The day-by-day itinerary including concert details.
12. DISCOVER THE PLACE
Thuringia: where Bach and his family lived and plied their trade.
14.
MEET THE MUSICIANS
International musicians of the highest calibre.
18.
ACCOMMODATION
Choose between four hotel options as we travel from Mühlhausen and Eisenach to Leipzig, via Weimar.
Published: August 2025
TRAVEL OPTIONS
A range of ways to travel to and from the festival.
20. 22.
PRE-FESTIVAL TOUR
Extend your stay in Germany with a tour that has been designed to link with the festival.
24. BOOKING
Details of how to book, a booking form, and our terms and conditions.
THE BACH JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION
Journeying to the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked is an experience as near to pilgrimage as the history of music o ers.
For this, the tenth Bach Journey, we have assembled artists and ensembles from Britain and continental Europe who are world leaders in this repertoire.
The superb Dunedin Consort appear in both Köthen, to play the dazzling Brandenburg Concertos in the very place they were likely written, and also in Mühlhausen with an intimate sonata programme.
Vox Luminis perform in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach where Bach was a chorister, in Weimar we hear the deeply emotive St John Passion.
We hear keyboard works by renowned harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and on an organ from Bach’s time in Sangerhausen.
The Marian Consort team up with lively period instrument ensemble Spiritato, and Solomon’s Knot complete the festival with a performance of the monumental B-minor Mass in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig.
There are daily talks on the music by an array of speakers, including Professor John Butt and Sir Nicholas Kenyon.
The festival is emphatically a journey. It starts, as did Bach, in the little towns and cities of the principality of Thuringia and finishes, again like Bach, in the free city of Leipzig. The entire audience stays in hotels in three places: Eisenach or Mühlhausen, Weimar and then Leipzig, and the concerts take place here and in other towns.
Hearing his works in buildings which he frequented, performed by some of the finest international interpreters, must rank among the highest delights available to music lovers. This unique festival provides the opportunity.
Background image:
J.S. Bach, woodcut c. 1930.
THE FESTIVAL PACKAGE
The price includes:
— All nine concerts.
— Accommodation for six nights – choose between four hotel options. See page 18.
— Return flights between London and Germany (reduced price if you arrange your own). See page 20.
— All breakfasts, five dinners, three or four lunches (depending on flight option), and interval drinks.
— Talks on the music by Professor John Butt and Sir Nicholas Kenyon.
— All coach transfers.
— The assistance of festival staff and a detailed programme booklet.
Optional extras:
— A pre-festival tour. See page 22.
— Arriving a day early in your festival hotel. See page 18.
THE SPEAKERS
Professor John Butt obe is Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow and musical director of Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort. He has published several books on Bach, the surrounding culture of performance and the historical performance movement. His recordings with the Dunedin Consort of Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem have received Gramophone awards (2007, 2014) and the latter was also nominated for a Grammy Award. He is Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and guest conductor for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He has been awarded the FBA and FRSE, the Dent Medal of the RMA and the RAM/Kohn Foundation’s Bach Prize.
Sir Nicholas Kenyon was Managing Director of the Barbican Centre 2007–21, Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of the BBC Proms 1996–2007 and is currently visiting scholar in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. He has been music critic for The New Yorker and The Observer, music editor of The Listener and editor of Early Music and is currently opera critic for the Daily Telegraph . Among his books are the Faber Pocket Guide to both Bach and Mozart and The Life of Music (2021), and he was editor of Authenticity & Early Music and The City of London: A Companion Guide. He was awarded a knighthood in 2008. This will be his sixth Bach Journey
MARTIN RANDALL FESTIVALS
This festival has been planned by Lizzie Watson. It follows the format that Martin Randall established 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival, of site-specific concerts for a private audience. Since then we have organised festivals along the Rhine, Loire and Seine rivers, in Oxford, Suffolk, York, Lincoln, the Cotswolds and the West Country, to Seville, Toledo, Burgos, Santiago, Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna, the Veneto, to St Petersburg, Prague, through Thuringia, and the Alentejo.
Illustration: Mühlhausen, lithograph c. 1830.
THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Arrive a day early
Sunday 27 September
Eisenach or Mühlhausen
We are offering the option of arriving at your hotel in Eisenach or Mühlhausen a day before the festival begins – see page 18 for accommodation options.
You could opt to take one of our group flights from Heathrow to Frankfurt (see page 20; each flight option is linked to your choice of town for the first three nights), and then one of our transfers from Frankfurt to Eisenach or Mühlhausen, or make your own way there. Lunch or afternoon tea during the coach journey are included (dinner is independent).
