Chamber Music Short Breaks in the UK: 2023

2023 SEASON

CASTALIAN STRING QUARTET

LINOS PIANO TRIO

ELIAS STRING QUARTET

CHAMBER MUSIC SHORT BREAKS IN THE UK

THE CASTLE HOTEL, TAUNTON THE SWAN HOTEL & SPA, LAVENHAM

Hear great classical music performed by outstanding musicians of international repute.

Enjoy the intimacy and intensity of a recital hall little bigger than a large drawing room.

The music is introduced by musicologists or by the players themselves.

Mingle with the musicians, speakers, and with like-minded fellow music lovers.

Stay in famous and very comfortable hotels, and enjoy great food.

Our package includes accommodation, dinners, and afternoon teas as well as access to the concerts themselves.

Tickets to individual concerts are also available to purchase for those who live locally.

Martin Randall Festival staff are in attendance to help the events run smoothly and enjoyably.

10.

THE HOTELS

Two of the most comfortable and welcoming in England.

4.

CASTALIAN STRING QUARTET

LATE MASTERWORKS

3–5 March 2023

The Castle Hotel, Taunton

6.

LINOS

PIANO TRIO

NEW BEGINNINGS TO GRAND FINALES

21–23 April 2023

The Castle Hotel, Taunton

8.

ELIAS STRING QUARTET

BEETHOVEN & HAYDN

8–10 May 2023

The Swan at Lavenham

11

BOOKING

Booking form, details about booking, and our terms and conditions.

CASTALIAN STRING QUARTET

LATE MASTERWORKS

3–5 March 2023 (mj 632)

The Castle Hotel, Taunton

Price: from £880

Speaker: Richard Wigmore

Sini Simonen violin

Daniel Roberts violin

Ruth Gibson viola

Steffan Morris cello

Formed in 2011, the Castalian Quartet has since enjoyed success on the competition circuit (prizes at Lyon, Hannover and Banff) followed by selection to the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2016 and the BorlettiBuitoni Trust in 2018.

Since their previous appearance at The Castle Taunton, at Rising Stars in early 2019, they have continued to gain international renown, adding Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna Konzerthaus, among others, to their list of recent debuts – while at home they have been announced as Artists in Residence at Wigmore Hall and Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford.

Their programme focusses on mature works by composers from across the centuries. Some you might naturally expect to hear in a programme of chamber music ‘greats’ – late, undeniably masterful quartets by Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn that require

little introduction here. Others, however, are heard less often – but are no less deserving of inclusion here.

Sibelius’ Voces Intimae is the only fullscale chamber work from the composer’s mature period and, in its ‘intimate voices’, is frequently removed from the remote and faintly chilling sound world of his orchestral pieces. Here it is paired with a work by fellow Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952). Britten composed his third string quartet in the autumn of 1975, shortly before his death in 1976; completed in Venice, its final movement directly quotes a line from Death in Venice, his last operatic work. Elgar’s E-minor quartet Op.83, composed in 1918, was – along with the far more oft-performed Cello Concerto –one of the last major works he wrote.

Short (c. 15-minute) introductory talks on the music are provided by eminent broadcaster and musicologist Richard Wigmore at the beginning of each concert and again after the interval. See page 8 for his biography.

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 3 MARCH, 5.30pm

Elgar, String Quartet in E minor Op.83 Schubert, String Quartet in G D887

SATURDAY 4 MARCH, 10.30am

Saariaho, Terra Memoria

Sibelius, String Quartet Op.56 Voces Intimae

SATURDAY 4 MARCH, 5.30pm

Mozart, String Quartet No.15 in D minor K421

Beethoven, String Quartet in E flat Op.130 (including Große Fuge)

SUNDAY 5 MARCH, 10.30am

Britten, String Quartet No.3 in G Op.94

Haydn, String Quartet in D Op.20 No.4

PRACTICALITIES

Prices, per person. Two sharing: standard double £880; Garden Room £1,070. Single occupancy: single bedded room £880; double for sole use £990.

Included: four concerts with integrated talks, accommodation for two nights, breakfasts, two afternoon teas, two dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.

Tickets to individual concerts: £25 mornings, £30 evenings. Interval drinks and a programme are also included.

Hotel information: see page 10.

Booking information: see page 13.

Photo ©Paul Marc Mitchell

LINOS PIANO TRIO NEW BEGINNINGS TO GRAND FINALES

21–23 April 2023 (mj 689)

The Castle Hotel, Taunton

Price: from £880

With spoken introductions by the musicians

Prach Boondiskulchok piano

Konrad Elias-Trostmann violin

Vladimir Waltham cello

Founded in 2007, the Linos Piano Trio has a colourful and distinctive voice that draws on the rich cultural and artistic backgrounds of the three players. Their five nationalities and breadth of specialisms, ranging from historical to new music, undoubtedly contribute to their multifaceted and personal performances.

