Leamington Music Winter Season 2022/23

Leamington Music Autumn 2022 to Spring 2023 String Quartets in Leamington | Early Music in Warwick Leamington Music Prize Winners | Brass Bands Christmas, Family and other Chamber Concerts

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www.leamingtonmusic.org 01926 334418

Leamington Music, having put on over fifty concerts since the end of lockdown, launches its seventeenth Winter Season in October, putting on some twenty concerts going into late March. The successful formula that has evolved over the years sees the monthly series of string quartets in the Royal Pump Rooms Leamington and of early music in St Mary’s Church Warwick, plus a range of musical genres, using some half a dozen different venues in the two towns.

Welcome

The Early Music at St Mary’s Church Warwick series begins on Tuesday 4 October with the Marian Consort appearing for the first time, as will be the City Musick with a Christmas concert and German star recorder player Tabea Debus playing with the Cedar Consort in January. The other groups like Fretwork, The Gesualdo Six and Ex Cathedra have all developed enthusiastic followings in a series that actually dates back to the mid-1990s.

A monthly series of string quartet concerts has been going in Warwick or Leamington on Fridays for over thirty years and this year’s International String Quartet Concerts series starts on 7 October with the Brodsky Quartet on a tour celebrating fifty years. The young Eusebius Quartet comes for the first time on 4 November, but the Fitzwilliam, Piatti, Doric and the Arcadia from Romania have all been a number of times before.

Other concerts in the Autumn will see the return of the Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski, and the klezmer band She’Koyokh, a triple brass band concert and, as usual, the Leamington Music Prize concert, plus some seasonal music for Christmas.

After Christmas, the annual date with Ensemble 360 giving a Family Concert in the morning and a large-scale chamber music concert in the afternoon at the Royal Spa Centre takes place on Sunday 5 March.

The 2023 Leamington Music Festival, based at the Royal Pump Rooms will take place 27 April to 1 May - add these dates to your diary now!

Richard Phillips MBE Festival Director

How to book 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 Sunday: 10am - 3pm

Book online:

www.leamingtonmusic.org

Leamington Music | Northgate | Warwick | CV34 4JL www.leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000 Registered Charity No 1117723 facebook.com/leamington.music

@leamingtonmusic

Mailing lists - email and snail mail Keep in touch with Leamington Music by joining our emailing list, which sends out regular newsletters or ask to be put on the mailing list which posts our leaflets.

Call 01926 497000, email helen@leamingtonmusic.org or sign up via our website.

St Mary's Church, Warwick CV34 4RA Tuesday 4 October | 7.30pm

The Marian Consort directed by Rory McCleery

Why do I use my paper, ink and pen?

Treasures from the manuscripts of Elizabethan England with music by Byrd, Clemens non Papa, Giles, Parsley, Parsons, Tallis and Van Wilder.

The Marian Consort - the young, dynamic group that made its BBC Proms debut last year and whose most recent CD release was chosen as one of Presto Music’s 2021 Recordings of the Year - comes to Warwick for the first time, bringing a programme that explores sacred vocal polyphony found in the beautiful handwritten manuscripts that were the preserve of Elizabethan music collectors. www.marianconsort.co.uk

£26 | £18 | £12

(£1 children / students)

Concert generously supported by Warwick Town Council

The singers perform with a yearning intensity which is just exquisite – Gramophone

Subscribe to the Early Music at St Mary's Church series and save £26 Buy tickets for all six concerts in the best seats for £130

Subscriptions available until the end of September - exclusively from the Leamington Music office call 01926 497000 or email helen@leamingtonmusic.org to book today 4 October - The Marian Consort 1 November - Fretwork 15 December - The City Musick

31 January - Tabea Debus recorder 28 February - The Gesualdo Six 21 March - Ex Cathedra

Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington CV32 4AA Friday 7 October | 7.30pm

Brodsky Quartet Krysia Osostowicz and Ian Belton violins Paul Cassidy viola, Jacqueline Thomas cello

Borodin Scherzo from 'Les Vendredis' Beethoven Quartet in F Op 135 Shostakovich Quartet No 3 in F Op 73

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Brodsky Quartet returns to Leamington playing key works by composers whose complete quartet cycles have been a feature of recent years. Borodin’s Scherzo was one of the many works specially written for a series of performances organized by a music-loving tycoon in St Petersburg that took place on Fridays. String Quartets on Fridays have been a feature of musical life first in Warwick and then in Leamington since 1988, as we start another exciting season.

