The Band Of Instruments
Caroline Balding (Violin)
Jean Patterson (Violin)
Rachea Byrt (Viola)
Robin Michael (Cello)
Roger Hamilton (Harpsichord)
Carys Lane (Soprano)
Alessandro Scarlatti Nel Silentio commune di notte
Henry Purcell Fantazia
Heinrich Ignaz Biber Sonata no.9 in G from Fidicinium sacro-profanum
Henry Purcell Suite from The Fairy QueenSeason
Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
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Online Booking has closed. Tickets may still be available.
Please contact the Ticket Office 01865 305305 for information, or enquire on the door of the venue from 30 minutes before the performance. Ticket Office Opening Hours are 10am - 6pm Monday - Saturday (or until 7.30pm when there is a performance at Oxford Playhouse).
Prices: £11 (£10)
A journey through the extraordinary lives and music of 2 of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 19th century, romantic icon Liszt & reclusive genius Alkan, including Alkan’s legendary Concerto for solo piano & Liszt’s exuberant Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Season Ticket for all 9 concerts £50 available by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse Ticket Office.
Running Time: 2hrs
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Online Booking has closed. Tickets may still be available.
Please contact the Ticket Office 01865 305305 for information, or enquire on the door of the venue from 30 minutes before the performance. Ticket Office Opening Hours are 10am - 6pm Monday - Saturday (or until 7.30pm when there is a performance at Oxford Playhouse).
Prices: £15 (£18 on door)
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
TCHAIKOVSKY The Seasons
MUSTONEN Jehkin Iivana, Sonata for piano
SCRIABIN Etudes, Op. 8
The celebrated Finnish pianist, conductor and composer Olli Mustonen makes his debut at the Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival with a fascinating programme of Tchaikovsky and Scriabin coupled with his own Sonata for Piano entitled Jehkin livana. Mustonen’s brilliant technique and startling interpretations have challenged and captivated audiences throughout Europe and America.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2hrs
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
BEETHOVEN 6 Bagatelles Op. 126
HAYDN Sonata in C Hob 48
CHOPIN Impromptu No. 1 in A flat, Nocturne in F, Fantasie - Impromptu in C minor, Waltz in G flat
SCHUMANN Fantasy in C
Michael Roll piano
Michael Roll is widely considered one of Britain’s most distinguished pianists and has established a career as a
deeply probing and expressive artist. “The fact is that Roll remains one of the most perceptive and intelligent
pianists this country can claim.” The Independent
To complement the Piano Festival concert programme, the 12th Summer Academy offers over 50 hours of
masterclasses to outstandingly gifted pianists, open to the public.
Michael Roll masterclasses: Wednesday 4 August, 2.15-4.15pm and 4.30-6.30pm, JDP. Observer tickets £6 available
from 020 8450 1060
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2 hrs
THE TWO SIBYLLAS
Tales of Espionage & Intrigue associated with the two Dowager Duchesses of Württemberg, patronesses of the two musical giants of 17C Germany, Froberger and Pachelbel; also works by Couperin & Frescobaldi
A candlelit harpsichord recital by Kah-Ming Ng
'Undoubted technical virtuosity and intellectual grasp'—Early Music News
'An outstanding strategist on the harpsichord’—Goldberg
Running Time: 90min
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
Fou Ts’ong Piano
CHOPIN Marche Funebre in C minor Op. posth.
CHOPIN Contredanse in B flat major Op. posth.
CHOPIN Cantabile in B flat major Op. posth.
CHOPIN Souvenir de Paganini in A major Op. posth.
CHOPIN Nocturne in C sharp minor Op. posth.
CHOPIN 4 Mazurkas from Op. 17: Nos. 1–4.
CHOPIN 6 Etudes from Op. 10: Nos. 3, 6, and 9–12.
Following a highly stimulating and memorable recital at the 2009 Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival in front of a capacity audience, Fou Ts’ong makes a welcome return to this year’s Festival in an all-Chopin recital to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Dubbed ‘the poet of the piano’, Fou Ts’ong is famous for his deeply spiritual interpretations of works by Chopin, Schubert and Mozart.