Alongside a commitment to the genre’s masterpieces, the group has a growing reputation for championing hidden gems and creating new trio transcriptions – four of which we will be treated to at this weekend.

Each of their four concerts explores a different theme, while works by Beethoven form a common thread throughout.

New Beginnings traces the ‘three Bs’ from the dawn of the piano trio genre in C.P.E. Bach’s galant E-flat major trio, to Beethoven’s Op.1 No.1, used for his own Vienna debut in the presence of the great master Haydn, and concluding with Brahms’s complex early work, which he reworked much later in life.

Experiments: The Linos Piano Trio prides itself on pioneering collaborative arrangements for piano trio, with its award-winning 2021 album Stolen Music which was widely acclaimed. For this concert, the trio has selected pieces that capture the spirit of experimentation of the composers featured, and experiments further on them with their own reimagining.

Nocturnes explores Beethoven’s fascination with a new sound world in his Op.70 piano trios. These pieces give us glimpses of his later style and are an early precursor the 19thcentury ‘night music’ genre. Sandwiched in between will be a piece by the Trio’s pianist, Prach Boondiskulchok, entitled Night Suite

The final programme, Culmination, pairs the final work (of his own) that Beethoven ever performed in public along with Ravel’s masterful A-minor Trio, written just before he joined the WW1 war effort – not knowing if this would be his last composition. These works capture a sense of culmination by two great masters of the trio genre.

For this event, we have invited the Trio to speak throughout the concerts about the music they are performing – something to which they are well accustomed and which they do brilliantly.

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 21 APRIL, 5.30pm

‘New Beginnings’

C.P.E. Bach, Piano Trio in E flat Wq.89 No.4

Beethoven, Piano Trio in E flat Op.1 No.1

Brahms, Piano Trio No.1 in B Op.8

SATURDAY 22 APRIL, 10.30am

‘Experiments’

Works all arr. by Linos Trio: Jean-Féry Rebel, Les Caractères de la Danse

Beethoven, Finale from Symphony No.3 in E flat Op.55 Eroica

Debussy, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Ravel, Tombeau de Couperin

SATURDAY 22 APRIL, 5.30pm

‘Nocturnes’

Beethoven, Piano Trio in D Op.70 No.1 Ghost

Prach Boondiskulchok, Night Suite

Beethoven, Piano Trio in E flat Op.70 No.2

SUNDAY 23 APRIL, 10.30am

‘Culmination’

Ravel, Piano Trio in A minor

Beethoven, Piano Trio in B flat Op.97 Archduke

PRACTICALITIES

Prices, per person. Two sharing: standard double £880; Garden Room £1,070. Single occupancy: single bedded room £880; double for sole use £990 .

Included: four concerts with integrated talks, accommodation for two nights, breakfasts, two afternoon teas, two dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.

Tickets to individual concerts: £25 mornings, £30 evenings. Interval drinks and a programme are also included.

Hotel information: see page 10.

Booking information: see page 13.

Photo ©Kaupo Kikkas

ELIAS STRING QUARTET

BEETHOVEN & HAYDN

8–10 May 2023 (mj 706)

The Swan at Lavenham

Price: from £860

Speaker: Richard Wigmore

Sara Bitlloch violin

Donald Grant violin

Simone van der Giessen viola

Marie Bitlloch cello

The Elias String Quartet has long been celebrated, in Britain and abroad, for their ability to communicate musical meaning. Formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music, this ensemble has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein Vienna, Kozerthaus Berlin and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Their innovative online Beethoven Project shares their research of the composer and demonstrates their great musical curiosity –they have now recorded Beethoven’s complete cycle of string quartets, and so one would probably expect his music to feature heavily in their programme for this weekend, as it indeed does. We cannot hear Beethoven without also reference to Haydn, his most influential teacher: the Quartet has selected his Op.64 No.6 and Op.50 No.4 to combine.

A musical sub-theme is of works influenced by folk or traditional music. Stravinsky’s short Three Pieces take rhythmic and melodic elements from Russian peasant tunes. American composer Florence Price (b. 1887) beautifully and subtly interweaves the music of her southern roots into her A-minor Quartet, while taking influence in her compositional style from Dvořák. Hear also transcriptions of traditional Scottish folk tunes by the group’s second violin Donald Grant, who grew up in the Highlands of Scotland immersed in the world of traditional music (a different selection will be heard from those they performed in 2021).

