and best-preserved palaces, once homes to the wealthiest nobles and merchants in Venice.

Access to many by special arrangement, including some which are still in private hands. Also a private after-hours visit to St Mark’s Basilica.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott, specialist in 16th-century Italian art and architecture.

Stays in a 4-star hotel on the Grand Canal.

Just as Venice possesses but a single piazza among dozens of campi, it has only one building correctly called a ‘palazzo’. The singularity is important: the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale), like the Piazza San Marco, was the locus of the Serenissima’s public identity and seat of her republican government. Unlike her rivals in Florence and Milan she had no ruling dynasties to dictate polity, by contrast developing a deep aversion to individual aggrandizement and over-concentrated power. While the person and Palazzo of the Doge embodied their municipal identity, it was in their private houses that Venice’s mercantile oligarchs expressed their own family wealth and status.

These case (in Venetian parlance ca’) were built throughout the city. In the absence of primogeniture, many branches sprung from the two hundred-odd noble families, leading to several edifices of the same name – an obstacle for would-be visitors.

These houses were unlike any other domestic buildings elsewhere in the world: erected over wooden piles driven into the mud flats of the lagoon, they remained remarkably uniform over the centuries in their basic design, combining the functions of mercantile emporium (ground level)

and magnificent residence (upper floors).

They were however built in a fantastic variety of styles, Veneto-Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo. Sometimes there is a touch of Islamic decoration. As new families bought their way into the aristocracy during the long period of the Republic’s economic and political decline, they had their residences refurbished in Rococo splendour by master artists such as Giambattista Tiepolo. Many of these palaces have survived the virtual extinction of the Venetian aristocracy and retain their original, if faded, glory.

Palaces for nobles will be considered in conjunction with those for the non-noble cittadino (wealthy merchant) class and the housing projects for ordinary Venetian popolani, which rise cheek by jowl in the dense urban fabric.

Some of the places visited are familiar and readily accessible to the public. Others are opened only by special arrangement with the owners, whether a charitable organisation, branch of local government, or descendants of the original occupants. Some of these cannot be confirmed until nearer the time.

A private, after-hours visit to the Basilica San Marco, the mosaic interior illuminated for your benefit, is a highlight of this tour. As is an opportunity to see up close ‘the most beautiful street in the world’, the Grand Canal, from that most Venetian of vantage-points, a gondola.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 12.30pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Venice. Cross the lagoon by motoscafo (water taxi) and travel up the Grand Canal to the doors of the hotel. Luggage is transported separately to the hotel by porters.

There is an evening visit to a privately-owned palace, the 16th-century Palazzo Corner Gheltoff Alverà (by special arrangement).

Day 2. See the palazzi on the Grand Canal from the viewpoint of a gondola. The former Casino Venier (by special arrangement) is a uniquely Venetian establishment that was part private members’ bar, part literary salon, part brothel.

Designed by Longhena (c. 1667) and Giorgio

TOURS IN 2017

If combining this tour with 'A Festival of Music in Florence', please indicate that you will arrive a day early (12 March) on the festival booking form if you would like us to arrange accommodation for you for the night between this tour and the festival (12–13 March).

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centre where the ground is sometimes uneven and pavements are narrow.

It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Fitness is essential.

Group size: between 8 and 18 participants.

Illustrations: (top, left) Florence, Uffizi Tribune, 1820; (above) detail from Ruskin's Stones of Venice, 1900.

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Tours in 2017

Venetian Palaces continued

Massari (c. 1751), the Ca’ Rezzonico is perhaps the most magnificent of Grand Canal palaces, and contains frescoes by Tiepolo; it is now a museum of 18th-century art. Visit the grand ballroom of late 17th-century Palazzo Zenobio (by special arrangement).

Day 3. Visit the Palazzo Ducale, supremely beautiful with its 14th-century pink and white revetment outside, late Renaissance gilded halls and paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese inside.

The Palazzo Grimani at Santa Maria Formosa became in the mid-16th century the purposebuilt site of the family collection of antiquities, which were then bequeathed to the Venetian Republic. There is an after-hours private visit to the Basilica San Marco, an 11th-century Byzantine-style church enriched over the centuries with mosaics, sculpture and various precious objects.

Accommodation. Hotel Palazzo Sant’Angelo (palazzosantangelo.com): a 4-star hotel in an excellent location on the Grand Canal near Campo Sant’Angelo and the Rialto Bridge.

How strenuous? the nature of Venice means that the city is more often than not traversed on foot. Although part of her charm, there is a lot of walking along the flat and up and down bridges; standing around in museums and palaces is also unavoidable. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential.

Group size: between 8 and 18 participants.

'For us, spending eight days with the lecturer is a rare privilege. His style of imparting knowledge is so engaging that we never seem to get enough. It is impossible to praise him too highly.'

Illustration (below): Venice, wood engraving c. 1880.

Day 4. With its elegant tracery and abundant ornamentation, the Ca’ d’Oro, also on the Grand Canal, is the most gorgeous of Venetian Gothic palaces; it now houses the Galleria Franchetti. The 13th-century Fondaco dei Turchi is a unique survival from the era; today it is the natural history museum. In the afternoon visit a privately-owned palace, the Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo-Polignac (by special arrangement).