Fou Ts’ong masterclass: Thursday 5 August, 2.15-5.30pm. Observer tickets £9 available from 020 8450 1060
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2 hrs
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SOLD OUT
Prices: £20
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E flat, ‘Eroica’
The passion, spontaneity and allure so characteristic of Cristina Ortiz’s Brazilian cultural heritage, are central to her music making. She returns for the fourth time to the Festival to appear as soloist with Oxford Philomusica in Chopin’s unmistakably romantic Piano Concerto No. 2.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2 hrs
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival welcomes every year many extraordinarily talented pianists from all
over the world. In this recital by Festival Participants, you will witness exceptional playing by pianists on the verge of
international careers.
To complement the Piano Festival concert programme, the 12th Summer Academy offers over 50 hours of
masterclasses to outstandingly gifted pianists, open to the public.
Piano Festival masterclasses: 1-8 August, 9.30am-12.45pm, 2.15-4.15pm and 4.30-6.30pm. Observer tickets £9 or
£6 available from 020 8450 1060
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2:30
Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy
BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 14 ‘Moonlight’
Sonata No. 21 ‘Waldstein’
SCHUMANN Sonata No. 1 in F minor,
Davidsbundlertanze Op. 6
András Schiff Piano
Who will ever forget the extraordinary piano recital our Festival President András Schiff gave two years ago in the stunning setting of Christ Church Cathedral? Here he is again performing in the same venue works of the core piano repertoire in what promises to be another unforgettable musical experience. Please note that on Friday 6th August, András Schiff will be giving a masterclass to three outstanding young pianists at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building of St Hilda's College: an occasion not to be missed!
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2 hrs
Tippett String Quartet
John Mills (Violin)
Jeremy Isaac (Violin)
Julia O'Riordan (Viola)
Bozidar Vukotic(Cello)
Beethoven String Quartet op.95
Borodin String Quartet no.2
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
ELIZABETH IN LOVE
The Lovers & Suitors of Queen Elizabeth I, revealed through her letters, interpolated with the sonnets of William Shakespeare, featuring Elizabeth’s Tilbury Speech; with songs & dances by Byrd, Dowland, Gibbons, Philips
CHARIVARI AGRÉABLE
Isobel Collyer — reader & soprano
Layil Barr — recorder & viol
Kah-Ming Ng — virginals
Running Time: 90min
Monteverdi: Beatus Vir
Reichenauer: Oboe concerto in F
Hertel: Trumpet Concerto No 3
A CD-launch event of the critically-acclaimed recording by The King’s Singers & Charivari Agréable of the Pachelbel Vespers
CHARIVARI AGRÉABLE SIMFONIE ET CHɶUR
Geoffrey Coates — baroque oboe
Simon Desbruslais — natural trumpet
dir. from the chamber organ by Kah-Ming Ng
Running Time: 90min
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Online Booking has closed. Tickets may still be available.
Please contact the Ticket Office 01865 305305 for information, or enquire on the door of the venue from 30 minutes before the performance. Ticket Office Opening Hours are 10am - 6pm Monday - Saturday (or until 7.30pm when there is a performance at Oxford Playhouse).
Prices: £18 (£16/£10)
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Book Tickets
Prices: £18 (£16/£10
An evening of romantic piano music, including a special celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Robert Schumann (musical selections include Träumerie from Kinderszenen, and other works) and music by Rachmaninov (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini), Gibbons and Sainsbury’s thrilling Andalusian Fantasy.
Season Ticket for all 9 concerts £50 available by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse Ticket Office.
Running Time: 2hrs
Tippett String Quartet
John Mills (Violin)
Jeremy Isaac (Violin)
Julia O'Riordan (Viola)
Bozidar Vukotic(Cello)
Scubert Quartetsatz op.95
Schubert String Quartet in A Minor
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
The Festival Circus brings the magic of the circus alive with a dazzling all-new circus spectacular for 2010! A company
of the best circus performers from around the world present a fast-moving show for all the family, with acrobatics,
trapeze, balancing, hula-hoops, acro-adagio, juggling, wire-walking, aerial skills and, of course, the circus clowns!
