Leamington Music Festival 2020 leaflet

Leamington Music Festival 1 - 5 May 2020 Royal Pump Rooms • Leamington Spa

Largely Ludwig

Celebrating Beethoven's 250th birthday with works by the great composer and his contemporaries

Welcome Largely Ludwig is a celebration of the most important composer of all time and even if every festival and concert series programmes his works throughout 2020, nowhere will have had too much and he will go into 2021 hopefully better understood and needing further attention.

Leamington Music will during 2020 put on some twenty of his works, some old favourites, others curiosities.

The Festival contains a number of works by Beethoven’s contemporaries and retains the Czech connection that it is well known for. The final concert features two works by Howard Skempton not yet performed in Leamington and finishing with On Wenlock Edge leads naturally to the Festival Extra concert on 17 May when Roderick Williams gives a recital of English Song.

The Festival welcomes back Tasmin Little just months before she retires from giving concerts and her Russian pianist, Andrey Gugnin, who is given an evening concert in which he can repeat Pictures at an Exhibition which earned him a standing ovation last year, plus the Hammerklavier Sonata. Tom Poster returns to play the Emperor Concerto in Lachner’s arrangement for string quartet and double bass, which brings the Sacconi Quartet back after a seven year gap. Also to be welcomed back is the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch, the Kinsky Piano Trio, Ensemble 360 and James Gilchrist. As always there are some new faces too, including Veronika Klírová the Czech flautist in the CBSO, the horn player Ben Goldscheider who was a BBC Young Musician in the vintage 2016 Competition and the organist Francesca Massey, originally from Birmingham, Richard Phillips MBE now at Rochester Cathedral.

Festival Director

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Box Offices:

Leamington Visitor Information Centre, Royal Pump Rooms, Parade, CV32 4AA Visit Warwick, The Court House, Jury Street, Warwick CV34 4EW

Telephone:

01926 334418

Hours:

Monday to Friday: 10am - 4pm Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 3pm

Book online:

www.royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk

7.30pm

Tom Poster piano Sacconi String Quartet Ben Hancox & Hannah Dawson violins Robin Ashwell viola Cara Berridge cello

Andrew Marshall double bass Beethoven Piano Sonata in E minor Op 90 Beethoven String Quartet in B flat Op 18 No 6 Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat Op 73 arr. Lachner 'Emperor'

The opening concert of the 2020 Leamington Music Festival sets the scene beautifully for our celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday, bringing together the composer's piano, chamber and orchestral works, although perhaps in a way you have never heard before. The piano sonata with which we begin the Festival was written in 1814 - the year the Royal Pump Rooms was built.

Tom Poster's superb performance of Shostakovich's Piano Quintet with the Aronowitz Ensemble in last year's Festival proved that he is a piano force to be reckoned with. He is joined by the Sacconi Quartet, which embarks on its 20th-anniversary tour next year, and double bassist Andrew Marshall for the Emperor Concerto which should certainly begin the weekend with a bang!

Tickets: £25 and £20 reserved, £15 unreserved sides

Friday 1 May

Friday 1 May

Saturday 2 May 12 noon Schulhoff Martin Červenka Martinů Hummel

Veronika Klírová flute Ben Dawson piano Flute Sonata Suite for Flute and Piano 'Obrazy' Flute Sonata No 1 H306 Flute Sonata in A Op 64 Czech flautist Veronika Klírová brings her CBSO colleague Ben Dawson to add our traditional Czech flavour to the Festival. With them come the Czech Republic's famous sons and a composer whose work is new to the Festival - Martin Červenka - who dedicated this Obrazy Suite to Veronika which receives its Leamington debut.

Tickets: £16 reserved, £13 unreserved sides Concert supported by The Dvořák Society

The American Beethoven

Talk by Peter Herbert

4.00pm Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861) was born in Bohemia but made his name in the United States, where he was dubbed 'The Beethoven of America'. Heinrich was really the first "full time" American composer and a musician of great influence, chairing the founding meeting of the New York Philharmonic Society in 1842 and bringing Beethoven's music to the fore across the pond.

