The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

The Johann Sebastian

BACH JOURNEY

Gabrieli Consort & Players | Freiburg Baroque Orchestra | Angela Hewitt Rachel Podger • Cantus Cölln | CordArte | Vox Luminis | Martina Pohl

4–10 September 2017

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF United Kingdom Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au Canada Tel (647) 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.ca USA Tel 1 800 988 6168 Connects with London office

‘This was a very special holiday.

Congratulations on organising it so well – it was a complex operation!’

‘Sublime. I am still on a high.

I loved the St. John and the Mass particularly.’

Comments from participants on the previous Johann Sebastian Bach Journey.

Martin Randall Travel aims to provide the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, music, history and archaeology in Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, Japan and the Americas.

Each year there are about 250 expertled tours for small groups (usually 10 to 20 participants), five to six all-inclusive music festivals, a dozen music and history weekends and about 100 study days in London. For nearly 30 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and refinement, and set the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards.

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

Contents The festival package......................... 4 The musicians..............................5–7 The speaker....................................... 7 The programme.........................8–11 Accommodation & prices......12–13 Joining & leaving the festival....... 14 Fitness for the festival................... 14 Pre-festival tours: Mitteldeutschland 27 August–4 September 2017...... 15 Organs of Bach’s Time 30 August–4 September 2017...... 16 Booking form...........................17–18 Booking details & conditions....... 19

Illustration: Eisenach, 20th-century etching.

Front cover: J.S. Bach, woodcut c. 1930.

ATOL 3622 | ABTA Y6050 | AITO 5085

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Ten private concerts in the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked.

Both the St John and St Matthew Passions are performed, as well as the B-Minor Mass.

International musicians of the highest calibre.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon gives daily talks on the music.

Four packages to suit different budgets with accommodation in 4- and 5-star hotels.

Free time to explore Eisenach, Weimar, Leipzig and other historic towns.

Suits independently-minded travellers as well as those who like the social aspect of these events.

Below: Eisenach, Wartburg Castle, wood engraving c. 1880.

This brochure was produced in house. The text was written and edited chiefly by Tim Greenhalgh and Martin Randall. The brochure itself was designed by Jo Murray.

It went to print on Monday 19th September 2016.

Journeying to the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked is an experience as near to pilgrimage as is offered by the history of music. Hearing his music in buildings which he frequented, or even where it was first performed, must rank among the highest delights available to music lovers. This unique biennial festival provides the opportunity.

Ten concerts, ranging from a solo violin partita to the St Matthew Passion, from an organ recital to the Mass in B Minor, present a comprehensive range of Bach’s output.

For this, the seventh Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, we have assembled artists and ensembles who are world leaders in performance of the repertoire.

The distances travelled are quite small, but the event is emphatically a journey. It starts, as Bach did, in the little towns and cities of the principality of Thuringia and finishes, again like Bach, in the free city of Leipzig. The audience stays in hotels in three places, Eisenach, Weimar and Leipzig, and the concerts take place here and in four other towns.

Admission to the concerts is exclusive to those who take a complete package which includes hotels, flights from the UK, coach travel, most dinners and lectures.

The festival package Access to the concerts is exclusive to those who take the festival package, the price for which includes: Access to all ten private concerts.

Hotel accommodation for six nights. You choose between four price options.

A choice of flights between London or Manchester and Germany. (There is a price reduction if you arrange your own travel.)

Travel within Germany by coach.

Five dinners and three lunches with wine, water and coffee, and a light lunch or afternoon tea on the day you arrive.

Talks on the music by Sir Nicholas Kenyon.

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The assistance of a team of festival staff.

Practical and cultural information and a detailed programme book.

All tips for drivers, porters and restaurant staff.

In addition, there are extra services which can be booked: The choice of two pre-festival tours: Mitteldeutschland (27 August–4 September 2017) and Organs of Bach’s Time (30 August–4 September 2017). See pages 15–16.

Arriving a day early. See pages 12–13.

See pages 12–13 for prices.

The Musicians Gabrieli Consort & Players Founded by Paul McCreesh in 1982, Gabrieli Consort & Players are world-renowned interpreters of great choral and instrumental repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day. Their performances encompass major works from the oratorio tradition, virtuosic a cappella programmes and mouldbreaking reconstructions of music for historical events. They are regular visitors to the world’s most prestigious concert halls, and their recordings have garnered numerous international awards.

2017 is the nineteenth year of fruitful collaboration between the Gabrieli and Martin Randall Travel.

Their conductor and artistic director Paul McCreesh is not only recognised as one of the most authoritative and exciting conductors of the earlier repertoire, on the concert platform and in the opera house, but is also much sought after across Europe as a guest conductor for later music.

Rachel Podger Rachel Podger is one of the most creative talents to emerge in the field of period performance. Over the last two decades she has established herself as a leading interpreter of the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. She has won numerous awards for her recordings, including J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and his Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord (with Trevor Pinnock). Both were awarded first place by the BBC’s ‘Building a Library’ programme.

Rachel holds chairs for Baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

She is also founder and artistic director of her the Brecon Baroque Festival.

Top: Gabrieli Consort & Players.

Above left: Rachel Podger (©Jonas Sacks). Above right: Angela Hewitt.

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The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Angela Hewitt

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

One of the world’s leading pianists, Angela Hewitt appears in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. Her performances of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters of our time. Angela began her piano studies (in Canada) aged three, performed in public at four and in 1985 won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition. Among her awards and honours are Gramophone ‘Artist of the Year’ 2006, OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2006, Companion of the Order of Canada 2015 and seven honorary doctorates.

Recognised worldwide as among the very finest of period-instrument orchestras, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s performances are characterised by tremendous verve and immaculate precision. They are usually directed by the leader rather than a conductor, an arrangement they believe produces not only an intensity reminiscent of chamber music but also a unique timbre. Founded in 1987, they have given over a thousand concerts, have toured all the major European cities, Southeast Asia and the Americas and performed at many of the top concert venues and festivals (Tanglewood, Mozartwoche Salzburg, BBC Proms, Wigmore, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie).

