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Martinů String Quartet / Simon Wallfisch (baritone) / Gemma Rosefield (cello) – Monday 6 May

Martinů String Quartet
Lubomír Havlák violin and Adéla Štajnochrová violins
Martin Stupka viola, Jitka Vlašánková cello
with Simon Wallfisch baritone
and Gemma Rosefield cello

Krása  String Quartet
Tauský   Coventry
Sylvie Bodorová   Terezín Ghetto Requiem
Schubert   String Quintet in C D956

 

The Festival’s final concert includes Vilém Tauský’s Coventry, written in 1940 after visiting the recently ruined cathedral.

Sylvie Bodorová’s Terezín Ghetto Requiem (premièred in Holy Trinity Church in 1998) will be played here for the fifth time, after numerous performances in England, North America, and on the continent. Simon Wallfisch was the impressive baritone soloist last time, in 2016, and Gemma Rosefield also returns to play Schubert’s masterpiece with the Martinů String Quartet.

Join us after the concert for a celebratory glass of wine!

Generously supported by Diane Holt and Peter Robinson

£27 | £22 | £17
(£1 children / students)

Gemma Rosefield (cello) & Tim Horton (piano) – Saturday 29 April

Coffee Concert

Gemma Rosefield cello and Tim Horton piano

Beethoven   Variations on “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” Op 66
Rachmaninov   Vocalise Op 34 No 14
Rachmaninov   Cello Sonata in G minor Op 19

 

Two of the Festival’s favourite musicians met as members of Ensemble 360 and, with Benjamin Nabarro, formed the Leonore Piano Trio which opens the Festival.

Gemma Rosefield and Tim Horton bring a gorgeous programme for a Coffee Concert on a Saturday morning starting with Beethoven’s witty and virtuosic variations on Papageno’s aria from The Magic Flute, which are followed by Rachmaninov’s haunting and beautiful Vocalise. His Cello Sonata, written in 1901 is surely the most romantic ever written for the instrument, and no Festival focusing on his works could be complete without it.

Concert generously supported by Jennifer Lorch

£17.50 | £12.50
(£1 children / students)

Includes coffee – available from 10.30am

Leonore Piano Trio – Thursday 27 April

Leonore Piano Trio
Benjamin Nabarro violin | Gemma Rosefield cello | Tim Horton piano

Rachmaninov   Trio élégiaque No 1 in G minor
Arensky   Piano Trio No 1 in D minor Op 32
Tchaikovsky   Piano Trio in A minor Op 50 ‘In Memory of a Great Artist’

 

The Leonore Piano Trio has become one of the firm Festival favourites for our audience. Established in 2012, the Trio appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and other major venues, and their recordings – as with the two Piano Trios by Arensky – are highly praised.

The 2023 Festival is launched with an early work of 1892 by Rachmaninov, and his other monumental Trio (of 1907) features in the lunchtime concert on Monday. Arensky’s First Piano Trio (1894) was dedicated to the celebrated Russian cellist Karl Davidoff, and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio (1881-2) was written in memory of his great mentor, Nikolai Rubinstein.

Concert generously supported by Peter Robinson in memory of Gillian

£26 | £16
(£1 children / students)

Martinů String Quartet & Gemma Rosefield cello

Lubomír Havlák and Libor Kaňka violins
Zbyněk Paďourek viola, Jitka Vlašánková cello

Mozart Divertimento in D K136
Glazunov Quintet in A Op 39
Schubert Quintet in C D956

The Martinů String Quartet returns to Leamington following an outstanding concert at the end of November and joins up again with Gemma Rosefield to repeat their striking interpretation of Schubert’s ever popular Quintet and to introduce the audience to the Quintet by Glazunov, written in 1892, during the golden age of romantic Russian music. The concert begins with Mozart’s evergreen, Divertimento in D, written in 1772 when the great composer was just 16 years old and already held the post of Court Concertmaster to Hieronymus Coloredo, Prince Archbishop of Salzburg.

Tickets: £24 and £19 reserved, £14 unreserved sides.

Concert generously supported by Paul & Jane Watts

Roderick Williams baritone & Ensemble 360

James Pillai horn, Benjamin Nabarro and Claudia Ajmone-Marsan violins,
Rachel Roberts viola, Gemma Rosefield cello, Elena Hull double bass, Tim Horton piano

Howard Skempton Man and Bat
Howard Skempton The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Howard Skempton’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was first performed by Roderick Williams with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and then taken on by him and Ensemble 360 for performances in Sheffield, the Wigmore Hall and the 2017 Leamington Music Festival. The setting of D.H. Lawrence’s Man and Bat by Howard followed in July 2017, premièred in Sheffield, and this will be its first performance here in Leamington.

Tickets: £24 and £19 reserved, £14 unreserved sides.

Concert sponsored by Presto Classical

 

Leonore Piano Trio

Benjamin Nabarro violin
Gemma Rosefield cello
Tim Horton piano

Arensky Trio No 1 in D minor Op 32

Schubert Trio No 1 in B flat D898

The members of the Leonore Piano Trio met in Ensemble 360, which has been performing regularly for Leamington Music since it was founded in 2006. The Trio emerged in 2012 and since then has appeared regularly in Leamington Music Festivals and made a series of acclaimed recordings, mostly of composers deserving more exposure such as Arensky, Lalo, David Matthews, Pixis, Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev. The Leonore’s rendition of the trio by Lalo in the 2017 Festival went down very well, and this year’s offering of the first of Schubert’s sublime trios is preceded by Arensky’s wonderfully Romantic first trio from 1894.

Tickets: £16 reserved, £13 unreserved sides.

Concert generously supported by Jennifer Lorch