Tickets: £8 including tea and cake served from 3.30pm

Andrey Gugnin piano

Beethoven Mussorgsky

Piano Sonata in B flat Op 106 'Hammerklavier' Pictures at an Exhibition

Winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition and introduced to us last May by Tasmin Little, Andrey Gugnin is now deservedly making his name in the UK. His recently released CD of works by Shostakovich achieved universal critical acclaim - "Gugnin possesses an extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination."

(Gramophone Magazine).

We knew that, of all Beethoven's wonderful piano sonatas, Andrey must play the Hammerklavier for us and finding a work to pair with that mighty piece was no mean feat. But as Andrey achieved a roaring standing ovation with his astonishing performance of Pictures at an Exhibition last year, it seemed the only natural choice to give those who missed it a second chance to experience Mussorgsky's epic work in the hands of this extraordinary Russian pianist.

Tickets: £25 and £20 reserved, £15 unreserved sides Concert generously supported by Peter Glanfield

Saturday 2 May

7.30pm

Sunday 3 May

12 noon Cherubini Beethoven Schulhoff Rosetti Schumann

Ben Goldscheider horn Richard Uttley piano

Horn Sonata No 2 in F Horn Sonata in F Op 17 Selection from Esquisses de jazz WV90 Allegro and Romance from Horn Concerto in E flat C48 Adagio and Allegro in A flat Op 70

Aged only 21, Ben Goldscheider is a name to watch. He won the Brass Category and was a Concerto Finalist of the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2016, since when he has made his BBC Proms debut as well as concerto performances all over Europe. Richard Uttley won the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2006; he has since released several recordings to critical acclaim and performed as recitalist and concerto soloist throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, and China.

Tickets: £16 reserved, £13 unreserved sides

2.30pm

Warwickshire Music Annual Concert

A platform to showcase the cream of Warwickshire Music’s students from across the county, performing works that complement the Festival’s programmes and themes.

Tickets: £2.50 students and children, £8 adults to include tea, squash and cake

7.30pm

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch Hagai Shaham violin, Arnon Erez piano Raphael Wallfisch cello

Haydn Beethoven Beethoven

Sunday 3 May

Beethoven

Trio in C Allegretto in B flat WoO 39 Variations on 'Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu' Op 121a Trio in B Flat Op 97 'Archduke'

Festival favourite, Raphael Wallfisch, brings his Trio back to Leamington for the first time since 2015 when they delighted our audience with all of Brahms' wonderful piano trios; this time, of course, it is Beethoven's turn for the Shaham Erez Wallfisch treatment with a little sprinkling of Haydn too.

The greatest of Beethoven’s trios, the Archduke, is accompanied by lesserknown works, which makes for an exhaustive picture of the composer’s approach to the medium throughout his life - the Kakadu Variations being the last piece for piano trio that Beethoven published in his lifetime.

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch has performed, broadcast and recorded widely throughout Europe, Canada and Israel including concerts in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France and Spain. Amongst other recitals the trio enjoys performing regularly at the Wigmore Hall and comes to Leamington direct from there for this visit.

Tickets: £25 and £20 reserved, £15 unreserved sides Concert generously supported by Paul & Jane Watts

Monday 4 May 11.00am

All Saints Church, Leamington

Francesca Massey Organ Recital Director of Music at Rochester Cathedral

Mozart Haydn Boulanger Sylvie Bodorová Judith Weir Arvo Pärt Eben

Fantasia in F minor K608 Pieces for a Musical Clock Trois Pièces Emek ha-bacha Wild Mossy Mountains Trivium Moto Ostinato from Sunday Music

Retiring collection · Coffee and cake available

12.30pm

Kinsky Piano Trio Lucie Sedláková Hůlová violin Martin Sedlák cello Veronika Böhmová piano

Vranický Beethoven Fibich

Trio in G Op 32 No 1 Trio in C minor Op 1 No 3 Trio in F minor

The Kinsky Piano Trio makes its third visit to the Royal Pump Rooms, having previously appeared in the 2014 and 2017 Festivals. One of the great Czech ensembles, the Trio records regularly for Czech Radio, and their concerts have also been broadcast in the USA and Mexico. In this concert, Beethoven nestles comfortably amongst a Czech contemporary and a Czech successor.