The guest leader is Mechthild Karkow, Professor of Baroque violin at the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig since 2013.

CordArte The CordArte Ensemble was founded in Cologne in 1998 with the aim of giving new life to early music by performing it expressively. The players are Markus Märkl (harpsichord), Daniel Deuter (violin) and Heike Johanna Lindner (viola da gamba), and their chief focus is the 17th-century trio sonata from Germany, England, France and Italy. Bavarian-born Markus Märkl is one of Germany’s leading harpsichordists, having studied at Augsburg and at the Schola Cantorum, Basel.

Top: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (©Marco Borggreve). Left: CordArte.

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Vox Luminis Founded in 2004 in Namur, Belgium, Vox Luminis specialises in 16th- to 18th-century vocal music and aims for a seamless blend of high quality individual voices, exquisite tuning and clarity of sound. Their passion for early music is evident in their performances. They have performed in festivals and concert halls all over Europe and the 15/16 season saw them return to Wigmore and Cadogan Hall, appear at several UK festivals and make their debuts in Boston, Krakow and Oslo. They also became artists in residence at the Concertgebouw in Bruges.

Director Lionel Meunier’s musical education began in his birthplace, Clamecy in central France, and continued at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In 2013 he received the Namurois de l’Année award for culture (Citizen Of The Year, Namur province).

Cantus Cölln Cantus Cölln was formed in 1987 by lutenist Konrad Junghänel.

All the singers in the group have successful solo careers, and it is recognised as one of the most accomplished Early Music ensembles in the world. Its core repertoire includes German and Italian vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque, and their numerous CDs include highly-acclaimed recordings of Bach motets and cantatas. In 2000, they received the Buxtehude Prize for extraordinary achievement in the field of sacred music.

Konrad Junghänel is one of the leading conductors in the field of Early Music. As well as an internationally renowned lutenist and interpreter of J.S. Bach, he is also a professor at the State Conservatoire of Music in Cologne.

Martina Pohl Martina Pohl began playing music at the age of three and studied at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik (College for Church Music) in Halle 1980–86. She focusses principally on the German Romantics and J.S. Bach. She accompanies wellknown soloists, instrumentalists and choirs on concert tours in Germany and elsewhere and on recordings. Since 2004 Martina has had charge of the Hildebrandt organ in Sangerhausen.

‘Organised with MRT perfection, music performed brilliantly by a great variety of performers and an interesting programme.’

The Speaker Sir Nicholas Kenyon. Managing Director of the Barbican Centre since 2007; former Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of the BBC Proms. He has been music critic for The New Yorker and The Observer, music editor of The Listener and editor of Early Music. He is author of the Faber Pocket Guides to Bach and Mozart, and edited Authenticity & Early Music and The City of London: A Companion Guide.

‘The best organised tour I’ve ever been on.’

Participants on recent MRT music festivals.

Top: Vox Luminis (©József Wágner Csapó).

Centre: Cantus Cölln (©Stefan Schweiger), Right: Sir Nicholas Kenyon (©Richard Eaton).

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The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

The Programme

Day -1, Sunday 3 September Eisenach

Day 2, Tuesday 5 September Mühlhausen, Eisenach

We are offering the option of arriving at your hotel in Eisenach a day before the festival commences (see page 12–13 for accommodation and prices).

Drive to Mühlhausen, where Bach held the post of organist at the church of St Blasius 1707–8. The town is one of the delights of Germany, a dense matrix of streets and alleys and little open spaces threaded between half-timbered and stone-built buildings.

Six Gothic churches rise heavenwards, and all is bounded by a complete circuit of mediaeval walls.

The supplement includes the amended flight, the transfer from Frankfurt to Eisenach and an extra night at your chosen festival hotel. Lunch or afternoon tea are included depending on your arrival time. Dinner is independent.

For information on travelling to Eisenach please see page 14.

Overnight Eisenach.

Day 1, Monday 4 September Eisenach For information on travelling to Eisenach please see page 14.

Eisenach is the town where J. S. Bach was born in 1685 and where he was raised until the death of his father ten years later. He was baptised in the Gothic church of St George, now a cathedral.

The font is still there, and it retains its 17th-century Protestant appearance with three tiers of galleries filling the side aisles.

Eisenach is dominated by the Wartburg castle, a unesco World Heritage Site since 1999, and also where Martin Luther stayed while translating the Bible into German (1521–1522).

The first festival event is dinner in your chosen hotel.

Overnight Eisenach.

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There is a lecture followed by a recital in the town hall, which is little changed since Bach’s time.

Concert, 11.30am: Mühlhausen, Town Hall Bach and his North-German Predecessors CordArte: Daniel Deuter violin Heike Johanna Lindner viola da gamba Markus Märkl harpsichord This programme, which explores the North-German style and its influence on the young J.S. Bach, includes works by Becker, Krieger and Buxtehede as well as Bach’s own Violin Sonata in E minor (BWV 1023), Toccata in G for harpsichord (BWV 916) and Trio Sonata in G (BWV 1038).

Lunch for all is in the Brauhaus restaurant, followed by some free time.

Return to Eisenach, where there is time to visit the excellent Bach Museum.

Concert, 4.45pm: Eisenach, Church of St George The Bach Dynasty Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier director In the church where Johann Sebastian was baptised there is a concert of cantatas by older members of the Bach family, great uncle Johann Bach (1604–73), uncles Johann Michael (1648–94) and Johann Christoph (1642–1703, also organist at this church). It finishes with a motet from J.S. Bach, the famous Jesu meine Freude (BWV 227), written in Leipzig 1730–35.

Dinner for all participants and overnight in Eisenach.