Day 5. Visit the privately-owned 17th-century Palazzo Albrizzi which has some of the finest stucco decoration in Venice (by special arrangement). Travel by motoscafo to Venice airport. Fly to London Gatwick, arriving c.

6.15pm.

The tour is dependent on the kindness of many individuals and organisations, some of whom are reluctant to make arrangements far in advance, so the order of visits outlined above may change and there may be substitutions for some palaces mentioned.

TOURS IN 2017

Dr Michael Douglas-Scott. Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and lived in Rome for several years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,410 or £2,300 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,750 or £2,640 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 320); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 3 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

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book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

Tours in 2017

Normans in the South Castles & cathedrals in Puglia, Basilicata & Campania 21–29 March 2017 (md 198) 9 days • £2,660 Lecturer: John McNeill An architectural tour of one of the most sophisticated kingdoms in mediaeval Europe.

Splendid Norman legacy of Romanesque, with churches of unprecedented size and grandeur.

Led by John McNeill, a mediaevalist who has become an expert on the region.

Later architecture of equal magnificence, in particular an elaborate flowering of Baroque.

Attractive, well-preserved town centres and a dramatic landscape of raw limestone.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am (Alitalia) from London City to Brindisi, via Rome, and drive on to Lecce where the first three nights are spent.

Day 2: Squinzano, Gallipoli, Otranto. Explore the Salentine Peninsula, the southernmost tip of the heel of Italy. Visit the Abbey of Sta. Maria di Cerrate, a 12th-century Romanesque complex.

Gallipoli was the centre of Byzantine Italy until conquered by the Normans in 1071; the old town is on an off-shore island. Otranto, captured

by Normans in 1068, has a cathedral with outstanding 12th-century floor mosaics.

Day 3: Lecce. Lecce is distinguished by an elaborate style of Baroque and Rococo decoration wrought in the soft, honey-coloured tufa of the

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

Day 4: Brindisi, Bitonto. Possessing the safest natural harbour on the Adriatic, the provincial capital of Brindisi has been of intermittent strategic importance for over 24 centuries. Visit S. Benedetto, with its Romanesque bell tower.

Bitonto has one of the finest of Romanesque cathedrals with good sculpture and an Early Christian lower church. Continue to Trani where the next four nights are spent.

Day 5: Bari, Trani. Bari, capital of Puglia, has an extensive and unspoilt mediaeval quarter beside the sea. The Basilica di S. Nicola, begun in 1087, is not only the first but also the greatest of Puglian Romanesque churches; the episcopal throne here is remarkable. Also visit the cathedral (1170) and later mediaeval Angevin castle. Back in Trani, visit the magically beautiful Romanesque cathedral on the waterfront.

Day 6: Castel del Monte, Barletta. Castel del Monte, situated on an isolated peak, is Frederick II’s extraordinarily sophisticated hunting lodge and one of the most intriguing secular buildings of the Middle Ages. The castle at Barletta houses a bust of Frederick II. Day 7: Canosa, Melfi, Venosa. Canosa di Puglia has an 11th-century cathedral. Continue to the hilltop town of Melfi in Basilicata, which was for a while the main centre of Norman power in Italy.

The impressive but unfinished Abbazia della SS. Trinità at Venosa was built from the 12th-century over an early Christian church. Return to Puglia for the final night in Trani.

Bari, San Nicola, engraving c. 1890.

TOURS IN 2017

The Norman conquest of southern Italy was one of the most remarkable episodes in mediaeval history. Whereas England was subjugated by a sizeable and highly organised Norman army, the ‘Kingdom in the Sun’ was won by small bands of soldiers of fortune. They trickled in during the eleventh century when the tangled political situation and incessant feuding made the area ripe for exploitation by ambitious knights in search of adventure and personal gain.

By the end of the century they had expelled the Byzantines from the mainland and the Saracens from Sicily, and by 1127 all Sicily and southern Italy was ruled by one Norman king.

This cosmopolitan kingdom was one of the best administered and most culturally sophisticated in Europe. As in England, in the wake of conquest there arose splendid new churches of unprecedented size and grandeur.

A mixture of French, Lombard, Byzantine, Saracenic and ancient Roman elements, south Italian Romanesque is one of the most distinct and beautiful of the variants of this truly international style.

Prosperity and creativity continued after the extinction of the Norman dynasty in 1194 by the Hohenstaufen from Germany. In the first half of the thirteenth century the region was dominated by the extraordinary Emperor Frederick II, ‘Stupor Mundi’, ‘Wonder of the World’. He was as courageous and ambitious in artistic and intellectual spheres as he was in administration, diplomacy and war.

Much later there was another artistic outburst, appropriately international but characteristically idiosyncratic: a highly elaborate version of Baroque architecture and decoration.

The heel and spur of boot-shaped Italy, Puglia is remote from the better-known parts of the peninsula, and its raw limestone landscape wholly different from the silky richness of central and northern Italy. The last day of the tour is spent across the Apennines in Campania. This region presents another face of Italy, distinctly southern but with an equally cosmopolitan and pan-Mediterranean cultural history.

region, an outstanding example being the church of Sta. Croce. See also the Norman church of SS. Niccolò e Cataldo, founded by Tancred. Some free time.

