While these events are undeniably indulgent and leisurely retreats, they are also intended to stimulate the mind and delight the artistic sensibilities.
Hear great classical music performed by outstanding musicians of international repute.
Enjoy the intimacy and intensity of a recital hall little bigger than a large drawing room.
The music is introduced by musicologists or by the players themselves.
Mingle with the musicians, speakers, and with like-minded fellow music lovers.
Stay in comfort at the Castle Hotel in Taunton, and enjoy great food.
Our package includes accommodation, dinners, and afternoon teas as well as access to the concerts themselves.
Tickets to individual concerts are also available to purchase for those who live locally.
Martin Randall Festival staff are in attendance to help the events run smoothly and enjoyably.
4. BARBICAN QUARTET
20–22 March 2026
The Castle Hotel, Taunton
Speaker: Dr Katy Hamilton
6. ENSEMBLE 360 & LIZ WATTS
17–20 April 2026
The Castle Hotel, Taunton
Speaker: Richard Wigmore
8. WILLIAM HOWARD & THE CARDUCCI STRING QUARTET
20–22 November 2026
The Castle Hotel, Taunton
Speaker: William Howard
THE HOTEL
One of the most comfortable and welcoming in England.
Booking form, details about booking, and our terms and conditions.
MRT FESTIVALS
More about our 2026 programme.
BARBICAN QUARTET
HAYDN’S
‘SUN QUARTETS’
WITH SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN, BRITTEN & MENDELSSOHN
20–22 March 2026 (mm 940)
The Castle Hotel, Taunton Speaker: Dr Katy Hamilton
Amarins Wierdsma violin
Kate Maloney violin
Christoph Slenczka viola
Yoanna Prodanova cello
The Barbican Quartet is an original voice on the international chamber music scene. Praised for their unique sound and character, as well as for intensely personal and intelligent performances, the Barbican Quartet celebrates the individual strengths of its members and at the same time forges these into a homogeneous entity, exploring with fervour both the great string quartet repertoire as well as contemporary music.
The Quartet currently holds the Nina Drucker Quartet Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where they coach chamber music.
In June 2024 the Barbican Quartet released their debut CD, “Manifesto on Love”, on the Genuin label. Other exciting highlights of the past season include their debuts at the Elbphilharnonie Hamburg and return visits to the Montreal Chamber Music Festival and the Peasmarch Festival.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously described the string quartet as ‘a conversation between four intelligent people’ – elegant, eloquent and full of wit and liveliness. The Barbican Quartet draw together the voices of some of the quartet’s most brilliant and beloved creators in this weekend, from Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn to Benjamin Britten and Robert Schumann. At the heart of their programme is the music of Joseph Haydn, often considered the father of the genre: the gloriously energetic ‘Sun Quartets’ Op. 20 mark a bright new dawn for the ensemble as the most sophisticated and intellectually ambitious of all musical groups.
To complement the four voices of Haydn’s ground-breaking works, we also hear several pieces ‘sung’ by strings: Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn were all consummate song composers, and some of their best-loved lieder are paired here with their original works for quartet to highlight the lyrical nature of their works across genres. Most famous among these is, of course, Schubert’s D minor Quartet ‘Death and the Maiden’. And from virtuoso violist Rebecca Clarke, we hear the achingly beautiful ‘Poem’, only discovered in the first years of this century, but written 100 years ago this year.
Talks on the music are given by Dr Katy Hamilton. A writer and broadcaster, she has provided talks for Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and the Oxford Lieder Festival, and she is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3.
Photo:
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 20 MARCH, 5.30pm
‘Variations: Haydn and Schubert’ Haydn, String Quartet Op. 20 No.4 in D major Schubert, ‘Death & the Maiden’ Song Arr. Schubert, String Quartet No. 14 ‘Death & the Maiden’
SATURDAY 21 MARCH, 10.30am
‘Time travel: Haydn & 20th century England’ Haydn, String Quartet Op.20 No.3 in G minor Britten, String Quartet No.1 in D major Clarke, Poem for String Quartet Haydn, String Quartet Op.20 No.5 in F minor
SATURDAY 21 MARCH, 5.30pm
‘Recitativo & Song: Haydn and Mendelssohn Haydn, String Quartet Op.20 No.2 in C major Mendelssohn, Song Arr. (tbc) Mendelssohn, String Quartet No.2 in A minor
SUNDAY 22 MARCH, 10.30am
‘From the Classical to the Romantic: Haydn and Schumann’
Haydn, String Quartet Op.20 No.1 in E flat Schumann, String Quartet No.3 in A major Schumann, Song Arr. (tbc)
Haydn, String Quartet Op.20 No.6 in A major
PRACTICALITIES
Included: four concerts, talks on the music, accommodation for two nights, breakfasts, two afternoon teas, two dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.