6.15pm in the Conservatory | free to all advance-purchase ticket holders Pre-concert talk on books written by Paul Cassidy and Jacqueline Thomas www.brodskyquartet.com

£26 | £16

(£1 children / students)

Concert generously supported by Margaret Goode

Fiercely focused, blazing with integrity, and brilliantly imagined... – The Telegraph

Subscribe to the International String Quartets series and save £26 Buy tickets for all six concerts in the best seats for £130

Subscriptions available until the end of September - exclusively from the Leamington Music office call 01926 497000 or email helen@leamingtonmusic.org to book today 7 October - Brodsky Quartet 4 November - Eusebius Quartet 2 December - Fitzwilliam Quartet

27 January - Piatti Quartet 17 February - Doric Quartet 17 March - Arcadia Quartet

Unitarian Chapel, High Street, Warwick CV34 4AX Wednesday 12 October | 7.30pm

Morgan Szymanski guitar A musical journey through Latin America

St Mary's Church Warwick CV34 4RA Tuesday 1 November | 7.30pm

Fretwork Emilia Benjamin, Jonathan Rees, Joanna Levine, Sam Stadlen and Richard Boothby

Locke, Purcell, Jenkins & Lawes

A return visit from the Mexican guitarist - last heard here in Leamington with tenor Mark Padmore in July 2021 - will take us from Mexico to Cuba, Venezuela, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, to include music

by Brouwer, Cardoso, Lauro, Mangore, Oliva, Piazzolla, Ponce and Villa-Lobos. Morgan adores the setting and acoustic of this venue. ¡Hola! www.morganszymanski.co.uk

A programme of Consorts and Fantazies to celebrate Matthew Locke at 400, his genius pupil Henry Purcell, and other stars of the Seventeenth Century. Fretwork, the leading British viol consort, returns to Warwick for the first time since 2013 to remind us of this golden age. www.fretwork.co.uk

£22.50 unreserved

£26 | £18 | £12

includes glass of wine and tapas in interval (£1 children / students)

(£1 children / students)

Concert supported by The Arts Society Royal Leamington Spa

The finest viol consort on the planet...

– The Evening Standard

A real freshness and sparkle to the playing...

– Gramophone

Royal Pump Rooms Leamington CV32 4AA Friday 4 November | 7.30pm

Royal Spa Centre Leamington CV32 4HN Sunday 13 November | 7pm

Eusebius Quartet

Remembrance Sunday with Champion Bands

Beatrice Philips and Venetia Jollands violins Hannah Shaw viola, Hannah Sloane cello

Haydn Quartet in G Op 76 No 1 Howard Skempton Tendrils Beethoven Quartet in E flat Op 127 Named after Schumann’s fictional character, this young Anglo-American quartet based in London was founded in 2016. Coming to Leamington for the first time, they play Haydn's evergreen Quartet Op 76 No 1, alongside the first of Beethoven's legendary late quartets and Howard Skempton’s Tendrils as a tribute for his 75th birthday. www.eusebiusquartet.com

£26 | £16

(£1 children / students) Wit and charm abound... – The Strad

Tredegar Band Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Brass Band

Youth Brass 2000 Ian Porthouse & Chris Jeans conductors Music for Remembrance Sunday, Ralph Vaughan Williams 150th anniversary and popular brass band pieces played by champion bands, plus the Band from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire that made such an impact last October. The Tredegar Band has played in two BBC Proms this summer. www.tredegartownband.co.uk www.youthbrass2000.com

£20 unreserved

(£1 children / students) Listeners were left spellbound in admiration – 4barsrest.com

The Hall at Kingsley School, Beauchamp Avenue, Leamington CV32 5RD

The Dream Factory, Playbox Theatre, Stratford Road, Warwick CV34 6LE

Friday 18 November | 7.30pm

Tuesday 22 November | 7.30pm

2022 Leamington Music Prize Winners' concert

She'Koyokh

Félicité Piano Trio Ricardo Brown Roger violin Lucy Samuels cello, Lucy Eccleshall piano

Sally Beamish Carnival Samba Clara Schumann Piano Trio in

G minor Op 17 Fanny Mendelssohn Piano Trio in

D minor Op 11 Lili Boulanger D’un soir triste Lili Boulanger D’un matin du printemps The winners of the thirteenth Leamington Music Prize perform a concert of music by women composers, one of the Trio’s special interests which so impressed the adjudicators of the competition and which earned the Trio much-deserved attention from the national press upon winning the Prize earlier this year.