Day 1
Monday 28 September
Eisenach or Mühlhausen
You could opt to take one of our group flights from Heathrow to Frankfurt (see page 20; each flight option is linked to your choice of town for the first two nights), and then one of our transfers from Frankfurt to Eisenach or Mühlhausen, or make your own way there. Lunch or afternoon tea during the coach journey are included. See page 18 for accommodation options.
J.S. Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685 and he was raised here until the death of his father ten years later. He was baptised in the Gothic church of St George – the font remains in use – and the interior is as Bach would have known it. Eisenach is dominated by the Wartburg castle, a unesco World Heritage Site where Martin Luther stayed while working on his translation of the Bible.
Mühlhausen is where Bach held the post of organist at the church of St Blasius 1707–8. The town is a delight, a dense matrix of streets and alleys and little open spaces threaded between half-timbered and stone buildings. Six Gothic churches rise heavenwards, and all is bounded by a complete circuit of walls.
The first festival event is dinner in your hotel or nearby restaurant.
Overnight in Eisenach or Mühlhausen.
Illustration:
The Bachhaus, Eisenach (now the Bach Museum).
Day 2
Tuesday 29 September
Mühlhausen, Eisenach
The morning begins with the first of Professor John Butt’s talks. He later performs for us in Mühlhausen’s Town Hall, a charming set of rooms which is little changed since Bach’s time. The modest size of the main hall requires the audience to be split and the event repeated; some attend in the late morning and others after dinner.
Concert, 11.30am & 9.00pm: Mühlhausen, Town Hall
Trios & Sonatas
John Butt harpsichord
Dunedin Consort
It was in Mühlhausen that Bach started to experiment with the keyboard as an obbligato instrument, playing in consort with other solo lines. All four pieces performed reflect this heritage, the first and last (trio sonatas BWV 526, BWV 529) surviving as organ sonatas, which are easily converted into instrumental trios, and the central pieces (BWV 1019, BWV 1029) displaying the harpsichord as equal soloist with a melody instrument.
Bach’s chamber music often appears in multiple versions, suggesting that it is designed to be flexible enough for different circumstances of performance. What is common to all pieces, though, is the sense of a conversation in which the lines seem to have been destined to interlock with one another, while seeming to accomplish this with the utmost spontaneity.
Lunch is provided for all participants.
There is time in Eisenach to visit the excellent Bach Museum. The new wing wraps around a house which used to be believed to be his birthplace.
‘The music of JS Bach, to be performed by such outstanding international performers, was an irresistible attraction!’
Concert, 3.30pm: 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, presenting the sound world into which he was born. These are great uncle Johann Bach (1604–73) and uncles Johann Michael (1648–94) and Johann Christoph (1642–1703, also organist at this church). It finishes with a motet from Johann Sebastian, the famous Jesu meine Freude (BWV 227).
Dinner for all participants, and overnight in Eisenach or Mühlhausen.
: Eisenach, Wartburg Castle, wood engraving c. 1880.
Illustration
THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Day 3
Wednesday 30 Sept.
Ohrdruf, Arnstadt
Leave Eisenach and Mühlhausen and drive to Ohrdruf.
After the death of his father, Johann Sebastian lived in Ohrdruf for five years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, organist to the local lord. The recital takes place in the refurbished hall of the rambling ducal Schloss on the edge of the tiny town, home to the brother’s employer.
Recital, 11.00am: Ohrdruf, Schloss Ehrenstein Soloist to be confirmed
Programme to be confirmed.
Drive on to Arnstadt, arriving in time for lunch. Bach’s first significant employment (1707–08) was as organist here.
Spreading across a hillside, Arnstadt has retained much of its ancient centre, a picturesque mélange stretching back to the Middle Ages. Among the places of interest is a small Bach museum and the Romanesque-Gothic Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).
The venue is the church where Bach was organist early in his career. The interior is as close to lavish as a Lutheran parish church dared get, with walls and galleries wrapped in white and gold panelling.
Concert, 4.00pm: Arnstadt, Bachkirche Bach the Borrower
The Marian Consort Spiritato Rory McCleery director
Bach’s musical ‘borrowing’ takes us on a journey which begins with his extraordinary re-working of a motet by Johann Kuhnau. Following this is the excitingly virtuosic Mass in G major, a work whose every movement borrows from earlier cantatas. The second half begins with one of these cantatas, the striking Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich , and the programme ends with BWV 23 Du Wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn . This final cantata has the melody of the Lutheran Kyrie woven through it, most prominently in the astonishing final movement, which Bach rated so highly that he later borrowed it for his revised version of the St John Passion.
Drive on to Weimar, where two nights are spent.
Illustration: Arnstadt, steel engraving c. 1850.