Start and finish times. The event begins on Friday 20 March with afternoon tea available from 3.00–5.00pm (check in is from 3.00pm). The final concert ends at c. 12.30pm on Sunday 22 March.
Tickets to individual concerts: £30 mornings, £3 evenings. Interval refreshments and a programme are also included.
Hotel information: see page 10. Booking information: see page 11.
ENSEMBLE 360 & ELIZABETH WATTS A SCHUBERTIADE
17–20 April 2026 (mm 932)
The Castle Hotel, Taunton Speaker: Richard Wigmore
Ensemble 360
Elizabeth Watts soprano
Formed originally in 2005 by Music in the Round as its resident ensemble, to continue the great legacy of the Lindsay Quartet, Ensemble 360 now performs all over the UK and abroad, boasting a glowing reputation for the outstanding quality of its performances, the breadth of its work and its passion for reaching new audiences. In 2023 Ensemble 360’s significant contribution to the UK’s chamber music scene was acknowledged in a shortlisting for the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award, and their recording “Pierrot Portraits” with soprano Claire Booth, to mark the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth, was released on Onyx Classics in September 2024 to critical acclaim in the press.
With a voice described by International Record Review as “one of the most beautiful Britain has produced in a generation” Elizabeth Watts is “now established as one of Britain’s leading sopranos” (The Guardian). A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Elizabeth is much in demand as a recitalist at the UK’s leading venues and festivals.
Franz Liszt dubbed Schubert ‘the most poetic of composers’. Few would disagree. No music seems to speak to us more directly, or more touchingly. Paradoxically, Schubert is at once the most friendly of the great composers, and the one who expresses most piercingly a Romantic sense of separation and ‘otherness’; a creator of some of the world’s most lovable melodies who is also revered for his visionary approach to harmony.
During his short life, spent almost entirely in Vienna, Schubert was known overwhelmingly for his songs and shorter piano works. Many of these were first performed at the parties that came to be known as Schubertiades: evenings of music and dancing. This weekend we hear the ever-fresh ’Trout’ Quintet’ and the sublime String Quintet, beloved of Desert Island Discs castaways, as well as relative rarities such as the C major violin-piano Fantasy and the cantata for voice, horn and piano ‘Auf dem Strom’, composed as a tribute to Beethoven on the anniversary of his death.
Other perennial favourites in our Schubert celebration include the darkly dramatic ‘Death and the Maiden’ String Quartet and the E flat Piano Trio, with its haunting slow movement said to be based on a Swedish song. No Schubertiade would be complete without a smattering of piano dances, where Schubert raises popular art to a new level of poetry. And if you have eight players on hand, what could make a better ending than the colourful, life-affirming Octet?
PROGRAMME
All works listed are by Schubert.
FRIDAY 17 APRIL, 5.30pm
Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F, D.487
Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821
String Quartet No. 14 ‘Death & the Maiden’
SATURDAY 18 APRIL, 10.30am
Selection of Lieder
Piano Trio No.2 in E flat major, D.929
SATURDAY 18 APRIL, 5.30pm
Fantasie in C major for Violin and Piano, D.934
String Quintet in C major, Op.163, D.956
SUNDAY 19 APRIL, 10.30am
Auf dem Strom, D.943
The Shepherd on the Rock, D.965
Piano Quintet in A major, D.667, ‘The Trout’
SUNDAY 19 APRIL, 5.30pm
Selection of Impromptus
Selection of German Dances
Octet in F major, D.803
PRACTICALITIES
Included: five concerts, talks on the music, accommodation for three nights, breakfasts, three afternoon teas, three dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.
Start and finish times. The event begins on Friday 17th April with afternoon tea available from 3.00–5.00pm (check in is from 3.00pm). The final concert ends at c. 7.45pm on Sunday 19th April, followed by dinner in the hotel. Check-out is by 11am on Monday 20th April.
Tickets to individual concerts: £30 mornings, £35 evenings. Interval refreshments and a programme are also included.
Hotel information: see page 10. Booking information: see page 11.
The Castle Hotel, Taunton Musically illustrated talks by William Howard
William Howard piano
Matthew Denton violin
Michelle Fleming violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin viola
Emma Denton cello
William Howard is one of Britain’s leading pianists, with a career that has taken him to over 40 countries. Having founded the Schubert Ensemble in 1983, he performed with them for the 35 years of its existence. As a soloist, he has appeared at many of Britain’s major festivals and halls, and has enjoyed residencies at several. William has performed multiple times on BBC Radio 3, at Wigmore Hall, and at the South Bank. He is passionate about 19th-century piano repertoire, and is particularly active in the commissioning of new works.