It's an all human show in the traditional circus style, guaranteed to delight young and old alike, with laughter,
thrills and spills!
Guidance: The performance has no adult content and is suitable for all ages. Strobe or flashing lighting is not used.
Running Time: 1:45
Jack Gibbons traces the remarkable life of Frédéric Chopin in the second of 2 recitals celebrating the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. Music includes Scherzo no.3, Polonaise Op.44, Barcarolle, Ballades, Waltzes, Studies, Mazurkas, etc.
Season Ticket for all 9 concerts £50 available by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse Ticket Office.
Running Time: 2hrs
THE SUN KING’S IDYLL
From the court of Versailles to the salons of Paris: Couperin – Telemann – Marais
CHARIVARI AGRÉABLE
Nicholas Benda — baroque oboe & oboe d’amore
Ibi Aziz — viola da gamba & treble viol
Kah-Ming Ng — harpsichord
Running Time: 90min
SUMMER SERENADE from The Oxford Trobadors. A summer evening of songs and instrumental music from the Troubadours of Southern France, and a variety of English songs. The “Oxford Trobadors” return with another “truly magnificent concert” (from comments on the website). “A very original event” - The last performance was sold out so book early.
Running Time: 2:00
Jack Gibbons, “one of the world’s greatest Gershwin exponents” (Classic FM), recreates the atmosphere of the legendary Gershwin parties of the 1920s, with music by Gershwin, Fats Waller, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Irving Berlin, etc culminating in the Rhapsody in Blue.
Season Ticket for all 9 concerts £50 available by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse Ticket Office.
Running Time: 2hrs
PERGOLESI ‘STABAT MATER’ & SCARLATTI ‘SALVE REGINA’
Chamber music by Corelli & Vivaldi
Rachael Johnson — soprano
Henry Jones — countertenor
CHARIVARI AGRÉABLE SIMFONIE
dir. Kah-Ming Ng — chamber organ
Running Time: 90min
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
A magical storm. A long plotted revenge. A whirlwind romance. Journeys of tragedy, comedy and music come full circle in Shakespeare’s late great masterpiece.
Directed in the round by renowned Wadham Alumnus Mick Gordon with music by Nick Lloyd-Webber.
The Oxford Shakespeare Company performs in the open air. We provide unreserved tiered seating with rugs available for hire. We recommend warm clothing!
Wet Weather Policy. In the event of bad weather we reserve the right to stop and start the action or move the show as necessary. The decision to cancel the show will not be taken before the scheduled start time. If a performance is cancelled for any other reason you will be entitled to equivalent tickets for any performance of the same show during summer 2010, subject to availability. Refunds cannot be given.
Family Ticket & Double show discount not available online.
Running Time: 2:00
Noël Coward’s Private Lives
OSC’s Nicholas Green, directs Coward’s classic 1930’s comedy of manners. Full of wit and razor sharp dialogue, Private Lives remains one of the most successful and popular comedies ever written.
The Oxford Shakespeare Company performs in the open air. We provide unreserved tiered seating with rugs available for hire. We recommend warm clothing!
Wet Weather Policy. In the event of bad weather we reserve the right to stop and start the action or move the show as necessary. The decision to cancel the show will not be taken before the scheduled start time. If a performance is cancelled for any other reason you will be entitled to equivalent tickets for any performance of the same show during summer 2010, subject to availability. Refunds cannot be given.
Family Ticket & Double show discount not available online.
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Online Booking has closed. Tickets may still be available.
Please contact the Ticket Office 01865 305305 for information, or enquire on the door of the venue from 30 minutes before the performance. Ticket Office Opening Hours are 10am - 6pm Monday - Saturday (or until 7.30pm when there is a performance at Oxford Playhouse).