Day 3, Wednesday 6 September Ohrdruf, Arnstadt, Weimar Leave Eisenach and drive to Ohrdruf where Bach lived with an elder brother for five years after the death of his father.

Concert, 11.00am: Ohrdruf, Trinitatiskirche Violin Solo I Rachel Podger violin Partita No.3 in E (BWV 1006), Flute Partita in G minor (original key A minor, BWV 1013), Sonata No.1 in G minor (BWV 1001) Arrive in Arnstadt in time for lunch. Founded in 704, Arnstadt claims to be the oldest town in eastern Germany. Spreading down the side of a hill, it has retained much of its picturesque historic centre. Bach’s first significant employment (1707–1708) was as organist at the Neukirche, as it was then called, and there is a concert here. There is time also for the small Bach museum in the Schloss.

Concert, 3.30pm: Arnstadt, Bachkirche Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier director Bach’s B-Minor Mass is among the greatest achievements in the history of music. Compiled and composed towards the end of his life, Bach may have regarded it as a summation of his life’s work.

Whatever its enigmas – was it intended to be performed in its entirety? Why did this stalwart Lutheran steer so close to Catholic tradition? – it remains a work of exceptional potency and beauty.

Drive to Weimar.

Weimar has few rivals among the smaller cities of Europe in terms of its importance in the history of literature and music. Bach worked at the court in 1703 and again from 1708 to 1717, following such eminent musicians as Schütz and Westhoff. Liszt’s period of residence (1842–61) attracted many musical visitors including Wagner, Brahms, Smetana and Borodin, and turned Weimar into an international centre of the musical avant-garde. Richard Strauss was court Kapellmeister 1889–94.

Weimar is also revered as a centre of literature and Enlightenment thought, largely owing to the sixty-year residence and service at court of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Herder, Schiller and Nietzsche are among the other great names to have spent time here.

Thuringia Less than a century elapsed between the first record of a Bach in Thuringia and the birth there of Johann Sebastian in 1685. By then the exceptional musical and procreative talents of the family had led to the establishment of several Bachs as prominent professional musicians throughout the region. Not only did Johann Sebastian follow the family tradition, but for the first half of his working life he did so in the same provincial German backwater as the rest of his clan.

Thuringia is – as it was in Bach’s time – a region of rolling hills, deciduous woodland, patchwork fields, compact redroofed villages and proud little towns. Being then divided into some of the smallest city-states and princedoms of pre-unification Germany, and later only patchily affected by the ravages of industrialisation and war, its appearance remained little changed throughout the twentieth century.

Forty years in the chill embrace of the Communist state further impeded ‘progress’. All this gives rise to a strange paradox: though at the geographical centre of Germany, Europe’s economic and cultural powerhouse, Thuringia feels strangely provincial and peripheral.

For those who knew East Germany before 1989, the subsequent changes appear little short of miraculous – major transformation of infrastructure, cleaning, painting and restoration of the architecture, recrudescence of commercial and social life on a par with almost anywhere else in Europe.

Yet the region has still not awoken fully from a half-century sleep, a degenerative, corrosive slumber which allowed much of the historic fabric of the towns and villages to slide into desuetude and dereliction. There are limits to the restoration and rebuilding that is possible, and the very dilapidation of much that remains contributes to a powerful sense of the continuity of the past. These are the towns where Bach grew up and where he plied his trade, the locations of his quotidian concerns as well as the exercise of his genius.

Merely to walk the same streets and sit in the same pews is to enlarge and illumine one’s understanding of Bach’s music. To hear his compositions not only in the locale but in the very buildings where they were first performed is a life-enhancing experience.

There is time to settle in and have dinner.

First of two nights in Weimar.

Left: Eisenach, steel engraving c. 1840.

Above: J.S. Bach’s birthplace in Eisenach.

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The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Day 4, Thursday 7 September Weimar Weimar is now one of the liveliest, perhaps the most prosperous, and certainly the best restored of Thuringian towns. The city is adorned with a magnificent range of classical architecture and landscaped parks, and as the last home of Lucas Cranach and the first site of the Bauhaus school the significance of the city in the history of art reaches across four hundred years.

Much of the day is free for exploration of Weimar, its streets and squares, museums and parks. There is a talk followed by a recital in the morning or the afternoon – the small hall means the audience has to be split and the event repeated. In the evening, hear the St John Passion in the St Peter and Paul (Herderkirche), the most important church in the town with its altarpiece by the Cranachs, father and son (1552–55). Four of Bach’s children were baptised in the font.

Concert, 10.30am & 3.30pm: Weimar, Cranach House Violin Solo II

Concert, 8.00pm: Weimar, Church of St Peter & Paul (Herderkirche) St John Passion (BWV 245) Cantus Cölln: Konrad Junghänel conductor Magdalene Harer, Mechthild Bach soprano Elisabeth Popien, Alexander Schneider alto Hans Jörg Mammel, Georg Poplutz tenor Wolf Matthias Friedrich, Markus Flaig bass The 2017 Journey offers a rare juxtaposition of both Passions: ‘Of Bach’s two extant Passion settings, the St John Passion is the shorter, more dramatic, more concentrated… In recent years, thanks to a wide variety of performances using historically based forces, the St John Passion has been revealed as an equally affecting and powerful work, and has leapt up in popular estimation’ (Sir Nicholas Kenyon).

Second of two nights in Weimar.

Rachel Podger violin Sonata No.3 in C (BWV 1005) Dinner is independent today, so you can choose to have it before or after the evening concert.

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Below: Leipzig, Altes Rathaus, engraving from ‘The Illustrated London News’, 1866.

Day 5, Friday 8 September Sangerhausen, Leipzig Leave Weimar and drive to Leipzig via the attractive small town of Sangerhausen. The church of St James (Jakobikirche) possesses a fine organ by Zacharias Hildebrandt 1726–28, a pupil and rival of Silbermann and occasional collaborator with J. S. Bach.