£15 unreserved

(£1 children / students)

Çiğdem Aslan vocals Susi Evans clarinet, Meg Hamilton violin Živorad Nikolić accordion & vocals Matt Bacon guitar, Paul Moylan double bass Christina Borgenstierna percussion She’Koyokh is a Yiddish word meaning “nice one!”

All seven members of this astonishing ensemble are virtuoso musicians, each with twenty years absorbing, performing and enjoying the rich folk music traditions of countries across the world.

Their programme is a melting pot of culture and style, from 19th-century Eastern European Jewish wedding music to Sephardic songs and festive music from the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. www.shekoyokh.co.uk

£20 unreserved

(£1 children / students) Fiery and emotional, lyric and virtuoso...

– The Evening Standard

Royal Pump Rooms Leamington CV32 4AA Friday 2 December | 7.30pm

Holy Trinity Church, Beauchamp Ave, Leamington CV32 5RE

Fitzwilliam Quartet

The York Waits

Lucy Russell and Andrew Roberts violins Alan George viola, Heather Tuach cello

Tim Bayley, Lizzie Gutteridge, Anna Marshall Susan Marshall and William Marshall with Deborah Catterall singer

Purcell Fantazia No 6 in F Rebecca Clarke Poem Vaughan Williams Quartet No 2

in A minor Schubert Quartet in G D887

The Mirth and Melody of Angels

The Fitzwilliam Quartet returns to complete Leamington Music’s contribution to the RVW150 celebrations. Vaughan Williams’s Quartet No 1 was played in the opening concert of the 2022 Leamington Music Festival. The Fitzwilliam Quartet can be relied on to produce an eclectic programme, like many enjoyed over the years, with their interpretation of Schubert’s greatest quartet a highlight of the 2019 Leamington Music Festival. www.fitzwilliamquartet.com

£26 | £16

(£1 children / students)

Wednesday 7 December| 7.30pm

Celebrating the 45th anniversary of the recreation of York’s historic city band, the Waits explore the rich tapestry of seasonal music from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. Familiar German chorales are followed by French Noëls and Mediterranean songs from the folk tradition, all accompanied by the full array of period instruments – shawms, sackbuts, curtals, crumhorns, bagpipes, recorders, flutes, fiddles, rebec, guitar, hurdy gurdy and portative organ. www.theyorkwaits.org.uk

£20 unreserved includes mulled wine and mince pies (£1 children / students) Concert sponsored by

Concert generously supported by Jolyon Hall ...an effortlessly rich collective tone

– The Strad

...a sight and sound not to be forgotten

– Musical Times

St Mary's Church, Warwick CV34 4RA Thursday 15 December | 7.30pm

The City Musick directed by William Lyons with George Bartle, Gawain Glenton, Sarah Humphrys, Tom Lees Nicholas Perry and Richard Thomas

Heigh Ho Holiday:

Christmas Revels in seventeenth-century London The City Musick - an ensemble of seven versatile musicians - performs festive dances and carols sung and played on the joyous sound of shawms, cornetts, sackbuts, dulcians, regals, recorders and bagpipes. A delightful programme presenting a perfect evocation of Christmas as celebrated four hundred years ago. www.tcmusick.com

£26 | £18 | £12 includes mulled wine and mince pies (£1 children / students) Vitality, resonance, and immediacy

– The Telegraph

Royal Pump Rooms Leamington CV32 4AA

St Mary's Church Warwick CV34 4RA

Friday 27 January | 7.30pm

Tuesday 31 January | 7.30pm

Piatti Quartet

Tabea Debus recorder

Michael Trainor and Rebecca Chan violins Tesuumi Nagata viola, Jessie Ann Richardson cello

Ullmann Quartet No 3 Op 46 Haas Quartet No 3 Beethoven Quartet in E minor

Op 59 No 2 On Holocaust Memorial Day, the Piatti Quartet, performing in Leamington for the fourth time and making their Concertgebouw Amsterdam debut this November, play quartets by two of the Terezín composers who perished in Auschwitz in 1944. The programme concludes with a work by Beethoven that featured in the ghetto’s remarkable cultural life. Leamington has been a centre for Czech music for many years now and the Terezín story regularly remembered in our programmes. www.piattiquartet.com