Tickets: £16 reserved, £13 unreserved sides Concert supported by the Low-Beer Trust

7.30pm Beethoven

Violin Sonata in F Op 24 'Spring' Violin Sonata in D minor Op 108 Fratres Violin Sonata in A Op 47 'Kreutzer'

Monday 4 May

Brahms Arvo Pärt Beethoven

Tasmin Little violin Andrey Gugnin piano

Tasmin Little has firmly established herself as one of today's leading international violinists; she has performed on every continent in some of the most prestigious venues of the world, in a career spanning more than thirty years.

Imagine our delight when Tasmin told us she had so enjoyed her Festival concert last year, she would like to return to Leamington with Andrey Gugnin and play for us again before she hangs up her concert gowns for good in the summer.

With a programme featuring two of Beethoven's finest violin sonatas, this will be one of the last chances to hear Tasmin play in the Midlands and is certainly an opportunity not to be missed!

Tickets: £25 and £20 reserved, £15 unreserved sides Concert generously supported by Diane Holt

Tuesday 5 May 12 noon

Ensemble 360 Matthew Hunt clarinet Gemma Rosefield cello Tim Horton piano

Weber Beethoven Rossini Beethoven

Grand Duo Concertante Variations on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen" WoO 46 Introduction, Theme & Variations Trio Op 11 'Gassenhauer'

Three of the best known members of Ensemble 360 contribute a concert requiring virtuosic playing and featuring variations.

Beethoven’s Gassenhauer Trio dates from 1797 and the Variations on a theme from The Magic Flute from 1801. Weber and Rossini are both best known in the opera world. Weber was inspired by the clarinetist Heinrich Baermann to write concertos and this duo in 1815 and Rossini wrote his Theme and Variations aged 17 in 1809.

Four remarkable works written in a less than twenty years period makes for an awesome lunchtime feast!

Tickets: £16 reserved, £13 unreserved sides

7.30pm

James Gilchrist tenor Ensemble 360

Matthew Hunt clarinet Benjamin Nabarro and Claudia Ajmone-Marsan violins Ruth Gibson viola • Gemma Rosefield cello Tim Horton piano

The Moon is Flashing An die ferne Geliebte Op 98 Piano Concerto On Wenlock Edge

The music of Howard Skempton makes a recognizable feature in our Festival programmes, and what a delight to have two works that are new to Leamington audiences this year. Both are works originally scored for soloist and full orchestra, which have been re-scored by the composer for chamber ensemble, giving us a wonderful sense of symmetry to have chamber versions of piano concertos bookending the Festival.

We are pleased to welcome James Gilchrist back to the area after a gap of some six years, and when a tenor of this eminence performs at a Largely Ludwig Festival, having Beethoven's only song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, in the programme is an absolute must. Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge then moves us closer to the delights over the page...

Tickets: £25 and £20 reserved, £15 unreserved sides Concert generously sponsored by Presto Classical

Tuesday 5 May

Howard Skempton Beethoven Howard Skempton Vaughan Williams

Sunday 17 May Festival Extra

King's Hall, King's High School Banbury Road, Warwick CV34 6YE

3.00pm

Roderick Williams baritone Susie Allan piano

Sunday 17 May

"The Great Outdoors..."

This extra Festival concert brings Roderick Williams to the new King’s High School campus for the first time. It is a chance to celebrate King’s Hall as a new venue for Warwick and there is also a new Music Department for King's High School and Warwick Prep opening this year.

Williams has been hailed as a national treasure and is a supreme interpreter of English Song. This programme of works by the great English masters Butterworth, Ireland, Warlock, Gurney, Vaughan Williams and Britten - shows Roderick at his absolute best.