Day 4
Thursday 1 October
Weimar
Adorned with a magnificent range of classical architecture and landscaped parks, Weimar is the loveliest of Thuringian towns as well as the liveliest.
It has few rivals among the smaller cities of Europe for its importance in the history of literature and music. Bach worked at the court here in 1703 and again 1708–17. 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. As the last home of Lucas Cranach and the first site of the Bauhaus school, the city also has significance in the history of the visual arts.
There is a morning talk by Nicholas Kenyon, and time to wander through the enchanting streets and squares and for exploring one or two of the many museums.
The most important church in Weimar, St Peter and Paul (Herderkirche) was where four of Bach’s children were baptised. Its present appearance has changed little since the 18th century, and a striking altarpiece by Lucas Cranach dominates the chancel.
‘The concerts were, without exception, excellent, inspiring and invigorating, as well as being programmed to cover as wide a range of Bach’s music as was feasible within the time scale.’
Concert, 4.00pm:
Weimar, Church of St Peter & Paul St John Passion
Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier director
The story of Christ’s Passion is both sublimely numinous and deeply human, and in no other manifestation of human creativity is the drama so potently and movingly presented as in Bach’s surviving settings. Of the two, the St John is the earlier and the more compact and dramatic. A performance in an appropriate liturgical space can be a transcendent experience.
Leave Weimar for Sangerhausen, a small town which has retained much of its historic fabric and possesses a fine organ of Bach’s time.
Recital, 11.15am: Sangerhausen, Church of St James
Martina Pohl organ
The instrument for today’s recital of pieces for organ by J.S. Bach was built in 1726 by Zacharias Hildebrandt, pupil and rival of Gottfried Silbermann and occasional collaborator with Bach.
After lunch in Sangerhausen, the journey continues to Köthen.
Köthen (Cöthen) was the scene of some of Bach’s happiest and most fruitful years. Here from 1717 to 1723 he was in the employ of the young music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen and it was probably for his sizeable and highly skilled orchestra that the Brandenburg Concertos were written. Some of them are performed in a concert this afternoon in the prince’s rambling Schloss.
Concert, 4.00pm:
Köthen, Schloss Köthen, Spiegelsaal Brandenburg Concertos
Dunedin Consort
Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos represent some of the most eclectic ensemble works of the era, exploring a wide range of instruments. Among those we will hear in this performance, the Second is the most diverse, with violin, oboe, recorder and trumpet soloists, the latter reaching the heights of baroque brass virtuosity.
In the Fourth an active solo violinist is set off against the sweeter sound of two recorders, while the homogeneous string ensemble of the Third allows for extensive playful dialogue between performers.
Travel on to Leipzig.
Bach was employed by the city council at Leipzig in 1723 with the brief to take charge of music at the principal churches. Together with his various additional responsibilities, he effectively became director of music for the city until his death in 1750.
Dinner for all participants.
First of two nights in Leipzig.
Meet the musicians. See pages 14–17 for their biographies.
Leipzig is the only large city of the Journey – though with a population of just half a million, and a historic centre which can be traversed in fifteen minutes, 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 excellent museums here including an outstanding collection of musical instruments at the Grassi Museum, an impressive display of paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, a well-refurbished apartment where Mendelssohn lived and the enthralling museum attached to the Bach Archive.
There is a morning talk and recital in the Salles de Pologne, a Neo-Baroque hall of the 19th century
Recital, 11.00am:
Leipzig, Salles de Pologne Clavier-Übung
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord
Bach’s Clavier-Übung works are some of the few pieces he published during his own lifetime. The overall title of the four collections, spanning partitas, concertos, preludes, fugues and variations, indicates an attempt to summarise the latest keyboard practice, a sense of the state of the art. Correspondingly, Bach illustrates the heights of baroque technical virtuosity and compositional ingenuity, with a huge range of dances and moods, and specific demonstrations of the capabilities of twomanual harpsichords.
The afternoon is free until dinner and the final concert.
One of the four Leipzig churches where Bach was in charge of music, the Nikolaikirche is a Gothic construction of the early-16th century which underwent a spectacular Neo-Classical transformation in the late 18th century.
Concert, 8.00pm: Leipzig, Nikolaikirche (Church of St Nicholas) Mass in B Minor
Solomon’s Knot
Bach’s B-Minor Mass is among the greatest achievements in the history of music. Compiled and completed 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.
Depending on your flight option there may be further free time in Leipzig.
See page 20 for details of transfers and flights.
DISCOVER THE PLACE: THURINGIA
Less than a century elapsed between the rst 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 prominence of several Bachs as professional musicians throughout the region. Not only was Johann Sebastian firmly embedded in the family tradition, for the first half of his working life he plied his trade 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 red-roofed villages and proud little towns. Being then divided into some of the smallest citystates 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 20th century.