Concert, 11.15am: Sangerhausen, Church of St James Organ Recital Martina Pohl organ

beyond that context, beyond narrow sectarianism and even beyond religious observance, to say something to the whole of humanity’ (Nicholas Kenyon). It was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday 1727 and revised in 1736. Its revised form is distinguished by having two orchestras and two choirs.

The day finishes with dinner and the second of two nights in Leipzig.

Day 7, Sunday 10 July Leipzig

Recital of Bach organ pieces on a 1726 instrument.

Depending on your flight option there may be some free time in Leipzig.

After lunch in Sangerhausen, reach Leipzig in the early afternoon.

See page 14 for details of transfers and flights.

Bach was employed at Leipzig as Kantor of St Thomas in 1723.

With his various additional responsibilities he effectively became director of music for the city until his death in 1750.

Concert, 6.00pm: Leipzig, Altes Rathaus (former Town Hall) Concertos & Orchestral Suites Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Brandenburg No.3 heads the list of four of Bach’s brilliant, lifeaffirming orchestral pieces, with a Vivaldi sinfonia thrown in for good measure.

First of two nights in Leipzig.

More about the concerts

Day 6, Saturday 9 September Leipzig

Private events. All the concerts are planned and administered

by Martin Randall Travel, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the full festival package. The concerts are therefore private.

Leipzig is the only large city of the Journey – though with a population of just half a million, and a fifteen minute walk to traverse the historic centre, it is not a metropolis. After the degradation of the GDR years, the subsequent transformation of the city seems little short of miraculous. Restoration and rebuilding have gone hand in hand with the emergence of pavement cafés, smart shops and good restaurants.

There are fine museums and art galleries here including an excellent collection of musical instruments, an apartment where Mendelssohn lived and the excellent Bach Archive.

Concert, 10.30am: Leipzig, Alte Börse (Old stock exchange) The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) Angela Hewitt piano One of the pinnacles of the keyboard repertoire, played by the greatest living exponent of Bach on the modern piano.

Concert, 8.00pm: Leipzig, Nikolaikirche (Church of St Nicholas) St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh conductor ‘The most monumental of Bach’s works, and for many the peak of his output… The work grows directly out of its liturgical and cultural context and is fully grounded in it, yet it seems to reach

Seating. Specific seats will not be reserved. You sit where you want. Seating in the churches may be a little uncomfortable; consider bringing a cushion.

Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. Some venues have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort which are not found in modern purpose-built concert halls.

Capacity. There will be up to 200 participants on the festival.

At venues which cannot accommodate this number the audience is divided and the concerts repeated.

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

Participation in our festivals is a very different experience from conventional group travel – no repetitive or redundant announcements, no herding by elevated umbrella, no unnecessary roll calls, little hanging around. We work on the assumption that you are adults, and our staff cultivate the virtue of unobtrusiveness.

We provide sufficient information to enable you to navigate the festival events without needing to be led. However, festival staff are also stationed around the events to direct you if needed and for some events, coaches or taxis are provided.

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The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Accommodation & Prices About the hotels You choose between four hotel options, A–D. Eisenach (2 or 3 nights) has a range of accommodation ranging from a 5-star establishment perched by the Wartburg castle to smaller, family-run, 4-star hotels in the centre of town. Bathrooms are a mixture of shower only and baths with shower fitments.

Twin and double beds are usually two mattresses on a single base.

The hotels do not have air-conditioning.

Weimar (2 nights) has a very good range of 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels.

A small city, the hotels we have selected are no more than 10 or 15 minutes’ walk from the venues. There is no air-conditioning in the Elephant (Option D), nor at the Anna Amalia (Option A) but windows can be opened.

Leipzig (2 nights), as a trade fair city, has a good selection of hotels of all categories though some lack charm and individuality. We have selected ones within or on the periphery of the mediaeval core of the city; none is more than 15 or 20 minutes on foot from the venues. All have air-conditioning.

Wireless internet is available at all hotels. It is free of charge in all hotels except the Fürstenhof in Leipzig and the Elephant in Weimar where access is charged at €6 per night.

If you intend to share a twin room with a friend, the best options are D and C (due to visibility of the shower cubicles from the bedroom area at the Park and Radisson hotels in Leipzig).

Option A

Option B

Eisenach

Eisenach

EITHER: Eisenacher Hof. A small, traditional, family-run 4-star hotel located in the centre of town. Rooms are neutrally decorated with oak flooring throughout.

Steigenberger Thüringer Hof. A large, centrally located hotel with a neoclassical facade. Bedrooms are bright and simply decorated. All bathrooms have bathtubs with shower fitments.

There are two restaurants, a bar, as well a spa with sauna, exercise room and rooftop terrace.

OR: Glockenhof. A modern 4-star hotel set in a 19th-century property, a 4-minute walk from the Bach House museum.

Bedrooms are plain and functional.

You do not have to make the choice – we allocate you to a hotel randomly.

Weimar

Anna Amalia. A family-run hotel in a quiet cobbled street in the centre of town. Rooms are simply furnished with cream walls and light wood furniture. Bedrooms vary in size.

Dorint am Goethepark. Comprising two historic houses connected by a new addition, this is now a thoroughly modern hotel pleasantly situated by the park and a short walk from the town centre. The decoration is somewhat austere, but the public areas are spacious and the rooms elegant and comfortable. There is a restaurant in the hotel. Internet access is available free of charge when using a public computer in the lobby.

Leipzig

Leipzig

Park. This is a modern and comfortable hotel. The quirky design uses plenty of wood and is vaguely nautical. Bedrooms are a good size. There is a glass panel in the wall separating bathrooms and bedrooms. There is a good restaurant.