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Tours in 2017 | Music Weekends

Normans in the South continued

The Heath at Lavenham String quartets by Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven at The Swan

Day 8: Benevento, Salerno. Cross the Apennines to Campania. Benevento was a strategic Roman colonia, Lombard Duchy and Norman from 1081. The Arch of Trajan is one of the finest surviving Roman triumphal arches. Sta. Sofia has a magnificent 12th-century cloister. The seaport of Salerno has an 11th-century cathedral with a fine sculpted portal and a 12th-century ivory altarpiece. Overnight in Seiano.

Day 9: Sant’Angelo in Formis. The Basilica di S. Angelo in Formis has outstanding 11th-century frescoes. Fly from Rome to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 7.15pm.

John McNeill. Architectural historian and a specialist in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He lectures at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and is Honorary Secretary of the British Archaeological Association. Publications include the Blue Guides: Normandy and Loire Valley, and Romanesque & the Past.

Practicalities Price – per person. Two sharing: £2,660 or £2,440 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,960 or £2,740 without flights.

Included: flights (economy class) with Alitalia (aircraft: Airbus 320/Embraer 90); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 5 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all taxes; all tips; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. Patria Palace Hotel, Lecce (patriapalacelecce.com): stylish 5-star hotel in an excellent location near the church of Sta. Croce in the historic centre. Hotel San Paolo al Convento, Trani (hotelsanpaoloalconventotrani. it): charming 4-star hotel converted from a 15th-century convent. Grand Hotel Angiolieri, Seiano (grandhotelangiolieri.it): modern 5-star hotel in the village of Seiano, close to the town of Vico Equense. Single rooms are doubles for sole use throughout.

TOURS IN 2017

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking on uneven pavement in archaeological sites as well as in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving.

Average distance by coach per day: 99 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Illustrations: (above) The Heath Quartet, credit: Kaupo Kikkas 2015; (right) Musicians, Violin & Bass Violin from Arts in the Middle Ages.

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7–9 October 2016 (md 889) 3 days • Price: from £700 The Heath Quartet Oliver Heath violin Cerys Jones violin Gary Pomeroy viola Christopher Murray cello Speaker: Misha Donat The award-winning Heath Quartet joins us for a weekend of quartets by Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and others.

Pre-concert talks are given by musicologist, lecturer and writer Misha Donat.

Our first weekend at the historic Swan Hotel in Lavenham – concerts and dinners take place in its half-timbered hall, which seats 90.

Our package includes accommodation, admittance to concerts and talks, dinners, afternoon teas and interval drinks. A small number of tickets are also available to purchase for the concerts only.

We have exclusive use of the hotel throughout.

Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music, the dynamic and charismatic Heath Quartet are fast earning a reputation as one of the most exciting British chamber groups.

Recipients in 2013 of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists Award, they have won various other prizes and appear regularly at major centres, often collaborating with leading artists and composers. They have established a relationship with London’s Wigmore Hall which sees them perform a complete cycle of Bartók quartets there in 2015–16, and at least two further series are planned. All four members of the Quartet hold teaching positions at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Their programme at Lavenham focuses mainly on the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven – those of the two latter composers being indebted to the first. Debussy and Dvořák also each make an appearance, and we hear three Chorale Preludes by J.S. Bach, which the Quartet performed recently on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

Lavenham is only around 60 miles from London and yet it feels a world apart, and an age away. Surrounded by gently rolling farming country, this Suffolk village is noted for its outstanding 15th-century church and halftimbered mediaeval houses. The buildings of the Swan Hotel date to the 15th and 16th centuries – it has been an inn since 1667.

The Programme Concert 1: Friday 7 October 2016, 5.00pm Pre-concert talk at 4.30pm Haydn, String Quartet in B minor, Op.33 No.1 Debussy, String Quartet in G minor, Op.10 Mozart, String Quartet No.19 in C, K.465, Dissonant Concert 2: Saturday 8 October 2016, 11.00am Pre-concert talk at 10.30am J.S. Bach, Chorale Preludes: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV731; Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Her BWV662; In dulci jubilo BWV608 Haydn, String Quartet in F sharp minor, Op.50 No.4 Beethoven, String Quartet in B flat, Op.130 Concert 3: Saturday 8 October 2016, 5.00pm Pre-concert talk at 4.30pm Haydn, String Quartet in F minor, Op.20 No.5 Mozart, String Quartet No.16 in E flat, K.428 Beethoven, String Quartet No.15 in A minor, Op.132 Concert 4: Sunday 9 October 2016, 11.00am Pre-concert talk at 10.30am Beethoven, String Quartet No.12 in E flat, Op.127 Dvořák, String Quartet in G, Op.106

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Spring Newsletter 2016

Music Weekends

Misha Donat. Writer, lecturer and senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 for more than 25 years. He writes programme notes for Wigmore Hall and other venues, and CD booklets for many labels. Currently he is working on a new edition of the Beethoven piano sonatas being published by Bärenreiter.

there are steps to negotiate here and there. If you have access requirements, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can discuss your specific needs with the hotel.

How strenuous? These weekends are very leisurely affairs – everything takes place within the confines of the hotel. However please read the paragraph above if you use a wheelchair or have difficulties with negotiating stairs.