‘Fantastic musicians and some performances I shall remember all my life. Solomon’s Knot and Mahan Esfahani were my highlights for musicality and intense involvement in interpreting Bach so that I was sure his presence was with us.’
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 lifeenhancing experience.
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 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, buildings painted and restored, recrudescence of commercial and social life on a par with anywhere else in Europe.
Illustration: Eisenach, 20th-century etching.
MEET THE MUSICIANS
MAHAN ESFAHANI
Born in Tehran in 1984, Esfahani grew up in the United States and studied musicology and history at Stanford University. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (20082010) and a Borletti-Buitoni prize winner (2009). In 2022, he became the youngest recipient of the Wigmore Medal, in recognition of his significant contribution and longstanding relationship with the Hall.
As a concerto soloist he performs with major symphony and chamber orchestras and contemporary music ensembles under a starry range of conductors. Esfahani’s work with new music is particularly acclaimed, with high-profile solo and concertante commissions from many contemporary composers.
His richly-varied discography, which includes an ongoing series of the complete works of Bach for Hyperion, has been acclaimed in the press and has garnered multiple awards, including Gramophone award, two BBC Music Magazine Awards, a Diapason d’Or and ‘Choc de Classica’ in France. His latest disc in his solo Bach cycle for Hyperion was awarded a ICMA in the Baroque instrumental category, and his first concerto disc for Hyperion, of Czech concertos, was released in February 2023 and won an Opus Klassik award.
He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature.
SOLOMON’S KNOT
Solomon’s Knot is “one of the UK’s most innovative and imaginative ensembles” (The Observer). Performing without a conductor and singing everything from memory, the group’s acclaimed sound is defined by tight, compact instrumental playing coupled with the vocal virtuosity of soloists who meld as an intuitive ensemble. Performing regularly throughout the UK & Europe, Solomon’s Knot is the longterm Baroque Ensemble in Residence at Wigmore Hall and has appeared at the BBC Proms, Snape Maltings, Bachfest Leipzig and more.
Collaboration is at the heart of the group’s ethos, working with stage directors, visual artists, ensembles, composers and choreographers including Tim Carroll, Federay Holmes, John La Bouchardière and others.
In 2019 Solomon’s Knot released their debut CD with Sony Classical, Magnificat, which has been followed by further releases of Bach, Telemann and more. 2025/26 plans for the group include a performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt on Martin Randall Travel’s Handel in Malta festival, at Wigmore Hall and at Bozar Brussels.
SPIRITATO
Spiritato is a period instrument ensemble with a love for little-known composers. As individuals they can be found performing with specialist ensembles throughout the UK and Europe, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Talens Lyriques and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Producing unique, research-based performance projects, avoiding welltrodden paths wherever possible, Spiritato actively seeks to promote forgotten composers and bring their music to a wider audience.
The group enjoyed great success in 2016 with their ambitious new project Guts and Glory. Performing throughout England, this project involving real natural trumpets and equal tension strings was enthusiastically received by audiences. The ensemble has also completed a six-concert tour of major UK festivals with Inspiring Bach , featuring trumpets, drums voices in a programme of large-scale cantatas, collected and admired by J.S. Bach himself.
Having released two albums on the Resonus Classics label, including the world premiere recording of The Judgment of Paris by Daniel Purcell – described by BBC Radio 3 Record Review as ‘high-quality entertainment’ – the ensemble have since recorded two albums for award-winning Delphian Records.
THE MARIAN CONSORT
Led by founder and director Rory McCleery, The Marian Consort (TMC) is an award-winning British vocal ensemble that presents bold and thrilling performances of music from across the centuries.
TMC features regularly on UK and international television and radio (including BBC Two’s 2022 documentary series ‘Art That Made Us’), and has released fourteen recordings to critical acclaim, garnering a variety of accolades and awards including the Diapason D’Or, Presto Classical Album of the Year and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Highlights of TMC’s live performance schedule include appearances at the BBC Proms, Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik Schwäbisch Gmünd (broadcast on German national radio) and the Miller Theatre series at Columbia University in New York.
TMC performs music from the 12th century to the present day, with a focus on bringing to light and championing marginalised and lesser-known Renaissance composers such as Vicente Lusitano, Raffaella Aleotti, and Jean Maillard. The group also works with living composers through its New Music Programme and collaborates with ensembles and soloists of international repute. In 2025 TMC is a Royal Philharmonic Society Composers Programme Partner.