Prices: £20
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Book Tickets
Prices: £20
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Prices: £20
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Prices: £22
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Prices: £15
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Prices: £22
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Prices: £20
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Prices: £15
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Prices: £22
The dulcet sonority of baroque woodwinds in an intimate programme from the high baroque
Bach: Flute Sonatas & Zimmermann Coffeehouse Trios
Telemann: Trio Sonata from Hamburg
Vivaldi: Chamber Concerto for Winds
CHARIVARI AGRÉABLE
Rachel Moss — recorder & baroque flute
Jane Downer — baroque oboe & voice flute
Kah-Ming Ng — harpsichord
Running Time: 90min
Christoph Denoth guitar
Elogio de la guitarra
Works by: Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fernando Sor, Leo Brouwer, Isaac Albéniz.
"..Christoph Denoth is one of the most accomplished guitarists of his
generation... "(Mario diBonaventura, Los Angeles)
"..Christoph Denoth's musicality, his stage presence and his superlative
technique are just outstanding..." (PepeRomero, San Diego)
Running Time: 2:00
A piano recital with Huw Rhys James
Huw James returns to Oxford to give a Piano Recital at the Holywell Music Room on August 21st 2010, 20 years after his debut Recital in the same location. The programme will include works by Beethoven (Moonlight Sonata), Debussy (Images), Chopin (Polonaise -Fantasie, Ballade No. 3) and Schumann (Scenes of Childhood).
He went to Vienna in 1985 to study Piano, Composition and Conducting at the Hochschule fur Musik. He started his career as a repetiteur at the Vienna State Opera, followed by appointments at the Linz Landesheater, the Vienna Volksoper and as Director of the ensemble Musikwerkstatt Wien. He is currently a Professor in the Conducting and Composition department at the Vienna Conservatoire.
As a pianist he has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician, with performances in Austria, Germany, Great Britain and China. His recent Recital tours in China were reported as:
“ An audience of nearly one thousand enjoyed the excellent performance of Huw Rhys James-----who brought us the masterpieces of famous composers-----ending with twelve times of warm applause”
Running Time: 1:30
James Lisney (Piano)
Joy Lisney (Cello)
Stravinsky Suite Italienne
Rachmaninov Cello Sonata
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
La Traviata is one of the most popular of all operas, loved for its drama, its excitement and its famous music. The social scandal, stormy love affair and doomed heroine of La Dame aux Camélias inspired Verdi to write music of matching passion and memorable melodies.
“Garden Opera, the small touring company without equal in Britain” Opera Now
Licensed bar. Garden open for picnics from 5.00 pm
£5 Child on a rug tickets available by calling 01865 305305
The Garden Opera Company will start and perform through drizzle, or stop and start to avoid showers, but in the event of heavy or continuous rain the performance may have to be abandoned, in which case we regret that we cannot offer refunds.
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Book Tickets
Prices: £25 (£5 Child Rugs available)
Award-winning pianist Jack Gibbons concludes his 23rd annual Summer Piano Series with his traditional mix of both serious and light hearted music including pieces chosen on the night by the audience. Music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Alkan, Liszt, Gershwin & Gibbons himself
Season Ticket for all 9 concerts £50 available by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse Ticket Office.
Running Time: 2hrs
Rodhes Piano Trio
Michael Gurevich (Violin)
David Edmonds (Cello)
Robert Thompson (Piano)
Haydn Piano Trio Hob XV27
Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D Minor
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
"Action and Contemplation: Franciscan Spirituality Today"
Friday 3/9 10:00 at St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LL
MISC | Third Order of the Society of St Francis
More details and ticket booking
This is a Two day conference on Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th September 2010 with Richard Rohr, OFM Both Days 10am-4.30pm
www.st-james-piccadilly.org/rohrintro.html
"The greatest vocation is not the contemplative, nor is it the active, but the utter art form of putting the two together." (Fr Richard)
Are you a social activist? Or do you prefer to remain in the background and pray or meditate for peace with justice? It’s been said that we should pray as if everything depended on God, and act as if everything depended on us. Either way, the Franciscan priest Fr Richard Rohr, who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico, tells us the most important word in that three word phrase is “and":
“And teaches us to say yes
And allows us to be both-and
And keeps us from either-or
And teaches us to be patient and long suffering
And is willing to wait for insight and integration
And keeps us from dualistic thinking
And does not divide the field of the moment
And helps us to live in the always imperfect now
And keeps us inclusive and compassionate toward everything
And demands that our contemplation become action
And insists that our action is also contemplative.