Practicalities

Group size: maximum 79 resident participants.

Prices – per person. Single occupancy: single room (single bed) £700; double for sole use £750.

Two sharing: standard double or twin £720; superior double or twin £790; junior suite £830; suite £930.

Tickets to individual concerts

Included: hotel accommodation (2 nights); breakfasts, 2 afternoon teas and 2 dinners with wine, water and tea or coffee; admission to the concerts and pre-concert talks; interval drinks; gratuities for hotel staff; a detailed programme booklet.

Morning concerts: £24. Evening concerts: £25.

This includes an interval drink (wine or soft drink for the evenings; coffee, tea or a soft drink for the mornings) and a programme booklet.

To book individual concert tickets, please contact Martin Randall Travel on 020 8742 3355 with a credit or debit card to hand.

Optional coach transfers. For an additional charge, we are offering return coach transfers between Colchester Station and the hotel, timed to meet the following trains:

Music Weekends at The Castle Hotel, Taunton

On Friday 7 October: 13.02–14.04, London Liverpool Street (LST)–Colchester Station (COL).

The Schubert Ensemble

On Sunday 9 October: 14.30–15.44, Colchester (COL)–London Liverpool Street (LST).

18–20 November 2016 (md 948) William Howard piano • Simon Blendis violin • Alexandra Wood violin Jane Salmon cello • Douglas Paterson viola • Peter Buckoke double bass With musically-illustrated talks by members of the Ensemble

We cannot make the train ticket booking on your behalf.

Return coach transfer price: £30 per person.

The train times above are based on the timetable as of March 2016, and are subject to change. We will adjust our coach departures accordingly if they change by the time tickets are on sale, c. 12 weeks before departure.

Accommodation. The Swan Hotel & Spa, Lavenham (theswanatlavenham.co.uk): an inn since 1667, The Swan spreads through a number of contiguous half-timber buildings which date to the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 2015 the hotel opened the Weavers’ House Spa. There is also a bar, extensive lounges and a brasserie (though our group meals are served in the hall, which is separate to this).

Service is of a high standard. The hotel has a car park which is free of charge for guests. We have exclusive use of the hotel.

Due to the historical nature of the building, the hotel does not have a lift, and on the ground floor

13–15 January 2017 (md 111) Leoš Cepický violin • Jan Schulmeister violin • Jakub Cepický viola Aleš Kasprík cello • with guests: Josef Kluson viola • Michal Kanka cello Speaker: Richard Wigmore

London Bridge Trio & Friends 3–5 March 2017 (md 161) Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin • Kate Gould cello • Daniel Tong piano with guests: Lucy Gould violin • Gary Pomeroy viola • Stephan Loges baritone Speaker: Richard Wigmore

CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKENDS

Rooms have been recently renovated in a pleasingly restrained manner which retains their historical character. Most bathrooms has a bath with shower fitment (only one has a walk-in shower). Wireless internet is available free of charge.

The Wihan Quartet & Friends

The Vienna Piano Trio 14–17 April 2017 (md 223) David McCarroll violin • Matthias Gredler cello • Stefan Mendl piano Speaker: Richard Wigmore Full details of all music weekends can be found in Music Weekends 2016/17, enclosed in this pack.

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

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Spring Newsletter 2016

London Days

London Days ‘Dear, damn’d, distracting town’ Alexander Pope We continue to open some of London’s closed doors when making special arrangements for our days out in the capital, but also we enjoy the splendours of some of its most popular sites – with the MRT touch.

It may seem strange to other visitors at Westminster Abbey only to stop at Handel’s tomb on our Handel day, circumventing all the other glories, but we don’t stray from our purpose. At the British Museum we stick to Ancient Greece; at the National Gallery we study the Italian Renaissance; we visit the Wallace Collection just for one painting (and tea). We travel the Underground, but visit the old Transport for London headquarters (before they are converted to des-res); lunch at Middle Temple Hall on the London Backstreet Walk; sip cocktails on the top floor of the Walkie-Talkie at the end of the City Skyline day.

But many of you know this because you have joined us already. And there are always more days being developed which will pick up pace now that we have a wholly-dedicated team taking on the task.

Most of all, though our lecturers enthuse, interpret and inspire.

If you would like to receive fortnightly email updates on the latest range of London Days, please email info@martinrandall.co.uk.

Great Railway Termini 11 May & 5 October 2016 An exploration of the architecture of three magnificent Victorian stations. There are special arrangements to visit Queen Victoria’s waiting room at Paddington, the old Granary building at King’s Cross and the Renaissance hotel, St Pancras. Morning refreshments and lunch are in station pubs, but tea is at the Renaissance hotel.

Led by architectural historian, Professor Gavin Stamp.

Handel in London 13 May 2016 Explore locations associated with the great composer, including his house in Brook Street and his parish church in Hanover Square. The day ends with a performance of the original version of The Messiah, directed by John Butt.

Led by music writer and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster, Richard Wigmore.

LONDON DAYS

'Impressively comprehensive offering a cornucopia of delights even to a Londoner.'

'The route chosen revealed parts of London completely unknown to us and the unfamiliar vistas of familiar landmarks was a joy.'