Radisson Blu. A modern hotel, purpose-built in 1964 and completely renovated in 2006. It is situated on the Ring overlooking Augustusplatz and the Gewandhaus. Geared more to the business market, its interior of cool elegance is nevertheless comfortable.

Beds can be divided into twins, but there is no more than 15cm of space between them. Bathrooms are separated from the bedrooms by a glass wall (though the lavatory cannot be seen). There is a restaurant in the hotel but we do not use it for the group meals as standards vary.

Weimar

Above: Leipzig, Church of St Nicholas, steel engraving c. 1850.

Opposite page: Gotha, Thuringia, lithograph c. 1840.

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Prices – per person Hotel option

Arriving on 3rd September (a day before the festival begins)

Arriving on 4th September (first day of the festival)

Two sharing

Single occupancy

Two sharing

Single occupancy

A

£2,830

£3,030

£2,760

£2,920

B

£3,150

£3,480

£3,080

£3,350

C

£3,640

£3,990

£3,570

£3,860

D

£4,040

£4,430

£3,910

£4,230

-

£4,320

-

£4,160

D (with a single room in Eisenach)

Not taking one of the festival flight options? Deduct £190 from the prices above.

Option C

Option D

Eisenach

Eisenach

Steigenberger Thüringer Hof. A large, centrally-located hotel with a neoclassical facade. Bedrooms are bright and simply decorated.

Two restaurants, a bar, as well a spa with sauna, exercise room and rooftop terrace.

Romantik Hotel auf der Wartburg. Adjacent to the hilltop Wartburg castle, this elegant, 5-star boutique hotel is located a 3 km drive from the centre of Eisenach – the final stretch is completed by minibus. Views are of the surrounding forest, castle or over the town. Most bathrooms have baths with shower fitments. There is a good restaurant, a bar with terrace and a spa and sauna area. There is the option of staying in a room with a single bed in this hotel for which there is a reduction to the single supplement.

Weimar Russischer Hof. An elegant hotel dating to 1805 and furnished in a partially modernised, opulent Russian Neo-classical style.

Impressive public areas and restaurants, comfortable rooms with luxurious bathrooms, excellent location.

Leipzig Marriott. A traditional hotel decorated in marble, wood and brass.

Rooms are spacious with cosy, country-style furnishings and all mod cons. Centrally-located but quiet. There is a swimming pool.

Weimar The Elephant. A famous, historic establishment blending classical gravity with contemporary understatement. Bedrooms are spacious and very well equipped and there are two restaurants, including the finest in Weimar.

Leipzig Fürstenhof. The best hotel in the city, although not large, and with the feel of a private club. A 19th-century building, it is furnished with antiques. Rooms are spacious and superbly equipped. Service is impeccable. There is a restaurant, wine bar and pool.

See ‘the festival package’ on page 4 for a list of what is included in the prices above. book online at www.martinrandall.com

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The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Joining & leaving the festival Flights from London Heathrow or Manchester form part of the festival package.

All options fly into Frankfurt and back from Berlin Tegel. Those travelling to/from London fly out with Lufthansa and back with British Airways. For those travelling to/from Manchester, both the outbound and inbound flights are with Lufthansa.

There is also the option to fly out on the 3rd September, the day before the festival begins. Accommodation in Eisenach is included should you choose options 1 or 2 below, and for this there is a supplement which varies depending on your hotel choice (see page 13 for prices).

Arriving a day early Option 1: Heathrow, a day early 3rd September: depart Heathrow 09.30, arrive Frankfurt 12.05 (LH 901). 10th September: depart Berlin 12.20, arrive Heathrow 13.30 (BA 983).

Option 2: Manchester, a day early 3rd September: depart Manchester 08.50, arrive Frankfurt 11.30 (LH 941). 10th September: depart Berlin 14.45 (via Frankfurt), arrive Manchester 17.25 (LH 191, LH 946).

Arriving on the first day of the festival Option 3: Heathrow 4th September: depart Heathrow 09.30, arrive Frankfurt 12.05 (LH 901). 10th September: depart Berlin 12.20, arrive Heathrow 13.30 (BA 983).

Option 4: Heathrow 4th September: depart Heathrow 10.30, arrive Frankfurt 13.05 (LH 903). 10th September: depart Berlin 14.35, arrive Heathrow 15.40 (BA 993).

Option 5: Heathrow 4th September: depart Heathrow 11.30, arrive Frankfurt 14.05 (LH 905). 10th September: depart Berlin 16.45, arrive Heathrow 17.45 (BA 985).

Option 6: Manchester 4th September: depart Manchester 08.50, arrive Frankfurt 11.30 (LH 941). 10th September: depart Berlin 14.45 (via Frankfurt), arrive Manchester 17.25 (LH 191, LH 946).

Making your own arrangements Option 7: no flights You can take the package without flights and make your own arrangements for joining and leaving the festival. You are welcome to join our airport transfers from Frankfurt and back to Berlin, though we cannot wait for you should you be delayed. There is a reduction in the price of £190 per person for this option.

Illustration: Johann Sebastian Bach, engraving c. 1865.

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Fitness for the festival This is a physically demanding festival and fitness is essential.

Within the towns and cities, you will be expected to walk for anything up to 25 minutes and at a pace which is unlikely to slow others down when moving as a group. Many surfaces are uneven or cobbled and there are some ascents and descents.

You will need to climb stairs at some venues and hotels, check in and out of three hotels and be comfortable travelling some considerable distances by coach, particularly on the first and last days.

If for any stage of the festival, including the airport, you would like the use of a wheelchair, then this festival is unlikely to be suitable for you.

We ask that prospective participants assess their fitness by trying these simple exercises: 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 two minutes.

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

Pre-festival tours

Mitteldeutschland

Weimar & the towns of Thuringia & Sachsen-Anhalt

27 August–4 September 2017 (md 505) Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

It is also possible to combine the festival with: The Schubertiade, 27 August–2 September 2017. Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

A trawl through little-known and largely unspoilt towns at the heart of Germany.