RORY MCCLEERY
Rory McCleery is an award-winning Scottish conductor, countertenor & musicologist who is internationally renowned for his compelling interpretations of a wide range of repertoire. Rory has directed choirs and led masterclasses, study days and workshops in the USA, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. When not researching and conducting, Rory is also active as a countertenor, performing as a soloist with ensembles including The Dunedin Consort, English Consort and Ensemble 1604. Rory is a passionate advocate for music education and singing for wellbeing, and along with his wife, harpist Rachel Wick, is Artistic Co-Director of Dunster Festival in West Somerset.
THE CONCERTS
Private. All the performances are planned and administered by us, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the festival package.
Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want.
Audience size. There will be up to 180 participants on the festival. One of our venues cannot hold this number, and so the performance will be repeated.
Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls.
Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs, airlines alter schedules: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.
Dunedin Consort is one of the world’s leading Baroque ensembles, recognised for its vivid and insightful performances and recordings. Formed in 1995 and named after Din Eidyn, the ancient Celtic name for Edinburgh Castle, Dunedin Consort’s ambition is to allow listeners to hear early music afresh. Under the direction of John Butt, the ensemble has earned two coveted Gramophone Awards, a BBC Music Magazine Award, and a Grammy nomination. In 2021 it was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award.
Dunedin Consort performs regularly at major festivals and venues including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and Lammermuir Festival. The group’s growing discography on Linn Records includes Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos , both nominated for Gramophone Awards.
The group’s John Passion was nominated for a Recording of the Year award in both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. Dunedin Consort has a commitment to commissioning and performing new music. In 2025 it premiered David Fennessy’s Bog Cantata , the second in a 3-year cocommissioning series which opened with Cassandra Miller’s new guitar concerto for Sean Shibe and will conclude in 2026 with Tansy Davies’ Passion of Mary Magdalene.
JOHN BUTT
Alongside his work as musical director of Dunedin Consort, John Butt is also Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and was Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow 2001-24, where he continues as an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow. His career began with his appointment as organ scholar at King’s College Cambridge, which led to various academic and performing posts (including at UC Berkeley, 1989-97). His work, as both musician and scholar, gravitates towards music of the 17th-18th centuries.
As well as numerous recordings with Dunedin Consort, Butt has made 11 recordings on organ and harpsichord for Harmonia Mundi (including the complete organ works of Elgar).
Since winning the W.H. Scheide prize for his first book, he has received the Dent Medal of the RMA together with the RAM/ Kohn Foundation’s Bach Prize. He has been awarded an OBE, FBA and FRSE, as well as the medal of the Royal College of Organists.
MARTINA POHL
Martina Pohl is the director of church music in Sangerhausen and Kreiskantorin for the Eisleben-Sömmerda Church District. Having worked as a church musician in Berlin since 1992 Pohl came to Sangerhausen in 2004, originally called to work on the town’s historic Hildebrandt organ.
Pohl studied from 1980-86 at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Halle/ Saale, where she received teaching on the organ from cathedral organist Michael Pohl (Berlin), on improvisation from Prof. Dietrich Wagler (Freiberg) and on choral conducting from Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller (Leipzig).
As an organist, Pohl has recorded a number of CDs and is a guest of internationally renowned concert cycles at venues such as the Berliner Dom, St. Michaeliskirche Hamburg and on the Silbermannorgel of the Freiberger Dom. Her focus is on the works of J.S. Bach and on the German Romantic, and concerts in France and Switzerland have increased her international renown.
She has also worked as artistic director of the Südharz Organ Festival and in her work as a choral conductor she has collaborated with orchestras such as the Andreas-Kammerorchester Erfurt, Staatskapelle Halle and the Thüringer Symphoniker.
VOX LUMINIS
Vox Luminis’ mission is clear: to bring vocal music to a wide audience, with excellence as its guiding principle and touchstone. Founder, artistic director and bass Lionel Meunier composed the ensemble in such a way that each voice can shine solo as well as merge into one luminous fabric of sound.
In 2012 the ensemble won the Baroque Vocal Award and Recording of the Year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards for Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien , and seven years later it won the Choral Award for Buxtehude: Abendmusiken . Other accolades include ‘Klara Ensemble of the Year 2018’, a BBC Music Magazine Award, numerous Diapasons d’Or, the 2020 Caecilia Prize and the Preis der Deutschen Schalplattenkritik (several times).
As well as being a welcome guest at major concert halls and festivals worldwide, Vox Luminis is artist in residence at Concertgebouw Brugge and the Abbaye Musicale de Malonne (Namur). In 2021, the ensemble started a partnership with the Freiburger Barockorchester and it has also collaborated with American composer Caroline Shaw, performing a world premiere of her work at the Thüringer Bachwochen.
Vox Luminis celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024. To mark the occasion, the ensemble created a programme entitled Et resurrexit, which toured internationally, and released an anniversary CD box set with Ricercar.