The Italian Renaissance 19 May & 8 December 2016 A full day studying the finest collection of Italian Renaissance art outside Italy, but with time allowed for sustenance and reflection during refreshments and lunch in the National Dining Rooms. The group size is limited to twelve participants.

Led by Dr Antonia Whitley, art historian specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

The Tudors 7 June 2016 Study the politics and culture of the dynasty through its art and architecture. Starting at the Henry VII chapel at Westminster Abbey, the day culminates at Hampton Court Palace. Meet the royals and their courtiers through the portraits displayed at the National Portrait Gallery where we also have lunch.

Led by Dr Neil Younger, a specialist in Tudor politics and court culture.

The Backstreet Walk 9 June & 13 July 2016 A busy day traversing the capital through its parks, gardens and backstreets. Through the eyes of the lecturer admire the architecture, picturesque vistas and intriguing quiet corners, allowing time for some brief visits too. For refreshments, sip champagne at the Savoy and take lunch at Middle Temple Hall.

Led by Professor Gavin Stamp on 25 May and 13 July and Barnaby Rogerson on 9 June.

Seven Churches & a Synagogue 17 June 2016 Visit two fine mediaeval churches as well as works by Wren, Gibbs, Hawksmoor, Butterfield and Ninian Comper and the synagogue at Bevis Marks. Travel by coach throughout and take lunch at Middle Temple Hall.

Led by art historian Giles Waterfield.

Illustration: (left) Church of Mary-le-Strand, illustration by G.M. Ellwood from Some London Churches, 1911.

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M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

London Days

'The lecturer developed what I already knew and opened new perspectives; very refreshing and stimulating.'

'Very enjoyable and informative day, thank you!'

'Thanks for this opportunity.

Remarkable concentration of locations to fit into the day.'

The South Bank Walk 14 July, 11 August & 13 October 2016 A walk including Victorian warehouses and Georgian terraces to cutting edge contemporary architecture. Visit City Hall, Southwark Cathedral and the Rose theatre, finishing atop The Shard for unsurpassable views over the city.

Lunch in a restaurant overlooking the hustle and bustle of Borough Market.

Led by travel writer Sophie Campbell in July and October, and art historian Dr Jeffrey Miller in August.

Hawksmoor 20 July & 10 October 2016 Travel by coach from the first visit at St George’s Bloomsbury, to St Mary Woolnoth, Christ Church Spitalfields, St George in-the-East, St Anne’s Limehouse finishing at St Alfege Greenwich. The route also takes in Thomas Archer’s contemporaneous St Paul’s Deptford.

Return to central London by river bus.

Led by architectural historian, Professor Gavin Stamp

Shakespeare’s London Largely a ‘site of’ afternoon walk, but visits include a tour of the Rose theatre; private view of the 1623 First Folio at the Guildhall Library; Southwark Cathedral and the National Portrait Gallery. The day ends with an evening performance of Romeo and Juliet starring Lily James, James Madden and Derek Jacobi.

Led by Dr Charles Nicholl, author of The Lodger, an intimate study of Shakespeare’s life in London.

The Genius of Titian

4 October 2016

A sumptuous day spent absorbing a selection of the fifteen unquestioned Titians at the National Gallery. Travel by taxi to see Perseus & Andromeda at the Wallace Collection where the day ends. Lunch at the National Gallery and cream tea at the Wallace.

A walk surveying the City with its charismatic former chief planning officer. Understand how business has developed in the square mile through its architecture, streetscapes and watering-holes, not just at ground level but also from above both at Jean Nouvel’s 1 New Change and from the lofty Walkie-Talkie where the day finishes with cocktails in the Sky Garden bar.

Led by Professor Peter Rees, City Planning Officer for the City of London from 1985–2014 and Professor of Places and City Planning at UCL.

London's Underground Railway 19 October 2016 An anecdotal and affectionate approach to studying the history, architecture and design of the Underground. Travel the network to stations as diverse as Arnos Grove and Canary Wharf.

Stop for lunch across the road from London Transport’s historic headquarters at 55 Broadway which we then visit by special arrangement.

Led by Andrew Martin, author of Underground Overground: a Passenger's History of the Tube.

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

1 November & 7 December 2016

Led by Sheila Hale, author of the highly acclaimed Titian: his Life.

Ancient Greece at the British Museum 1 December 2016 Four equal, sequential sessions looking at art and artefacts from before the Classical period to Roman copies of Greek sculpture made centuries after the originals. There is exclusive entry to the Bassae Room and the day is punctuated by refreshments and lunch at the Great Court restaurant.

Led by Professor Antony Spawforth, historian specialising in Greek antiquity.

Illustration: (above) Borough High Street, wood engraving c. 1880.

M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

37

LONDON DAYS

9 August 2016

The Ever-Changing City Skyline

Spring Newsletter 2016

2017 preview

Music Festivals: 2017

2017 tours

Matching music & place Our festivals present private concerts in appropriate historic settings. You’ll hear major international musicians perform a thrilling range of music. The price includes accommodation, travel, meals and more.

Contact us to register your interest in any of our music festivals.

A Festival of Music in Florence

What follows is a list of all tours currently planned for 2017. Most in this list (if not already on sale) will be launched throughout April to June, appearing on our website as soon as they are ready. Some tours and dates may be subject to change.