And heals our racism, our sexism, heterosexism,
and our classism
And keeps us from the false choice of liberal or conservative...
...And is the mystery of paradox in all things...”
Fr Richard will lead this challenging two-day conference, teaching the art form of holding together compassionate service grounded in a contemplative lifestyle. Sponsored by the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis - European Province.
Running Time: 6.5hr
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SOLD OUT
Prices: £40
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
Following on from their magnificent performances of Magic Flute in 2007, and Falstaff in 2008, Opera Project return to the lovely venue at St. John's College, Oxford with Mozart’s uncompromising treatise on love and fidelity. The premise of constant love is tested to the limits through the cynical manipulation of Don Alfonso as he strives to prove that the simplistic idealogies of his young companions are no more than the arrogance of youth.
Darker and more mature forces reveal themselves as a seemingly harmless wager on the constancy of love becomes an ever more dangerous game in which no character survives intact.
Mozart’s famously ambiguous ending remains one of the great challenges of opera as the participants career through an expanding array of complex emotions, each striving to find a personal resolution to this day of ill judged folly. With a strong root in Italianate design this stunning new production aims to raise more questions than perhaps it answers in Mozart’s darkest comedy.
‘directed with panache by Richard Studer and impressively conducted from the harpsichord by Jonathan Lyness’, Opera Now, Nov/Dec 2009
Opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
English Translation by Richard Studer
Director/Designer: Richard Studer
Conductor: Jonathan Lyness
Tom Carroll (Cello)
Graham Caskie (Piano)
Delius Romanze
Debussy Cello Sonata
Chopin Cello Sonata
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
The Cotswolds Through Writers' and Artists' Eyes: Readings and Images
Some writers and artists were Cotswolds-born and bred. Some fell in love with the region and settled there for life. And a few couldn't wait to get away ...
Jane Bingham will take you on a literary and artistic tour of the Cotswolds. Starting at Adlestrop station with Edward Thomas, the virtual tour will feature William Morris at Kelmscott, Stanley Spencer at Leonard Stanley, Laurie Lee in Slad, Barbara Pym in Finstock, T. S. Eliot at Burnt Norton, John Buchan in Wychwood Forest and Henry James in Broadway. There will also be a brief stop at Woodstock, to view the legend of "Fair Rosamund" through the eyes of some Pre-Raphaelite artists. Jane's talk is based on research for her recent book, The Cotswolds: A Cultural History.
With readings by Dennis Hamley.
Running Time: 1hr
A Short History of Celebrity
Love it or hate it, celebrity is one of the dominant features of modern life; yet it is one of the least understood. Fred Inglis's Short History gives an entertaining and enlightening social history of modern celebrity from 18th century London to today's Hollywood. Starting with the first modern celebrities in mid-18th-century London, including Samuel Johnson, he follows the story through to the rise of political celebrities such as Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin and the democratisation of celebrity in the post-war decades as actors, rock stars and sports heroes became objects of "the frenzy of renown."
He argues that celebrity is a mirror, reflecting some of the worst as well as some of the best aspects of modern history. He also considers how the lives of the rich and famous provide not only entertainment but also social cohesion and, like morality plays, offer examples of how - and how not - to behave.
Running Time: 1hr
A Lively Debate on a Subject that Affects us All: Food. Richard Corrigan, Rowley Leigh, Tracey MacLeod and John Walsh
Cooks, chefs, super-chefs and masterchefs - they deal in the preparation of meals every day. But do they necessarily appreciate food more keenly than the army of food critics out there, who put their creations to the test every week in newspaper reviews?
