Our Shakespeare in Music Festival fundraiser last weekend was a great success. A packed audience listened to Martyn Bond, chair of the festival’s trustees, tell us all about what will be going on in Stratford in April – and then we were then serenaded first by Bloomsbury Baroque….
And then by Imogen Emmet and Laura Moisey Grey of the Painted Fall, all of whom will be playing at the festival.
After which every one fell to with a will on what I have to admit was a fairly spectacular array of cheeses!
If you want to know more about the festival – or if you missed the party but would still like to become a Friend, check in to the festival site.
Between April 20th and 23rd you can listen to Jacobean madrigals, compare two Dark Ladies of the Sonnets, find out about Shakespearean drinking songs, and Shakespearean music for ‘broken consort’, listen to jazz settings of Shakespeare’s words, to Michael Dobson on William Walton, Laurence Olivier and Henry V, to a full lute song programme focused on Old Father Time, an organ recital – and Shakespeare in Rap! And lots more…
Meanwhile…
The 2026 London Handel Festival kicked off on Wednesday with another packed out performance – this time at Sinfonia Smith Square. Christopher Purves, Hugh Cutting, Linard Vrielink and Emoke Barath in Saul, one of the greatest of Handel’s oratorios.
Next up, tomorrow night, what will be an amazing recital with Rachel Podger, Hilary Cronin and Jonathan Cohen in Neun Deutsche Arien, at St George’s Hanover Square. And then on Sunday, if you were lucky you might get a return for Mr Handel and his Merry Musicians at the Foundling Museum – ‘a new programme exploring music composed by Handel and his contemporaries for the illustrious musicians of Handel’s orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket’.
For all details about the rest of the programme and to book tickets see the festival site here.
And… Not yet quite booked out but nearly…
11th March – Beethoven Trios
Joana Ly, Kirsten Jenson and Dorothea Vogel play Beethoven string trios – Opus 9, no.1 & 2. Followed by a buffet supper as usual.
Book here for 11th March.
But…. 23rd March – Noel Coward – the Master.
I am afraid that it is waiting list only for The Master. Put yourself on the waiting list here.
But looking ahead….
28th April – From the aulos to the oboe, the lyre to the concert harp – with Melinda Maxwell and Hugh Webb
Much more to come in a future post but if you are curious, check in here.
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