£26 | £16

(£1 children / students) A signally impressive young ensemble – The Sunday Times

with The Cedar Consort

directed by Benedict Williams harpsichord

Telemann's Subscribers Telemann Concerto in F TWV51:E1 Blavet Sonata seconda from Troisième

livre des sonates Bach Orchestral Suite No 3 in D

BWV1068 Telemann Ouverture-Suite in A minor TWV55:a2 Bach Violin Sonata in D minor HWV359a Bach Concerto after BWV35 & BWV156 The rising German recorder star, selected by the Young Concert Artists Trust joins The Cedar Consort to play works that Telemann had printed in a subscription deal that he launched in 1721. www.tabeadebus.com

£26 | £18 | £12

(£1 children / students) A charismatic virtuoso – The Times

Royal Pump Rooms Leamington CV32 4AA

St Mary's Church Warwick CV34 4RA

Friday 17 February | 7.30pm

Tuesday 28 February | 7.30pm

Doric Quartet

The Gesualdo Six

Alex Redington and Ying Xue violins Hélène Clément viola, John Myerscough cello

Owain Park director Guy James countertenor Joseph Wicks and Josh Cooter tenor Michael Craddock baritone, Sam Mitchell bass

Beethoven Quartet in G Op 18 No 2 Berg Quartet Op 3 Smetana Quartet No 1 in E minor

'From My Life'

Josquin’s Legacy – The Court at Ferrara

Formed in 1998, the Doric Quartet performs for the fifth time in Leamington Music’s seventeen years - last appearing in the 2017 Festival. The quartet's line-up has changed over the years but its preeminent position among British quartets remains at the top. Berg's extraordinary Quartet sits between one of Beethoven's earliest and Smetana's great autobiographical work. www.doricstringquartet.com

Piecing together an international tale of the Renaissance through ‘jewels in the crown’ repertoire, tracing themes of pedagogy and patronage in northern Italy over 150 years. The programme encompasses florid medieval-sounding pieces

by Morley and Sheryngham, intricately woven polyphonic works by Tallis and Byrd, and the beautiful simplicity of Gibbons and Tomkins. www.thegesualdosix.co.uk

£26 | £16

£26 | £18 | £12

(£1 children / students) ...sumptuous sweetness and laser-like clarity...

– BBC Music Magazine

(£1 children / students) Ingeniously programmed and impeccably delivered – Gramophone

Royal Spa Centre, Leamington CV32 4HN

Sunday 5 March

ENSEMBLE 360 11.30am | Family Concert When King Colin’s golden underpants go missing, it’s Sir Scallywag to the rescue! Brave and bold, courageous and true, he’s the perfect knight for the job… even if he is only six years old!

Original music by Paul Rissmann features instruments including strings, woodwind, and horn, presented together with story-telling and projected illustrations from the best-selling children’s book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul.

Performed by the wonderfully dynamic and hugely engaging Ensemble 360 along with Polly Ives, this concert is a great introduction to live music for children.

It is full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in - the concert is ideal for ages 3-7 but will be enormous fun for everyone!

Children £6 | Adults £12 Family Ticket £30 (2 adults + 2 children) Concert sponsored by

3pm | Afternoon Concert Robert Plane clarinet, Amy Harman bassoon Naomi Atherton horn Benjamin Nabarro & Claudia Ajmone-Marsan violins Rachel Roberts viola, Gemma Rosefield cello with guest double bassist

Berwald Grand Septet in B flat Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A K581 Beethoven Septet in E flat Op 20 The Swedish composer Franz Berwald wrote his Grand Septet in 1828, the year after Beethoven died. He had completed his Septet in 1823, just before he embarked on his late string quartets.

Between these two works is another opportunity to meet Ensemble 360's new clarinettist in Mozart’s sublime Quintet.

£20 unreserved

(£1 children / students) Concert generously supported by Murray Campbell, John Hobley, Jonathan Holden, Rose Ledlie, Roger Massie, Margaret Pringle, Peter Sunderland and Julia Winter ...brimming with body and soul with passion, vitality and virtuosity...