Two chefs, Richard Corrigan, of Corrigans of Mayfair and Rowley Leigh of Kensington Place and Café Anglais, will do battle with John Walsh, deceptively mild-mannered restaurant critic of the Independent, in debating the motion "Those Who Cook For A Living Know More About Food Than Those Who Eat For A Living
Chaired by the wise, subtle and no-nonsense Tracey MacLeod, Food Writers Guild Restaurant Reviewer of the Year.
Sparks will fly. Soft fruit may be hurled. Strong men will weep. And you, the audience, get to vote for the winner at the end. It’s not to be missed.
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Book Tickets
Prices: Free (must book a ticket)
Shattering the myth of the Romantic poet as a solitary, introspective genius, Daisy Hay reveals the communal existence of the astonishingly youthful circle who gathered around Percy Shelley, Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron in the decade following 1813. Her Young Romantics offers tales of love, betrayal, sacrifice and friendship, all of which were played out against a background of political turbulence and intense literary creativity.
She also reveals the central part played in the drama by Elizabeth Kent, Leigh Hunt's sister-in-law, a writer and botanist. And among the wide range of manuscript and archival sources on which she draws is a recently-discovered fragment of memoir by Claire Clairmont, who accompanied the Shelleys on their honeymoon and later became Byron's mistress.
Between 1958 and 1962, Mao Zedong threw his country into turmoil with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up and to overtake the Western World. China descended into the hell of starvation. At first the carcasses of diseased livestock were unearthed for food, but as famine tightened its grip, some people eventually dug up, boiled and ate human bodies.
Mao's experiment ended in one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known, with at least 45 million people being worked, starved or beaten to death.
Frank Dikötter is the only author to have been into the Chinese archives since they were reopened. He reveals what happened in the corridors of power, uncovers the everyday experiences of ordinary people, and gives voice to the dead and disenfranchised - recasting the history of the People's Republic of China.
Walking Tour with Alastair Lack
Biographers Sally Cline and Carole Angier, two distinguished literary biographers, offer practical advice on how we can all write our life stories. Angier and Cline provide personal tips and tales from 32 top British and American life writers, and show how style, tone and the selection of detail make the difference in writing about your own life and career.
Sally Cline is an award-winning biographer and the author of 10 books, including biographies of Radcliffe Hall and Zelda Fitzgerald. She taught for many years at Cambridge University and has an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Anglia Ruskin University, where she is writer in residence and a mentor on the MA in Creative Writing.
Carole Angier is the author of Jean Rhys: Life and Work, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and winner of the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Award. She has also written The Double Bond: A Life of Primo Levi. Carole is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, and teaches life writing at Birkbeck College, London.
Fiction and History
The first three novels in Harry Sidebottom's Warrior of Rome series have all gone top five in the UK fiction charts. The novels are action-adventure thrillers with a meticulously researched historical background, but they also raise questions and ideas more normally found in 'literary novels'. In the latest, Lion of the Sun, the corrosive effects of conscience are explored.
Harry Sidebottom, as well as writing novels, researches and teaches Ancient History at the University of Oxford. He talks to literary journalist and broadcaster David Freeman about the relationships between history and fiction.
Running Time: 1hr
Passionate, angry, transgressive and furiously eloquent, Steven Berkoff is acclaimed as a playwright, actor and director. The author of East, Greek, West and Sink the Belgrano, he has starred in films as diverse as A Clockwork Orange, Octopussy and Beverley Hills Cop, typically cast as a cold-eyed villain. At the Woodstock festival he talks to John Walsh of The Independent about his early life and the beginning of his theatrical career.
He was born in the East End two years before the outbreak of World War II, and life for the Berkoff family was tough. Relief came when his mother took him to New York to live for a while in the Bronx. On returning to London he began to misbehave at school, become involved with violent gangs, and ended up in a horrific remand home for stealing a bicycle. His life changed when he was successfully auditioned for a drama school, and was granted a scholarship.