Short introductory talks on the music are provided by Richard Wigmore at the beginning of each concert and after the intervals.

RICHARD WIGMORE, SPEAKER

Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio

3.He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and has taught at Guildhall, Trinity Laban and Birkbeck. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

PROGRAMME

MONDAY 8 MAY, 5.00pm

Haydn, String Quartet in E flat Op.64 No.6 Beethoven, String Quartet in A minor Op.132

TUESDAY 9 MAY, 10.30am

Beethoven, String Quartet in D Op.18 No.3

Stravinsky, Three Pieces for String Quartet Donald Grant, Scottish Folk Music transcriptions and arrangements

TUESDAY 9 MAY, 5.00pm

Florence Price, String Quartet No.2 in A minor

Beethoven, String Quartet No.14 in C-sharp minor Op.131

WEDNESDAY 10 MAY, 10.30am

Haydn, String Quartet in F-sharp minor Op.50 No.4

Beethoven, String Quartet in F Op.18 No.1

PRACTICALITIES

Prices, per person. Two sharing: standard double £860; superior double £940; junior suite £1,040; suite £1,090. Single occupancy: standard double for sole use £910; superior double for sole use £990.

Included: four concerts with integrated talks, accommodation for two nights, breakfasts, two afternoon teas, two dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.

Tickets to individual concerts: £25 mornings, £30 evenings. Interval drinks and a programme are also included.

Hotel information: see page 10.

Booking information: see page 13.

Photo ©Kaupo Kikkas (and front cover)

THE HOTELS

THE CASTLE HOTEL, TAUNTON

The Castle is renowned for its excellent service, for comforts traditional and modern, and for its superb catering. It has been owned and run by the Chapman family for over 60 years. Chamber music events have been held here since 1977, and Martin Randall Travel took over the running of them in 2003.

The hotel’s bedrooms are individually and charmingly decorated. Doubles and twins are mainly of a good size, and the largest – the Garden Rooms – overlook the garden. There is no single-occupancy supplement for the rooms with single beds. The majority of rooms have a bath with a shower fitment.

The hotel has a lift, though some bedrooms are then accessed via stairs. The Music Room is on a mezzanine level, up a flight of stairs from the lobby.

Taunton lies on the doorstep of Exmoor and the Quantocks, areas with some of the loveliest countryside in England.

www.the-castle-hotel.com

THE SWAN HOTEL & SPA, LAVENHAM

The Swan Hotel at Lavenham has been an inn since 1667 and is one of the most charming and best-known small-town hotels in England. It spreads through a number of contiguous half-timber buildings which date to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The bedrooms have been renovated in a pleasingly restrained manner which retains their historical character. Most bathrooms have a bath with shower fitment. Facilities include a bar, extensive lounge areas, a brasserie and the Weavers’ House Spa. Dinners are served in the gallery hall.

Due to the historical nature of the building, the hotel does not have a lift, and on the ground floor there are steps to negotiate. A limited number of bedrooms are available on the ground floor. If you have access requirements, please contact us.

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 medieval houses.

www.theswanatlavenham.co.uk

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The Castle Hotel, Taunton

The Castalian String Quartet

3–5 March 2023 (mj 632)

The Linos Piano Trio

21–23 April 2023 (mj 689)

Single room

Double for sole use

Standard double – two sharing

Garden Room – two sharing

With: twin beds double bed

Elias String Quartet

8–10 May 2023 (mj 706)

The Swan Hotel & Spa, Lavenham

Double room for sole use

Superior double for sole use

Standard double – two sharing

Superior double – two sharing

Junior suite – two sharing

Suite – two sharing

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BOOKING DETAILS

MAKING A BOOKING

We recommend that you contact us first to make a booking option which we will hold for one week. To confirm your place(s), please then send your booking form and the deposit (10% of your total booking cost) to us within this period. If you are booking within ten weeks of the event, we require full payment.

Extending your stay

Please contact us for a quote if you would like to stay any extra nights in the hotels.

Individual concert tickets

For Lavenham concert ticket availability, please contact us on 020 8742 3355.

For events in Taunton, individual concert tickets are handled by the hotel. Please call 01823 272 671 or visit the-castle-hotel.com

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If you cancel. If you have to withdraw from your booking, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before the event’s start date, the deposit is forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost will be due:

from 56 to 29 days: 40% from 28 to 15 days: 60% from 14 to 4 days: 80% within 72 hours: 100%

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For 2023 we have planned c. 160 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10–20 participants), four music festivals, several history and music breaks and an extensive programme of online talks and study days in London.

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