Plentiful parking available with entry via Banbury Road Tea and cakes served after the concert with tours of the school possible

Tickets: £20 unreserved

the COLOUR of the of the COLOUR COLOUR of

MUSIC MUSIC an exhibition of paintings by an an exhibition exhibition of of paintings paintings by by Jane Jane Williams Jane Williams Williams www.janewilliamsartist.co.uk www.janewilliamsartist.co.uk www.janewilliamsartist.co.uk www.janewilliamsartist.co.uk

Artist in Residence Leamington Music Artist in Residence Leamington Artist in Residence Leamington Music Music

Stile Antico singing in St Mary’s Stile Antico Antico singing in in St Mary’s Mary’s Stile Stile Antico singing singing in St St Mary’s

‘Celebrating Mozart’ ‘Celebrating ‘Celebrating Mozart’ Mozart’

acrylic on paper 42 x 28" acrylic on paper 42 xx 28" acrylic acrylic on on paper paper 42 42 x 28" 28"

Exhibition open in the Conservatory Exhibition open in the Conservatory Exhibition open in the Conservatory one hour before performances one hour performances onethroughout hour before beforethe performances Festival throughout the throughout the Festival Festival Cards of Jane’s artwork are available on the Friends Table Cards of artwork are on the Table of Jane’s Jane’s artwork are available available the Friends Friends Table soldCards to help fund the Leamington Musicon Education Programme sold to help fund the Leamington Music Education Programme sold to help fund the Leamington Music Education Programme

Thanks The 2020 Leamington Music Festival is made possible by its principal sponsor Presto Classical with further generous support from Peter Glanfield, Diane Holt, Maurice Millward and Paul & Jane Watts.

The Dvořák Society and the Low-Beer Trust, have also made important contributions and Leamington Town Council and Warwick District Council have helped with grant-aid.

Join the Friends!

The Friends of Leamington Music play an invaluable role in helping to sustain the leading music promoter in the area. If you are not already a Friend, please think about joining up to enjoy a very sociable group of music lovers. Your support helps to pay for the annual Leamington Music Prize and the Leamington Music Education Programme.

The Friends of Leamington Music benefit by being the first to receive publicity about future events, have priority booking for the Leamington Music Festival and the Winter Season and, throughout the year, there are a number of special events unique to the Friends. There are also many ways in which Friends can be involved in voluntary capacities.

The Friends' year runs from 1 April to 31 March and the annual subscription is £25 for a single person or £40 for a couple.

Visit www.leamingtonmusic.org to download an application form or call the Leamington Music office on 01926 497000 for further details.

Accommodation For details of accommodation please call the Visitor Information Centre at the Royal Pump Rooms in Leamington on 01926 742700 or the Leamington Music office on 01926 497000, or email richard@leamingtonmusic.org.

Rail Travel The Royal Pump Rooms are five minutes walk away from Leamington station, which sits on the Chiltern Railways line between London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill and has an excellent service.

Leamington Music reserves the right to change artists and programmes if necessary

Education Programme Each year, the Leamington Music Education Programme offers schools throughout the county the possibility of musicians appearing in the Winter Season visiting them to give workshops or special concerts. Leamington Music works in partnership with Warwickshire Music and with further funds made available through trusts and donations, particularly from the Friends of Leamington Music, is able to provide highly subsidised sessions for schools.

This year, for the first time, there will be sessions available from artists appearing in the Leamington Music Festival. Around their lunchtime concert on Monday 4 May, the Kinsky Piano Trio is in town for four days giving a Playwip (Play with the professionals) course in which they coach local amateur chamber groups. Members of the Trio will be bringing their young children with them, each of them accomplished musicians in their own right, who will be available with their parents for mini-concerts in schools - a superb inspiration for the musicians of tomorrow!

We are always looking for new schools to join the Programme. If you know a school which would like one of these wonderful visits, we are keen to hear from you - please call the Leamington Music office on 01926 497000 or email helen@leamingtonmusic.org.

2020/21 International String Quartet Concerts series at the Royal The

Pump Rooms opens on Friday 2 October with the Elias Quartet playing Beethoven Quartets Op 18 No 4 and Op 127 and Britten Quartet No 3. The season continues with the Calidore Quartet (USA), Jubilee Quartet, Dudok Quartet (Netherlands), Minguet Quartet (Germany) and Arcadia Quartet (Romania).

Booking will open in July

Leamington Music Festival 1 - 5 May 2020 Royal Pump Rooms • Leamington Spa

Largely Ludwig

Celebrating Beethoven's 250th birthday with works by the great composer and his contemporaries

www.leamingtonmusic.org The Leamington Music Festival is promoted by Leamington Music Administration: Northgate, Warwick, CV34 4JL

01926 497000

Registered Charity No. 1117723