The Quintessential Anthology of Gin . . . and Hendrick's in Particular (A most Unusual Gin Tasting at the Feathers Hotel).
Gin has come a long way since the days of Hogarth's infamous drawing and the craze of the early 1700s. Examining the history of gin and its growing popularity amongst the world's leading bartenders, Xavier Padovani explores the different techniques used by distillers to craft particular flavours. Whether gin novice or aficionado, a rare opportunity to taste the constituent distillates of the award-winning Hendrick's Gin will both surprise and delight.
Numbers limited to 20, so book now.
Matt Ridley, the acclaimed author of the classics Genome and Nature via Nurture, turns from investigating human nature to charting human progress.
Over 10,000 years ago, there were fewer than 10 million people on the planet. Today there are more than 6 billion, 99 per cent of whom are better fed, better sheltered, better entertained and better protected against disease than their Stone Age ancestors. Yet perversely, however much things improve from the way they used to be, people still cling to the belief that the future will be nothing but disastrous.
Matt Ridely offers a counter blast to the prevailing pessimism of our age, and proves that things really are getting better. He presents surprisingly simple answer to the questions of how humans progress, arguing that we move forward when we trade - and we only trade productively when we trust each other.
Food, Glorious Food: the New Tyranny?
"Why are women obsessed with food, and with being thin? Why has eating become such a tyranny for many women? Do men count the number of chocolate biscuits they eat? Do they care? Do they have any inkling that women are unhealthily preoccupied with calories and slenderness?
Come and hear three of our most observant and witty women writers talk about weight, prejudice and the social embarrassment of being marked as different, simply because of avoirdupois: Arabella Weir (star of The Fast Show) whose latest book, The Real Me is Thin, gives a hilarious account of her eating history. Novelist Kathy Lette, whose witty (and by no means sexist) analysis of the male gender, Men: A User's Guide, was a huge success earlier this year. And TV impressionist Ronni Ancona, who will chair what promises to be an hilarious hour on a serious subject. Oh, and men are welcome too!"
Running Time: 1hr
She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
In 1553, when Henry VIII's son, Edward VI, died, England was about to experience the ""monstrous regiment"" - the unnatural rule - of a woman. But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edward's death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I, came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the crown. And between the 12th and 15th centuries, three more women - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou - discovered, as queens consort and dowager, how much was possible if the presumptions of male rule were not confronted too explicitly.
Cambridge historian Helen Castor tells the fascinating story of how royal power came to lie in female hands for the first time under the Tudor Queens - and of the four women who came before them and who, whilst never reigning as monarchs, held great power nonetheless.
Running Time: 1hr
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Howard Jacobson, Chaired by Alastair Lack
Trick of the Mind
The award-winning crime writer and author of the massively successful Wire in the Blood - televised, starring Robson Green - Val McDermid talks about her latest tale of carnage and derangement, Trick of the Mind.
Set in the mysterious world of Oxford's exclusive colleges, it delves into the passions and love, family, greed and ambition that can lead a person to do strange things. A disgraced psychiatrist, Charlie Flint, finds herself drawn into a murder case when a package of press cuttings is inexplicably sent to her about a crime that has occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college.
It's a wonderfully gripping novel - come and hear the author talk about her craft.
Running Time: 1hr
Guilt About the Past
A major new non-fiction collection from the author of the international best-seller The Reader.
Bernhard Schlink's hugely successful novel The Reader has been translated into 39 languages and was recently made into an Oscar-winning film starring Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet.
A judge and law professor, Schlink talks to the Independent's Literary Editor Boyd Tonkin about his new book Guilt About the Past, and the theme of complicity in his fictional writings. He discusses the long shadow of guilt that defines the German experience, and how the events of the past can affect a nation's future.
Based on the Weidenfeld lectures he delivered at Oxford University, Guilt About the Past has been hailed as one of the most important political, personal and philosophical treatises of recent times.