LIONEL MEUNIER
French conductor and bass Lionel Meunier is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic and highly acclaimed artistic leaders in the fields of historical performance and choral music active today. Praised for his detailed yet spirited interpretative approach, he is now increasingly in demand worldwide as a guest conductor and artistic director and has worked with the Netherlands Bach Society, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Salzburg Bach Choir, and the Boston Early Music Festival Collegium.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include his debut at Carnegie Hall New York conducting the Orchestra of St Luke’s with Bach and Vivaldi; a return to Juilliard New York in an all-Handel program; and extensive tours through Europe and North America with Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
Born in France, Lionel was trained as a singer and recorder player and began his career as a bass in renowned ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Ghent, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, and Capella Pratensis. In 2013, he was awarded the title of Namurois de l’Année (Namur Citizen of the Year) for culture in the Belgian town of Namur, where he lives with his family.
The audience stays in three different towns during the course of the festival.
Choose between four different hotel options, A–D – see the page opposite.
If you intend to share a twin room with a friend, the best options are C and D (due to visibility of the bathroom from the bedroom area at the Park and Radisson Blu hotels in Leipzig, as well as a very limited number of twin rooms at the Brauhaus zum Löwen in Mühlhausen).
MÜHLHAUSEN OR EISENACH
27 or 28–30 September (two nights, or three if arriving a day early)
Depending on which hotel option you choose (A–D), you stay for the first two or three nights in either Mühlhausen or Eisenach.
Mühlhausen has few hotels. Categories A & B stay in the same 3-star hotel. The bathrooms have showers only. Double beds consist of two mattresses on a single base, and there are very few actual twin rooms. The hotel does not have air conditioning.
In Eisenach, both Categories C & D stay in a well-appointed hotel in the centre. Bathrooms are baths with shower fitments. Double rooms largely consist of two separate beds.
WEIMAR
30 September–2 October (two nights)
Weimar 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 venue. There is no air-conditioning at the Anna Amalia (Option A) but windows can be opened. Nearly every room at each of the four hotels is accessible by lift.
LEIPZIG
2–4 October (two nights)
Leipzig, as a trade fair city, has a good selection of hotels of all categories though some lack individuality. We have selected ones within the periphery of the medieval core of the city; none is more than 15 or 20 minutes on foot from the venues. All have airconditioning.
Please refer to our website for prices.
Illustration: Weimar, the Ducal Schloss, lithograph c. 1830.
OPTION A
Mühlhausen: Brauhaus zum Löwen. An old timber-framed building of great character in the centre of town. Rooms are either in the main building or in a modern annex, 3 minutes walk away. The modern buildings may be less characterful, but all rooms are spacious. There is a lift to some rooms but not all.
www.goebel-hotels.com
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. All rooms have a shower and there is lift access to all floors.
www.hotel-anna-amalia.de
Leipzig: Seaside Park Hotel. A modern and comfortable hotel. The quirky design uses plenty of wood and is vaguely nautical. Bedrooms are a good size. Bathrooms are open to the rest of the bedroom, although the lavatory is in a separate room. There is a good restaurant. Every floor is accessible by lift. www.parkhotelleipzig.de
OPTION B
Mühlhausen: Brauhaus zum Löwen. Same as option A.
Weimar: Dorint am Goethepark. Comprising two historic houses connected by a new addition, this is a modern hotel pleasantly situated by the park and a short walk from the town centre. Décor is a little austere, but the rooms elegant and comfortable. There is a restaurant in the hotel. All rooms have air conditioning and can be reached by lift. The majority of rooms have a bathtub rather than a walk-in shower.
www.hotel-weimar.dorint.com
Leipzig: 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 may not be much space between them. Bathrooms are open to the bedroom (though the lavatory cannot be seen).
www.radissonhotels.com
OPTION C
Eisenach: Vienna House by Wyndham Thüringer Hof. A large, centrally-located hotel. Bedrooms (Superior category) are bright and simply decorated. Two restaurants, a bar, as well a spa with sauna, exercise room and rooftop terrace. There is no airconditioning. Double rooms have two separate mattresses attached to one another.
www.wyndhamhotels.com
Weimar: Best Western Premier Grand Hotel 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 generally spacious bathrooms, excellent location. All rooms are air-conditioned and accessible by lift.
www.russischerhof-weimar.de
Leipzig: Marriott. A traditional hotel decorated in marble, wood and brass. Rooms are spacious with cosy, country-style furnishings and all mod cons. Centrallylocated but quiet. There is a swimming pool, and lift access to all floors.
www.marriott.com
OPTION D
Eisenach: Vienna House by Wyndham Thüringer Hof. Same as option C (Deluxe category rooms).