12–18 March 2017, now on sale

If a particular tour appeals to you, please contact us to register your interest.

Toledo: A Festival of Spanish Music

January 2017

20–25 May 2017

7–17

A Festival of Music in Salzburg

Oman (md 110) Dawn Chatty.............................. page 19–20

18–24 June 2017

13–15 The Wihan Quartet & Friends (md 111)

Speaker: Richard Wigmore....................... 35

The Rhône Music Festival

23–5

Temples of Tamil Nadu (md 126) Asoka Pugal.......................................... 21–22

6–13 July 2017

23–8

Lands of the Maya Norman Hammond

The Danube Music Festival

28–2

Mozart in Salzburg (md 105) Richard Wigmore.................................22–23

20–27 August 2017

Valletta Baroque Festival

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey

February 2017

4–10 September 2017

10–23 Kingdoms of the Deccan (md 143)

Asoka Pugal..........................................24–25

Vivaldi in Venice

15–18 Puccini in Cardiff (md 148)

Simon Rees.................................................. 26

5–12 November 2017

17–19 Art History Weekend in Taunton

Vienna, Palais Ferstel, wood engraving 1890.

17–23 Piero della Francesca (md 150)

Dr Antonia Whitley.................................. 27 23–27 Opera in Berlin 28–5

Connoisseur's Rome (md 159) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott..................28–29

28–6

Essential Rome (md 158) Dr Thomas-Leo True...........................29–30

March 2017 3–5 The London Bridge Trio & Friends (md 161)

Speaker: Richard Wigmore....................... 35 3–10

Gastronomic Andalucía

6–12

Florence: Cradle of the Renaissance

(md 164) Dr Antonia Whitley...........30–31 13–20 Granada & Córdoba 13–25 Indian Summer (md 171)

Raaja Bhasin

For full details, visit martinrandall.com 19–26 Florence & Venice 20–1

Sicily

21–25 Venetian Palaces (md 185)

Dr Michael Douglas-Scott.................. 31–32 21–27 Modern Art on the Côte d'Azur 21–29 Normans in the South (md 198)

John McNeill.........................................33–34

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M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

2017 preview

Examples of Arabic design, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865.

23–30 Barcelona 1900 25–7

Bengal by River (md 195) Dr Anna-Maria Misra

For full details, visit martinrandall.com

Goya (md 219) Dr Xavier Bray

27–1

For full details, visit martinrandall.com

28–6

Israel & Palestine

30–10 Persia 31–10 The Ring in Berlin (md 200)

Jarl Kremeier & John Allison

For full details, visit martinrandall.com

Crete

April 2017 3–9

Pompeii & Herculaneum

4–9

Palladian Villas

16–20 Art in Madrid

Brittany

5–11

Gardens of the Riviera

17–22 Walking to Cornish Houses

Mid-West Galleries

10–17 Semana Santa

17–24 Gastronomic Veneto

Monasteries of Moldavia

12–18 The Ring in Berlin (md 220)

Barry Millington & Jarl Kremeier

This tour is currently full

25–29 Opera in Berlin

Frederick the Great

29–4 Southern Tuscany

Handel in Halle

Van Gogh

East Neuk Festival

Connoisseur's Vienna

Gastronomic Valencia

Walking Hadrian's Wall

3–7

At Home in Weston Park

4–17

Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden, Meissen

East Coast Galleries

5–11

Charlemagne to Charles V

The Dresden Festspiele

6–11

Ardgowan

Prague Spring

6–14

Danish Art and Design

Gardens of Japan

18–25 Vikings and Bog People

Minoan Crete

21–25 Opera in Munich

Music in Riga

23–5

The Baltic Countries

31–5

Yorkshire Churches & Cathedrals

Beaune Music Festival

13–27 Persia 14–17 The Vienna Piano Trio (md 223)

Speaker: Richard Wigmore....................... 35 17–22 Villas & Gardens of Campagna Romana 17–29 Sicily 18–26 Extremadura 18–28 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities 19–27 Cathedrals of England 20–26 Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes 20–29 Provence & Languedoc 22–28 Gastronomic Emilia-Romagna 23–27 Connoisseur's London I 26–30 Ravenna and Urbino

June 2017

July 2017 Walking to Derbyshire Houses

3–10

Mediaeval Burgundy

Baden Baden Music Festival

USA: The South

3–13

Frank Lloyd Wright

Walking the Menuhin Festival

Opera in Vienna

5–8

Versailles

Ryedale Festival

Opera in Prague & Brno

6–15

The Pyrenees

Arts of China

6–17

Walking to Santiago

Walking and Literature in the Lake District

Pistoia

May 2017

10–12 Strauss in Cardiff 11–14 Rijksmuseum & Mauritshuis 17–24 Franconia 22–29 Armenia

2–7

Palaces of Piedmont

2–11

Anjou & the West

5–12

St Petersburg

26–30 Mediaeval Kent

6–11

Lisbon Neighbourhoods

26–2

French Gothic

6–15 Classical Greece

28–7

Great Gardens of France

8–21

Western Balkans

29–7

Finland: Aalto & Others

8–15

Footpaths of Umbria

30–3

Country House Weekend: Belvoir

9–19

Samarkand & Silk Road Cities

Krakow & Silesia

The Schubertiade

10–23 Essential China for QAGOMA 12–19 The Douro 12–24 Art in Japan 14–21 Courts of Northern Italy