Great mediaeval churches, Baroque and NeoClassical palaces, enchanting streetscape, fine art collections, beautiful countryside.

The tour is led by Dr Jarl Kremeier, an art historian resident in Germany.

Itinerary Day 1: London to Hannover. Fly at c.6.00pm from London Heathrow to Hannover (British Airways). Drive to Quedlinburg. First of three nights in Quedlinburg.

Day 2: Quedlinburg, Gernrode. Quedlinburg is a wonderfully preserved mediaeval town.

The castle hill is crowned by the church of St Servatius, begun 1070, and contains one of Germany’s finest treasuries. See also the Gothic church of St Benedict in the market square and the Wipertikirche with its 10th-cent. crypt. At nearby Gernrode is one of the oldest churches in Germany, and one of the most beautiful, St Cyriakus, begun ad 961.

Day 3: Blankenburg, Halberstadt. Blankenburg is an idyllic little spa town in the foothills of the Harz mountains with two Baroque palaces, the creation of a younger son of the BraunschweigWolfenbüttel dynasty who made Blankenburg his capital. Halberstadt was a major city in the Middle Ages, and the cathedral is the largest French-style Gothic church in Germany after Cologne; the treasury is exceptional.

Day 4: Mühlhausen. Drive across the Harz mountains to Thuringia, passing forested vistas, half-timbered hamlets and patches of pasturage.

Mühlhausen is astonishing, one of the most delightful and evocative towns in northern Europe, preserving its complete mediaeval wall, an abundance of half-timbered buildings and six Gothic churches. Walk along a section of the wall, visit the soaring, five-aisled church of St Mary, and St Blasius, the church where Bach was organist 1707–08. Overnight Mühlhausen.

Day 5: Gotha, Arnstadt. A Residenzstadt within the principality of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Gotha is dominated by Schloss Friedenstein, which has fine interiors, a picture collection and a Baroque theatre. Walk down a processional way to the Hauptmarkt with its Renaissance town hall.

Arnstadt, the oldest town in eastern Germany, has fine streetscape on a sloping site with the church where Bach was organist 1703–7; the Early Gothic Church of Our Lady and a palace which illustrates social hierarchy from the court’s perspective. First of four nights in Weimar.

Day 6: Weimar. Two centuries of enlightened patronage by members of the ducal family enabled the little city-state of Weimar to be home to many great writers, philosophers, composers

and artists. Today, visit the Stadtkirche, the main church with an altarpiece by Cranach, Goethe’s house, a beautifully preserved sequence of interiors and garden, the ducal Schloss, with Neo-Classical interiors and a fine art museum, and an English-style landscaped park with Goethe’s summer house.

Day 7: Erfurt. Capital of Thuringia, Erfurt well preserves its pre-20th-century appearance with a variety of streetscape and architecture from mediaeval to Jugendstil. Outstanding are the Krämerbrücke, a 14th-century bridge piled with houses and shops, and the cathedral, with Germany’s largest set of mediaeval stained glass.

See the Severikirche, the friary of St Augustine where Luther was a monk, the Predigerkirche which retains its late mediaeval appearance intact, and the 17th-century hilltop citadel.

Day 8: Weimar. A walk includes Haus am Horn and Van de Velde’s School of Arts and Crafts from which the Bauhaus emerged. Free afternoon in this beautiful little city. Among the many other museums to choose from are the Bauhaus Museum, the 18th-century Wittumspalais and the Schiller House­. An excursion to Buchenwald concentration camp can be arranged.

Day 9: Naumburg. Architecturally, Naumburg Cathedral is an outstanding embodiment of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic, but its great importance lies in its 13th-century sculpture, including statues of the founders, among the most powerful and realistic of the Middle Ages. Travel by minibus from Naumburg to Eisenach (c. 1 hour 45 minutes). Upon arrival at c. 4.00pm you are dropped at your festival hotel, where you are free until dinner. (Those not joining the festival fly from Berlin, arriving Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.)

Sunday 10th September, final day of the festival.

Join festival flight option 4, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 3.45pm.

Lecturer Dr Jarl Kemeier. Art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts. He teaches at the Berlin College of Acting and Berlin’s Freie Universität.

Practicalities Price, per person. Two sharing: £2,510 or £2,310 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,710 or £2,510 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways; private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 5 dinners with wine; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer. As flights are included with this tour, the festival will be charged at the ‘no flights’ price.

Accommodation: Romantik Hotel am Brühl, Quedlinburg (hotelambruehl.de): restored 4-star hotel in a heritage building, comfortably furnished. Brauhaus ‘Zum Löwen’, Mühlhausen (brauhaus-zum-loewen.de): 3-star converted brewery in the centre; characterfully rustic; simple, spacious rooms. Dorint Am Goethepark, Weimar (hotel-weimar.dorint. com): modern 4-star hotel, situated by the park and on the edge of the town centre.

How strenuous? A fairly long tour and quite a lot of walking in towns where vehicular access is restricted. Long transfers between hotels and airports (average miles per day: 56), otherwise coach travel is limited to short excursions.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Above: Weimar, Goethe’s summer house, steel engraving 1836. Overleaf: copper engraving c. 1730.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

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Pre-festival tours

Organs of Bach’s Time

30 August–4 September 2017 (md 506) Lecturers: James Johnstone & Tom Abbott Recitals on the finest Baroque organs to survive, some of them instruments which Bach and Handel knew.

Accompanied by organist James Johnstone, a Bach specialist, who gives recitals and demonstrations in association with the local organists, and by art historian, Tom Abbott.

The organs are located in towns and villages off the beaten track.

Spend two nights in Dresden, the capital of the state of Saxony, rich in fine and decorative arts.

For a maximum of 32 participants, the format of this tour is a hybrid between our own-brand music festivals and our small group tours.