Weimar: Hotel Elephant. Famous, historic establishment blending classical gravity with contemporary understatement. Bedrooms are spacious and very well equipped, with smart, modern décor and bathrooms with showers. The hotel houses the AnnA restaurant, the finest in Weimar.
www.marriott.com
Leipzig: Steigenberger Icon Grandhotel Handelshof. A converted former exhibition building located next to the Old Stock Exchange and a stone’s throw from the market square. Rooms are decorated in a clean and contemporary style. Views are of the internal courtyard or the city. There is a spa and fitness area. There are some slightly ostentatious modern design features. All rooms have walk-in showers and many also have a bathtub.
www.hrewards.com
TRAVEL OPTIONS
Flights from London Heathrow are offered – all options fly into Frankfurt and back from Berlin.
If you select hotel option A or B, you can travel on flight options 1, 3 or 5.
If you select hotel option C or D, you can travel on flight options 2, 4 or 6.
There is the option to fly out on the 27 September, the day before the festival begins – see the previous two pages for accommodation details.
4 October: depart Berlin 16.35, arrive Heathrow 17.30 (BA 985)
Option 6 – hotel options C & D
THE NO-FLIGHTS OPTION
You can choose not to take any of our flight options and to make your own arrangements for joining and leaving the festival. You are welcome to join our airport coach transfers if your flights coincide with any of the options above.
PRE-FESTIVAL TOUR
The price for the pre-festival tour offers the option of a return flight – out at the start of the tour, and back at the end of the festival.
All pre-festival tour participants return to the UK on festival flight option 1.
We charge for flights, if you are taking them, as part of your pre-festival tour booking. You therefore pay the ‘no flights’ price for the festival.
4 October: depart Berlin 16.35, arrive Heathrow 17.30 (BA 985)
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 together. 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 considerable distances by coach, particularly on the first and last days.
We are very happy to talk you through each day’s manoeuvres, as these differ festival to festival, to identify if it may be necessary to opt out at any point.
We ask that you take the simple fitness tests on page 24 before booking.
If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.
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.
Though there will be up to 180 participants, you will sometimes find yourself in smaller groups – the audience is divided between multiple hotels, and into different restaurants for some of the meals.
For those who are not averse to group activities there are extra meals, walks and visits to sign up to. You choose the level of participation that suits you.
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.
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, Dr Jarl Kremeier.
The organs are located in towns and villages off the beaten track.
For a maximum of 27 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.
The most famous of these organ builders was Gottfried Silbermann. Nearly 30 of his 50 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.
The ten included recitals are exclusive to this group and twenty to thirty minutes long, performed by James Johnstone or the local organist.
James Johnstone. Organist specialising in the Baroque. He is a professor of early keyboards at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He has performed and recorded extensively as a recitalist and also as a continuo player with numerous ensembles, notably the Monteverdi Choir - now Constellation Choir and Orchestra. He is currently recording the complete organ works of Bach for Metronome. www. jamesjohnstone.org
ITINERARY
Day 1. Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Berlin and continue 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 which is more Renaissance than Baroque. The church of St Wenceslas in Naumburg has a major Hildebrandt organ (1748).
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 medieval church of St George in Rötha there is a Silbermann organ tested in 1721 by Johann Kuhnau.
Day 4: Altenburg, Ponitz, Freiberg. The court city of Altenburg is one of the rarely visited jewels of the former DDR. The chapel of the ducal residence has a fine organ by Trost of 1739. Silbermann began building an organ for the Friedenskirche in Ponitz in 1734, before the construction of the church itself had ended. Before dinner in Freiberg, there is an opportunity to hear the Silbermann in St. Peter’s Church. First of two nights in Freiberg.
Day 5: Freiberg, Helbigsdorf. The morning is free in Freiberg. In the afternoon drive out 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 (1711–1714) is one of the world’s finest instruments; three manuals, 44 stops, largely unaltered.
Day 6. Drive to Prague and fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.00pm, or:
For participants joining The Bach Journey: travel by high-speed train from Freiberg to Eisenach via Dresden (c. 3 hours). The first event of the day is dinner in your festival hotel.
PRACTICALITIES
Included : travel by private coach (and 1st class train tickets for those joining the Bach Journey); hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine; all organ recitals, admissions and donations, visits, etc.; all tips for drivers, guides, waiters; all taxes; the services of two lecturers and a tour manager. Optional: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 320)
All recitals are subject to confirmation from the relevant churches. Changes to the itinerary are possible.
Accommodation. Best Western, Merseburg : a comfortable 4-star hotel, located a short walk from the historic centre. Hotel Freyhof, Freiberg: opened in 2016, this traditional hotel is situated in a reconstructed monastery.