24–27 The Age of Bede

Georgia

Opera in Copenhagen

Cave Art of France

+44 (0)20 8742 3355 • info@martinrandall.co.uk

History of Railways

Savonlinna Opera

Castles & Gardens of the Danish Riviera

Buxton Opera Festival

Incontri in Terra di Siena

Trasimeno Music Festival

Verona Opera

August 2017 7–16

Great Houses of the North

14–17 Constable & Gainsborough 15–20 King Ludwig II 16–20 Munich's Masterpieces 20–27 Walking the Danube

M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

39

Spring Newsletter 2016

2017 preview

Tours in 2017 by date 27–4

Mitteldeutschland

Walking Hadrian's Wall

30–4

Organs of Bach's Time

Mid-West Galleries

The Schubertiade

Georgia

Grafenegg & Linz Festivals

Gastronomic Lombardy

28–5 Essential Jordan

Sibelius Festival

Rhineland Masterpieces

Art in Japan

Country House Opera

The Hanseatic League

China's Silk Road Cities

The Lucerne Festival

The Tallis Trail

Parma Verdi

Opera in Macerata & Pesaro

Habsburg Austria

Edinburgh Festival

1–11

Shakespeare's World

1–15 2–8

Malta

September 2017

October 2017

17-25 Palestine 21–27 Gastronomic Piedmont 22–29 Courts of Northern Italy

Ethiopia

Chinese Ceramics

Persia

History of Railways

Roman Italy

Persian Carpets

Museums of the Gulf States

2–15

Western Balkans

St Petersburg

3–8

Palladian Villas

1–13

The Road to Santiago

3–10

Mediaeval Alsace

4–16

Aztecs to Zapotecs

4–8

Country Houses of the South East

3–11

Aragón

4–9

Czech Modernism

5–9

Venetian Hills

7–12

Connoisseur's Rome (me 679) Kevin Childs.........................................28–29

4–9

Oxford & Oxfordshire

9–14

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

8–19

Art in Texas

4–10

Walking a Royal River

9–16

Walking in Southern Tuscany

5–16

Walking to Santiago

11–15 Ravenna & Urbino

6–10

Flemish Painting

11–19 Cathedrals of England

6–11

Tudor England

12–18 Modern Art on the Côte d'Azur

7–21

Persia

13–22 Castile and León

1–8

10–16 Connoisseur's Prague

14–22 Le Corbusier

10–26 Peru

15–21 Art in the Netherlands

10–17 Courts of Northern Italy

16–26 Essential Andalucía

11–18 Walking in the Cotswolds

16–28 Sicily

11–18 The Heart of Italy 12–22 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities

November 2017

13–19 Art History of Venice 13–19 The Printing Revolution 28–2 Venetian Palaces (me 720)

Dr Michael Douglas-Scott.................. 31–32

Michelangelo's Florence

Keates' Venice

North-West Iran

Sicily Myanmar

Low relief sculpture from Persepolis, engraving 1803.

12–25 Essential China 13–17 Agincourt, Crécy, Waterloo 15–20 Wine, walks & art in Alsace 16–19 The Age of Bede 16–25 Classical Greece 16–26 Frank Lloyd Wright 18–24 Istanbul 18–30 Sicily 20–25 Walking to Cornish Houses 21–24 In Churchill's Footsteps 21–27 Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes 21–29 Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden 21–7

The Cradle of Modern Art

24–1

Dark Age Brilliance

25–30 Pompeii & Herculaneum 27– 1

Art in Madrid

27–4

Essential Puglia

28–9 Persia 30–6

Gastronomic Lombardy

Haydn in Eisenstadt

Samarkand & Silk Road Cities

Poets & the Somme

Gastronomic Catalonia

Châteaux of the Loire

40

M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Spring Newsletter 2016

Booking form

BOOKING FORM TOUR NAME(S)

DATES

TOUR CODE(S)

NAME(S) – as you would like it/them to appear on documents issued to other tour participants.

Participant 1 Participant 2

ROOM TYPE ☐ Single occupancy room(s)

FURTHER INFORMATION or special requests. Please mention dietary requirements, even if you have told us before.

☐ Double room (two sharing) ☐ Twin room (two sharing)

TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS ☐ Group travel from London

(air or rail), if applicable to this tour. ☐ No travel – making your own

arrangements for travel to and from

the destination.

CONTACT DETAILS – for all correspondence

FELLOW TRAVELLER – if applicable

Address

Postcode/Zip

Country

If you have made a booking for someone who does not share your address, please give their details here. We will then send them copies of all tour documents. We will NOT send them a copy of the invoice or anything else relating to financial matters.

Mobile

Name

Telephone (home)

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Address

E-mail ☐ Please tick if you are happy to receive your tour and booking documents by e-mail only,

where possible.

Postcode/Zip

☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive regular updates by e-mail on our other tours,

music festivals and London Days.

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☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive any more of our brochures.

What prompted your booking? For example, an advertisement in ‘The Garden’ or another publication, a marketing email from us, browsing on our website, or receiving our brochure.