With clocks, organs were the most complex of mechanical instruments developed before the Industrial Revolution. As such they were a source of awe and admiration far beyond musical cognoscenti and their makers often enjoyed a level of fame greater than the musicians who played them.

The greatest of the composers for the organ, Johann Sebastian Bach, had the good fortune to live at a time and in a place where organbuilding reached a peak of excellence which perhaps has never been surpassed. This was not entirely coincidence: interaction between players and makers was an important element in refining the skills of both sides.

The most famous of these organ builders was Gottfried Silbermann. He was born the son of a carpenter in the mountainous backwoods of Saxony in 1683, gained an almost monopolistic grip on keyboard manufacturing in the region

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Silbermann & Baroque organs in Saxony & Thuringia

and died a rich man in 1753. Nearly thirty of his fifty Saxon organs survive, some very nearly in original condition. They are famous – and always were – for their distinctive sounds, from the silver flutes to the strong and characterful 16’ Posaune in the pedal.

Other organ builders whose work we see and hear on this tour include Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688–1757), an apprentice and later a rival of Silbermann, and Heinrich Gottfried Trost (c.

1680–1759). All had some sort of collaborative or critical relationship with J.S. Bach.

This tour selects some of the finest instruments in a region exceptionally richly endowed with historic organs. Many are located in village churches far from cathedral or court, leading the visitor through terrain which is rural and remote. With the exception of Dresden, most of those included in this itinerary are located in villages and small towns with wonderfully picturesque historic centres. Some organs have hardly been altered since they were built.

The tour is accompanied by organist James Johnstone, who performs regularly in Europe and America and who has won several prizes for his recordings.

The twelve included recitals are exclusive to this group and twenty to thirty minutes long, performed by James Johnstone or the local organist. All recitals are subject to confirmation.

Changes to the itinerary are possible.

a hilltop ducal residence featuring mediaeval fortifications, Baroque apartments and a quite remarkable collection of Italian Renaissance paintings. The chapel has a fine organ by Trost of 1739. After free time for lunch and independent exploration in Altenburg, travel on to Dresden.

Before dinner, there is an opportunity to hear the Silbermann in the Catholic Hofkirche. First of two nights in Dresden.

Itinerary

James Johnstone has performed and recorded extensively with many of the UK’s major period instrument ensembles. He is also Professor of early keyboards at Guildhall and Trinity Laban.

Day 1: London to Merseburg. Fly at c. 11.00am from London Heathrow to Berlin. Continue by coach (c. 2 hours) to Merseburg, a cathedral town on the river Saale; first of three nights here.

Day 2: Pomßen, Naumburg. The village of Pomßen has a church with an organ of the 1660s, a delightful instrument, more Renaissance than Baroque, set in a painted wood ensemble of gallery, chest and panelled ceiling. The church of St Wenceslas in Naumburg has a major Hildebrandt organ of 1748. See also the cathedral with exceptional 13th-century sculpture.

Day 3: Zschortau, Störmthal, Rötha. Visit three small towns outside Leipzig with outstanding organs. The Scheibe organ in the church of St Nicholas, Zschortau was tested by J.S. Bach in 1746 who found it to be ‘efficiently and painstakingly well-built’. Störmthal has an organ by Hildebrandt which was inspected and approved by Bach in 1723 and is still in its original condition. In the fine mediaeval church of St George in Rötha there is a Silbermann organ tested in 1721 by Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor in Leipzig. Final night in Merseburg.

Day 4: Altenburg, Ponitz, Dresden. Travel from Merseburg to Dresden via Altenburg and Ponitz. Gottfried Silbermann began building an organ for the Friedenskirche in Ponitz in 1734, before the construction of the church itself had ended. The court city of Altenburg is one of the rarely visited jewels of the former DDR, with

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Day 5: Dresden, Helbigsdorf, Frauenstein, Freiberg. Free morning in Dresden (option of joining a tour of some of Saxony’s greatest art treasures). In the afternoon drive to Helbigsdorf, whose church is home to Silbermann’s smallest, double-manual instrument (1726–28). Freiberg cathedral is one of the most beautiful of Late Gothic buildings in Germany and has retained an exceptional panoply of furnishings. The organ

by Silbermann (1711–14) is one of the world’s finest instruments; three manuals, 44 stops, largely unaltered.

Day 6. Travel by high-speed train from Dresden to Eisenach (c. 2 hours 30 minutes), in time for dinner at your chosen festival hotel. (Those not joining the festival drive to Berlin and fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 3.40pm.)

Sunday 10th September, final day of the festival.

Join festival flight option 4, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 3.45pm.

Lecturers

Tom Abbott. Specialist in architectural history, with a wide knowledge of performing arts. He studied at Carleton College, Minnesota and the Louvre School of Art History in Paris.

Practicalities Price, per person. Two sharing: £1,980 or £1,870 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,130 or £2,020 without flights.

Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways; private coach (and 1st class train if joining the festival); accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch, 4 dinners with wine; all recitals, admissions, donations; tips; taxes; services of two lecturers. As flights are included with this tour, the festival will be charged at the ‘no flights’ price.

Accommodation. Radisson Blu, Merseburg (merseburg-radissonblu.com): modern 4-star hotel in the former Zech’sche Palace; in the historic centre, close to the cathedral.

Gewandhaus Hotel, Dresden (gewandhaushotel.de): traditional 5-star hotel in a Baroque building, tastefully decorated; friendly atmosphere; rooms vary in size.

How strenuous? A lot of coach travel; some long journeys. Average coach travel per day: 95 miles.

Group size: maximum 32 participants.

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Booking form Name(s) as you would like it/them to appear to other festival participants Participant 1:

Participant 2:

Contact details for all correspondence Address Postcode/Zip Country Telephone (home) Mobile E-mail ☐ Please tick if you are happy to receive your festival/tour and booking documents by e-mail only, where possible.