The Carducci String Quartet are described by The Strad as presenting ‘a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose, in which severity could melt seamlessly into charm, and drama into geniality’. Founded in 1997, it has become one of the most versatile and
accomplished ensembles of today, having mastered the core repertoire as well as branching out into contemporary genres. The group has won numerous international awards, including First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Competition, and has toured extensively within the UK and abroad.
These programmes feature four of the most important and enduringly popular works written for piano quintet, one of chamber music’s most satisfying mediums. Schumann’s radiant Quintet, written in 1842 in the afterglow of his marriage to Clara, was the first of its kind and provided the inspiration for many other composers of the Romantic Era and beyond.
In the introductory talks William Howard will be onstage with the Carducci Quartet to explore and illustrate the completely different ways in which Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák and Shostakovich employ the same combination of instruments with such brilliant and contrasting results. The four quintets are paired with two gems from the string quartet repertoire and two ground-breaking works for piano trio.
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 20 NOVEMBER, 5.30pm
Mendelssohn, String Quartet No.3 in D major Op.44 No.1
Schumann, Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op.44
SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER, 10.30am
Dvořák, Piano Trio No.4 in E minor, Op.90, ‘Dumky’
Shostakovich, Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57
SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER, 5.30pm
Beethoven, Piano Trio in D major, Op.70, No.1, ‘Ghost’
Brahms, Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34
SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER, 10.30am
Haydn, Quartet in B flat, Op.76, No.4, ‘Sunrise’
Dvořák, Piano Quintet No.2 in A major, Op.81
PRACTICALITIES
Included: four concerts, talks on the music, accommodation for two nights, breakfasts, two afternoon teas, two dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.
Start and finish times. The event begins on Friday 20th November with afternoon tea available from 3.00–5.00pm (check in is from 3.00pm). The final concert ends at c. 12.50pm on Sunday 22nd November.
Tickets to individual concerts: £30 mornings, £35 evenings. Interval refreshments and a programme are also included.
Hotel information: see page 10. Booking information: see page 11.
‘The performances were of a very high standard, and beautifully chosen.’
Audience member at ‘William Howard & the Carducci String Quartet’ in 2024.
The Castle is renowned for its excellent service, for comforts traditional and modern, and for its superb catering. It has been owned and run by the Chapman family for over 60 years. Chamber music events have been held here since 1977, and Martin Randall Travel took over the running of them in 2003.
The hotel’s bedrooms are individually and charmingly decorated. Doubles and twins are mainly of a good size, and the largest – the Garden Rooms – overlook the garden.
MAKING A BOOKING
We recommend that you contact us first to make a booking option which we will hold for one week. To confirm your place(s), please then send your booking form and the deposit (15% of your total booking cost) to us within this period. If you are booking within 12 weeks of the event, we require full payment.
There is no single-occupancy supplement for the rooms with single beds. The majority of rooms have a bath with a shower fitment. The hotel has a lift, though some bedrooms are then accessed via stairs. The Music Room is on a mezzanine level, up a flight of stairs from the lobby.
Taunton lies on the doorstep of Exmoor and the Quantocks, areas with some of the loveliest countryside in England.
www.the-castle-hotel.com
Individual concert tickets are handled by Martin Randall Travel. Please call us on 020 8742 3355 to book over the telephone or send an e-mail to info@martinrandall.co.uk
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Barbican Quartet 20–22 March 2026 (mm 940)
Ensemble 360 & Elizabeth Watts 17–20 April 2026 (mm 932)
William Howard & The Carducci String Quartet 20–22 November 2026 (mm 234)
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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, usually going far beyond the minimum obligations.
We aim to provide full and accurate information about our holidays. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.
If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.
ALL WE ASK OF YOU
That you read the information we send to you.
SPECIFIC TERMS
Our contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd.
Eligibility. You must be in good health, free of infectious illness, and have a level of physical and mental fitness that would not impair other participants’ enjoyment by slowing them down or by absorbing disproportionate attention from the tour leaders. If you have a medical condition or a disability which may a ect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss this with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure. If during the festival or tour it transpires, in the judgement of the tour leaders, that you are not able to cope, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits or to leave altogether. This would be at your own expense. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason.
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development O ce advice. Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website to ensure you understand the travel advice for the places to which the festival or tour goes. Non-UK citizens should look at the advice issued by their governments, which may di er significantly.
Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance cover. The insurance must cover, at minimum, medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and loss of payments to us in the event that you cancel your booking. If you are making your own arrangements for international travel, please ensure you have insurance that protects you in the rare event of Martin Randall Travel cancelling the festival or tour. Experience indicates that free travel insurance o ered by some credit card companies is not to be relied upon.
Passports and visas. British citizens must have valid passports for travel outside the United Kingdom. The passport needs to be valid for 6 months beyond the date of the festival and/ or tour. For Schengen countries, your passport must have been issued less than ten years before the date you enter the country and valid for at least three months after the day you leave. Non-UK nationals should ascertain whether visas are required in their case.
If you cancel. If you have to withdraw from a festival or tour on which you had booked, there would be a charge which varies according to
the period of notice you give. Up to 85 days before departure the deposit would be forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of your booking will be due:
Up to 85 days: deposit only
Between 84 and 43 days: 40%
Between 42 and 15 days: 70%
Between 14 days or fewer: 100%
For cruises only:
Up to 90 days: deposit only
Between 89 and 70 days: 40%
Between 69 and 50 days: 60%
Between 49 days and 30 days: 80%
29 days of fewer: 100%
Additional costs for individual arrangements (including but not limited to flight upgrades, flight amendments, extra nights at hotel(s), room upgrades and airport transfers) are subject to the same cancellation charges, apart from in the instance where we have previously notified you that an additional cost is non-refundable.
If you cancel your booking in a shared room but your travelling companion chooses to continue to participate, the companion would have to pay the single-occupancy price.
If you cancel a non-residential event we will return the full amount if you notify us 22 or more days before the event. We will retain 50% if cancellation is made within three weeks, and 100% if within three days.
We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive written confirmation of cancellation.
If we cancel. We may decide to cancel a festival or tour if there were insu cient bookings for the it to be viable (though this would always be more than 8 weeks before departure). We would refund you with everything you had paid us.
Safety and security. Cancellation may also occur if civil unrest, war, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure arise in the region to which the festival or tour was due to go. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth O ce advises against travel, we would either cancel or adjust the itinerary to avoid risky areas.
Health and safety. We have a safety auditing process in place and, as a minimum, request that all of our suppliers comply with local health and safety regulations. However, we operate tours in parts of the world where standards are lower than those you are used to at home, particularly in the areas of accessibility, handrails and seatbelts. We ask that you take note of the safety information we provide.
The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour or festival except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.
If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating a tour or festival exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour or festival we would o er compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we o er is not in your view an adequate substitute, we would give a full refund.
Financial protection for UK residents. Any money you have paid to us for a holiday which includes an international flight is protected by our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL, number 3622). Payments for holidays which do not include a flight
from/to the UK are protected by ABTOT – The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited. So, in the (highly unlikely) event of our insolvency in advance of the festival or tour, you would get your money back, or if we failed after it had begun, it would be able to continue and you would be returned to the UK at its conclusion. Clients living elsewhere who have arranged their own flights should ensure their personal travel insurance covers repatriation in the event of holiday supplier failure.
Financial protection – the o cial text. We are required to publish the following:
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays which include international flights, by way of our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 3622. When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive holiday from us you receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. Most of our flights and flight-inclusive holidays on our website and in our brochure are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. In order to be protected under the ATOL scheme you need to be in the UK when you make your booking and/or one of the flights you take must originate or terminate in the UK with the group.
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight, by way of a bond held by ABTOT – The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited.
We will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where we aren’t able do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.
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CELEBRATING MUSIC AND PLACE
Martin Randall Festivals bring together world-class musicians for a sequence of private concerts in Europe’s most glorious buildings, many of which are not normally accessible. We take care of all logistics, from flights and hotels to pre-concert talks.
HANDEL IN MALTA
21–27 November 2025
EARLY MUSIC IN YORKSHIRE
6–11 May 2026
THE RHINE PIANO FESTIVAL
22–29 June 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE DANUBE
15–22 August 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE RHINE
31 August–7 September 2026
THE J.S. BACH JOURNEY
28 September–4 October 2026
MONTEVERDI IN VENICE
11–17 November 2026
Contact us for more information or visit martinrandall.com/festivals
MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL LTD
10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com
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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL…
is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural travel and one of the most respected tour operators in the world.
MRT aims to produce the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, architecture, archaeology, history, music and gastronomy, and are spread across Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Japan and the Americas.
For 2026 we have planned around 200 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10–20 participants), six music festivals of our own devising, several short history and music breaks, an extensive programme of online talks, and single days in London.
For over 35 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and improvement, setting the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards.
To see our full range of cultural tours and events, please visit www.martinrandall.com