How strenuous? Fitness is essential. You will be on your feet a lot, walking and standing around. The tour would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair climbing. Some days involve a lot of driving, particularly the final day. Average distance by coach per day: 95 miles.
Group size: between 10 and 27 participants.
MAKING A BOOKING
1. Booking Option. We recommend that you contact us first, or visit our website, to make a booking option which we will hold for 72 hours. To confirm it, please send the booking form and deposit within this period – the deposit is 15% of your total booking price. Alternatively, make a definite booking straight away via our website.
2. Definite booking. Fill in the booking form and send it to us with the deposit. It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage (see page 27) and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within 12 weeks of the date the festival begins.
3. Our confirmation. Upon receipt of the booking form and deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this your deposit is nonreturnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions. Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.
FITNESS TESTS
We ask that you take the following fitness tests before booking. By signing the Booking Form, you confirm that you have done so. Please also read ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 21
1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least eight 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.
An additional indication of the fitness required is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand for at least 15 minutes.
NAME(S) – as you wish them to appear on the list of participants. Please note that we do not use titles:
Participant 1:
Contact details for all correspondence:
Address
Participant 2:
Postcode/Zip Country
Telephone (home) Mobile
E-mail
Tick if you are happy to receive your festival and booking documents online where possible (confirm your e-mail address above).
We would like to keep you informed about our future tour plans. Please tick the boxes to the right if you would prefer not to receive our marketing materials:
Brochures sent by post Yes E-newsletter Yes
What prompted this booking? It is very helpful for us to know how you first heard about this event, and if you can be specific, e.g. if in an advertisement, the name of the publication it appeared in; if we sent you a communication, what type? (e-mail or post?):
ACCOMMODATION AND TRAVEL OPTION. Please tick your chosen hotel option and room type, and one return travel option (arriving either on the 27 or 28 September).
NB if you are booking on the pre-festival tour, you do not need to indicate a travel option below.
Hotel option Room type Arriving 27 September: travel option Arriving 28 September: travel option
A
B
C
Double for single use
Double, two sharing
Twin, two sharing (limited)
Double for single use
Double, two sharing
Twin, two sharing (limited)
Double for single use
Double, two sharing
Twin, two sharing
Double for single use
D
Double, two sharing
Twin, two sharing
FURTHER INFORMATION
Option 1 No flights
Option 1 No flights
Option 2 No flights
Option 2 No flights
Please notify us of dietary restrictions (for example, religious, medical or if you are vegetarian or vegan). Please also use this space to request room upgrades, or further extra nights, etc.:
Option 3
Option 5 No flights
Option 3
Option 5 No flights
Option 4
Option 6 No flights
Option 4
Option 6 No flights
PRE-FESTIVAL TOUR. C omplete this section to add to your festival booking.
Organs of Bach’s Time 23–28 September 2026 (MM181) See page 22 for full details.
Room type
Double for sole use
Double / twin room
PASSPORT DETAILS & NEXT OF KIN
Essential for airlines and the hotels, and in case of emergency. Please use capital letters for your passport details.
PAYMENT
We prefer payments by bank transfer. We cannot currently accept payment through our website. All money paid to us is fully protected regardless of payment method. Please tick one option:
BANK TRANSFER Please use your surname and the festival code (mm 186) as a reference and ask your bank to allow for all charges.
Account name: Martin Randall Travel Ltd.
Bank: HSBC
Address: 1 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 1HQ
Account number: 85377277
Sort code: 40-38-04
Transfers from non-UK bank accounts: please instruct your bank to send payment in pound sterling (GBP) IBAN: GB22HBUK40380485377277 Swift/BIC code: HBUKGB4B
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.
Please tick payment amount, and then ensure you sign at the bottom of this form:
EITHER Deposit 15% of total booking cost. OR Full balance
Required if you are booking within 12 weeks of departure.
TOTAL:
I have read and agree to the Booking Conditions and Privacy Policy (www.martinrandall.com/privacy) on behalf of all listed on this form.
Signature:
Date:
Martin Randall Travel Ltd
10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH, United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355
From North America: 1 800 988 6168 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
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, 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. Please read ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 21 and take the self-assessment tests described on page 24; by signing the booking form you are stating that you have understood what we are asking of you and are fit to participate. 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. NonUK 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 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.
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.
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.
Privacy. By signing the booking form, or by booking online, you are stating that you have read and agree to our Privacy Policy (available online at www. martinrandall.com/privacy).
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
Contact the London office from the USA and Canada:
Tel 1 800 988 6168 (toll free) usa@martinrandall.com
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Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia
Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au
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 (such as The Bach Journey ), 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