Accommodation. See pages 12–13.

Arriving on 3rd September A day before the festival starts

Arriving on 4th September First day of the festival

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Travel options. See page 14 for full details. Please tick one option only (or leave this section blank if you have booked a pre-festival tour, as these have their own flight arrangements).

Arriving on 3rd September A day before the festival starts

Arriving on 4th September First day of the festival

☐ Option 1: Heathrow, a day early Heathrow–Frankfurt, 09.30–12.05 Berlin–Heathrow 12.20–13.30

☐ Option 3: Heathrow Heathrow– Frankfurt, 09.30–12.05 Berlin– Heathrow, 12.20–13.30

☐ Option 2: Manchester, a day early Manchester–Frankfurt, 08.50–11.30 Berlin–Manchester (via Frankfurt), 14.45–17.25

☐ Option 4: Heathrow Heathrow– Frankfurt, 10.30–13.05 Berlin– Heathrow, 14.35–15.40 ☐ Option 5: Heathrow Heathrow– Frankfurt, 11.30–14.05 Berlin– Heathrow, 16.45–17.45 ☐ Option 6: Manchester Manchester– Frankfurt, 08.50–11.30 Berlin–Manchester (via Frankfurt), 14.45–17.25 Making your own arrangements ☐ Option 7: no flights

☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive regular updates by e-mail on our other tours, music festivals and London Days. ☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive any more of our brochures.

What initially prompted your booking? e.g. a marketing email from us, browsing on our website, or receiving this brochure.

Pre-festival tours. Please tick to add to your festival booking. ☐ Mitteldeutschland 27 August–4 September 2017 (md 505). See page 15. ☐ Organs of Bach’s Time 30 August–4 September 2017 (md 506). See page 16.

Room type ☐ Double room (two sharing) ☐ Twin room (two sharing) ☐ Double for single use Travel arrangements for pre-festival tour. Flying out with the tour group, and back with the festival group. ☐ I will take the return flights as specified in the tour itinerary. ☐ I will make my own arrangements for travel to the tour, and onwards at the end of the festival.

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Passport details. Essential for airlines and hotels, and in case of emergency during the festival or tour.

Title

Surname

Forename(s)

Nationality

Place of birth

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

1 2

Next of kin or contact in case of emergency.

1. Name

Relation to you

Telephone

2. Name

Relation to you

Telephone

Further information and special requests, including dietary requirements (even if you have told us before).

Payment amount. ☐ EITHER Deposit(s). 10% of your total booking cost. ☐ OR Full Payment. This is required if you are booking within 10 weeks of departure (i.e. 26th June 2017 or later).

Carbon offset. We subscribe to Beyond Carbon, a carbon offset scheme approved

by AITO. If you are taking our flights and wish to make a donation (£5 for short-haul flights), please tick below. Read more at www.martinrandall.com/responsible-tourism. ☐ I would like to add a carbon offset donation to my booking (please tick).

TOTAL: £

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4GF, United Kingdom Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com Martin Randall Australasia, PO Box 1024, Indooroopilly, QLD 4068, Australia Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au Canada Tel (647) 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.ca

Payment method. ☐ By cheque. I enclose a cheque payable to Martin Randall Travel Ltd – please write the festival code (me 520) on the back. ☐ By 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.

It does not apply to other forms of payment.

☐ By bank transfer. Use your surname and the festival code (me 520) as a reference and ask your bank to allow for all charges.

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

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

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

Signature Date

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 4–10 September 2017

Booking details & conditions 1. Booking option We recommend that you contact us first to ascertain that your preferred hotel option is still available. You can make a booking option which we will hold for one week (longer if necessary) pending receipt of your completed Booking Form and deposit. You can also make a booking option online.

2. Definite booking Fill in the Booking Form and send it to us with the deposit(s) or make a definite booking online, at www.martinrandall.com. It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage, and that you sign the Booking Form if booking offline. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of the festival (i.e. 26th June 2017 or later).

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

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 tours and festivals. 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.

What we ask of you That you read the information we send to you.

Before booking, please refer to the FCO website to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the places you are going to wwwfco.gov.uk 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 a booking without necessarily giving a reason. You need to have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the festival or tour by slowing them down – see ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 14. To this end we ask you to take the tests described. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have met these requirements. If during the festival or tour it transpires you are not able to cope adequately,

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you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or be invited to leave altogether. This would be at your own expense.

Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance for the duration of your holiday with Martin Randall Travel Ltd. 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.

or tour exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the festival or tour we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not acceptable we would give a full refund.

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

Financial protection: ATOL. 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 flightinclusive 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.

from 56 to 29 days: from 28 to 15 days: from 14 to 3 days: within 48 hours:

Financial protection: ABTA. 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.

Passports and visas. Participants must have passports, valid for at least six months beyond the date of the festival. No visas are required for travel in Germany for UK or other EU citizens, or for citizens of the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Nationals of other countries should ascertain whether visas are required in their case, and obtain them if they are.

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If you cancel your booking in a double or twin room but are travelling with a companion who chooses not to cancel, the companion will be liable to pay the single occupancy price.

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

If we cancel the festival or tour. We might decide to cancel the festival or tour if at any time up to eight weeks before departure there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable. We would refund everything you had paid to us.

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

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 nonprovision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.

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

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4GF United Kingdom Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au Canada Tel (647) 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.ca USA Tel 1 800 988 6168 (connects with London office)

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Illustration: Eisenach, 20th-century etching.

More music festivals in 2017: A Festival of Music in Florence 13–18 March 2017 Toledo: A Festival of Spanish Music 20–25 May 2017 ‘The Miracle of Salzburg’ 18–24 June 2017 The Rhône: Bacchus & Orpheus 6–13 July 2017 The Danube Music Festival 20–27 August 2017 Vivaldi in Venice 6–11 November 2017 Please contact us for information.