– The Independent

Royal Pump Rooms Leamington CV32 4AA Friday 17 March | 7.30pm

St Mary's Church Warwick CV34 4RA Tuesday 21 March | 7.30pm

Arcadia Quartet

Ex Cathedra

Ana Török and Răsvan Dumitru violins Traian Boală viola, Zsolt Török cello

directed by Jeffrey Skidmore

Haydn Quartet in B flat Op 33 No 4 Weinberg Quartet No 15 Beethoven Quartet in F Op 59 No 1

Baroque Passion

Winners of the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition, the Arcadia Quartet from Romania comes to Leamington for the third time. Interest in the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, who was befriended by Shostakovich when, being Jewish, he fled to Russia in World War Two, has increased enormously in recent years. Weinberg wrote seven operas and 17 string quartets and we hope to programme more of this works in the future. www.arcadiaquartet.com

with Andrew Skidmore cello

Music by Bach, Purcell, Lotti, Domenico Scarlatti, Kuhnau, Monteverdi, Carissimi, and Charpentier.

Ex Cathedra returns with a programme of sublime music telling of the sacrifice, heartbreak and healing of the Easter story – heartrending as Mary weeps at the foot of the cross to Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater but concludes with optimism in Bach’s glorious motet Komm, Jesu, komm. www.excathedra.co.uk

£26 | £18 | £12

(£1 children / students)

£26 | £16

(£1 children / students) ...playing that maximises the emotional range explored in each work... – BBC Music Magazine

...a heady mix of gloriously rich polyphony

– BBC Music Magazine

Education Programme 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 the schools.

During the 20202/23 Winter Season, there are possible sessions from the following musicians in the Education Programme: Marian Consort, Brodsky Quartet, Morgan Szymanski, Fretwork, Eusebius Quartet, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Brass, She'Koyokh, Fitzwilliam Quartet, York Waits, Piatti Quartet, Tabea Debus, Doric Quartet, and Arcadia Quartet.

Leamington Music is always looking for new schools to visit and we are keen to hear from teachers, governors, parents and carers if you'd like your school to be involved - please make contact with the Leamington Music office by calling 01926 497000 or by emailing helen@leamingtonmusic.org.

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 Winter Season and Leamington Music Festival and, through 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, £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.

Thanks Leamington Music thanks all the individuals and organizations that make the promotion of the Winter Season, Leamington Music Festival and the Education Programme possible through their financial support. For 2022 and 2023 this includes: Individual donations: Michael and Pat Bird, Michael and Halldóra Blair, Murray and Ann Campbell, Sara Coldicott, Bob and Sylvia Fair, J Fenlon, Peter Glanfield, Margaret Goode, Jolyon Hall, John Hobley, Helen Hoggarth, Jonathan Holden, Diane Holt, Noel Kohler, Rose Ledlie, Sara Liptai, Jennifer Lorch and family, Roger Massie, Maurice Millward, John and Jean Morgan, Margaret Pringle, Peter Robinson, Christine Shipman and Roger Thorpe, Charles and Sally Siewert, Howard Skempton, Gordon and Margaret Stokes, Peter Sunderland, Hugh and Sue Thomas, Paul and Jane Watts, David and Gina Wilson, and Julia Winter Sponsors: Leigh Christou, Moore & Tibbits, Presto Music, and Wright Hassall Trusts: Grimmitt Trust and Low-Beer Trust Grants come from Leamington Town Council, Warwick District Council, Warwick Town Council.

The Arts Society Royal Leamington Spa is a Corporate Patron and the Friends of Leamington Music contribute towards the Education Programme and the Leamington Music Prize. Warwickshire Music contributes to the Education Programme with funds provided by Arts Council England.

2023 Leamington Music Festival Thursday 27 April − Monday 1 May Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington

Put the dates in your diary now - great plans are in the making starting with following RVW150 with Rachmaninov150 and celebrating Leamington composer Robin Holloway's anniversary.

Booking will open in January - make sure you are on our mailing list to receive full details as soon as they are released!

Mailing lists - email and snail mail Keep in touch with Leamington Music by joining our emailing list, which sends out regular newsletters or ask to be put on the mailing list which posts our leaflets.

Call 01926 497000, email richard@leamingtonmusic.org or sign up via our website.

Follow Leamington Music @leamingtonmusic facebook.com/leamington.music

www.leamingtonmusic.org

Leamington Music Autumn 2022 to Spring 2023 String Quartets in Leamington | Early Music in Warwick Leamington Music Prize Winners | Brass Bands Christmas, Family and other Chamber Concerts

Book Now

www.leamingtonmusic.org 01926 334418