Email Telephone

Spring Newsletter 2016

Booking form

Booking form, continued

PASSPORT DETAILS. Essential for airlines and in case of emergency on tour (not applicable for tours in the UK if you are a UK resident).

Title

Surname

Forenames

Nationality

Place of birth

1.

2.

Date of birth (dd/mm/yy)

Passport number

Place of issue

Date of issue (dd/mm/yy)

Date of expiry (dd/mm/yy)

1.

2.

NEXT OF KIN or contact in case of emergency.

Participant 1:

Participant 2 (if next of kin is different):

Name

Name

Telephone

Telephone

Relationship

Relationship

MEMBERSHIPS – only needed for certain UK tours. Please give membership numbers and expiry dates.

PAYMENT & AGREEMENT Please tick payment amount: ☐ EITHER Deposit(s) amounting to 10% of your total booking cost. ☐ OR Full Payment. This is required if you are booking within 10

weeks of departure.

TOTAL: £ Please tick payment method: ☐ CHEQUE. I enclose a cheque payable to Martin Randall Travel

Ltd – please write the tour code on the back (e.g. md 123). ☐ 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.

Bookings paid for by credit card will have 2% added to cover processing charges. This brings us into line with standard travel industry practice. It does not apply to other forms of payment.

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF

Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Telephone +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

Telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 Fax +61 (0)7 3371 8288 anz@martinrandall.com.au

☐ BANK TRANSFER. Please give your surname and tour code (e.g.

md 123) as a reference and ask your bank to allow for all charges.

Account name: Martin Randall Travel Ltd Bank address: Handelsbanken, 2 Chiswick High Road, London W4 1TH

For transfers from UK (Sterling) bank accounts: Account number 8663 3438 Sort code 40-51-62

For transfers from non-UK bank accounts: IBAN: GB98 HAND 4051 6286 6334 38 Swift/BIC code: HAND GB22

I have read and agree to the Booking Conditions on behalf of all listed on this form.

Signature Date Canada Telephone (647) 382 1644 Fax (416) 925 2670 canada@martinrandall.ca USA Telephone (connects to the London office) 1 800 988 6168

ABTA No.Y6050

5085

Spring Newsletter 2016

Booking details

BOOKING CONDITIONS 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, often going 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. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason. You need to have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the holiday by slowing them down – see ‘Fitness requirements’ on the previous page. To this end we ask you to take the tests described. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have met these fitness requirements. If during the tour it transpires you are not able to cope adequately, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or be invited to leave the tour altogether.

This would be at your own expense.

Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance. Cover for medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and cancellation charges must be included.

Insurance can be obtained from most insurance companies, banks, travel agencies and (in the UK) many retail outlets including Post Offices.

Experience tells us that free travel insurance offered by some credit card companies is not reliable in the event of a claim.

Passports and visas. British citizens must have valid passports for all tours outside the United Kingdom. For most countries the passport needs to be valid for six months beyond the date of the tour. If visas are required we will advise UK citizens about obtaining them. Nationals of other countries should ascertain whether visas are required in their case, and obtain them if they are.

If you cancel. If you have to cancel your participation on a tour, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before the tour the deposit only is forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of the tour will be due:

between 56 and 29 days: between 28 and 15 days: between 14 days and 3 days: within 48 hours:

40% 60% 80% 100%

If you cancel your booking in a double or twin room or cabin but are travelling with a companion who chooses to continue to participate on the tour, the companion will be liable to pay the stipulated single supplement.

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

If we cancel the tour. We might decide to cancel a tour if at any time up to eight weeks before there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable.

We would refund everything you had paid to us. We may also cancel a tour if hostilities, civil unrest, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure affect the region to which the tour was due to go.

Safety and security. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to places visited on a tour, we would cancel the tour or adjust the itinerary to avoid the risky area. In the event of cancellation before the tour commenced we would give you a full refund.

We would also treat sympathetically a wish to withdraw from a tour to a troubled region even if the FCO does not advise against travel there.

Seatbelts. Our tours and festivals subscribe to the health and safety legislation of the destination.

In some parts of the world the law concerning seatbelts differs to the UK. The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour, 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 exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not acceptable we would give a full refund.

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.

Financial protection.

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 ABTA The Travel Association.

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.

Fitness tests A certain level of fitness is a requirement for participation on our tours. We ask that all participants take these quick and simple tests to ascertain whether they are fit enough: 1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least 8 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 2 minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object 3 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 7 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 unsupported for at least fifteen minutes.

Spring Newsletter 2016

Booking details

MAKING A BOOKING 1. Booking option We recommend that you contact us first to make a booking option which we will hold for seven days. To confirm it please send the booking form and deposit within this period – the deposit is 10% of your total booking price (including the single supplement, if applicable to your booking).

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, and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of departure.

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 tour may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.

Alternatively, you can make a definite booking straight away at www.martinrandall.com Illustration: Ghent, lithograph by Samuel Prout 1839.

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF

Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Canada Telephone (647) 382 1644 Fax (416) 925 2670 canada@martinrandall.ca

Telephone +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

Telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 Fax +61 (0)7 3371 8288 anz@martinrandall.com.au

USA Telephone (connects to the London office) 1 800 988 6168

ABTA No.Y6050

5085