Running Time: 1hr
The Finkler Question
After his hugely successful appearance at the festival in 2008, the award-winning writer Howard Jacobson (""A real giant, a great, great writer"" - Jonathan Safran Foer) returns to Woodstock to talk about his latest novel The Finkler Question - a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and the humanity of maturity.
The central characters are old school friends Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC Radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality. The two men have never quite lost touch with each other, or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick. After a sweetly painful evening of reminiscences shared by the three men, Treslove is attacked. His whole sense of who and what he is slowly and ineluctably changes, and so the tale really begins."
Running Time: 1hr
Winston's Grandmama
The first authorized biography of Winston Churchill's grandmother, Frances Anne Emily Vane-Tempest-Stewart, who became the 7th Duchess of Marlborough. Sir Winston Churchill's parental grandmother (Randolph's mother) has been a background figure in many other people's biographies - sometimes dismissed as a Victorian martinet ""at the rustle of whose silk dress the household trembled"" -- but her own story as a member of this remarkable family has never been told until now.
Frances's family background is steeped in great historical names and occasions. She was the eldest daughter of the 3rd Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry. She arrived at Blenheim in 1843 as the bride of John Winston, 7th Marquess of Blandford. Margaret Elizabeth Forster was granted exclusive access to the Blenheim archives while researching this book.
Running Time: 1hr
Philip Pullman in conversation with Martin Jennings, Chaired by Steven Parissien
The process of how a portrait is conceived and executed has always fascinated art lovers. The motivation behind the commission, the subject's aims and approach, the manner in which the artist responds to the subject, how the viewer judges the result - all these factors make the practice of creating and evaluating a portrait an endlessly intriguing exchange.
The Festival's first annual Compton Verney event features author Philip Pullman, described by the TLS as "one of the great authors in the British tradition of fantasy fiction," in conversation with sculptor Martin Jennings. Martin recently completed a sculptural portrait of Philip for the National Portrait Gallery, and these two celebrated figures will discuss how the finished work reflected their aspirations and objectives - and how their personal ambitions fit within the wider context of historical portraiture. The conversation will be chaired by the Director of Compton Verney Museum and Gallery, Dr Steven Parissien.
Running Time: 1hr
Libraries of the Future
"What next for libraries in a digital world? Will the e-book replace bookshelves? Are we leaving a digital black hole for researchers of the future? Is Google a substitute for a good library? Are public libraries dead?
The British Library is one of our greatest national institutions - holding 14m books, 920,000 journals and newspaper titles, 58m patents and 3m sound recordings. Dame Lynne Brindley DBE, Chief Executive of the British Library, gives her views on libraries in the 21st century, in conversation with Simon Kelner, Editor in Chief of the Independent. Come and hear a thought-provoking discussion on the rapidly changing role of libraries in an information age."
Running Time: 1hr
Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean
Philip Mansel's Levant is a book of cities. In conversation with David Gelber, he describes the role of Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut as windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom and, because of their mix of races and religions, challengers of stereotypes.
He brings to life their colourful, contradictory histories, from the beginning of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century to their decline in the mid 20th century, and describes how Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in cities until states reclaimed them for nationalistic purposes.
Running Time: 1hr
Mated on a Plate: The Joy of Flavours
Come and hear three leading cookery writers discuss the art of food combination: the subtle marriage of meat and herbs, fish and spices, fruit and savouries sometimes produces astonishing, transcendent new experiences on your taste buds. Chris Hirst is the author of Love Bites, a tender gastronomic saga of fruitful kitchen battles with Mrs H. Rose Prince writes regularly for the national press and is the author of The New English Table. And Niki Segnit's first book, The Flavour Thesaurus, an encyclopaedic study of what goes best with what, was published earlier this year to great acclaim. Their mouth-watering deliberations will be chaired by John Walsh, the Independent's assistant editor and resident glutton.
Running Time: 1hr
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which he moved are places of extremes - of cardinals and whores, prayers and violence, all of which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes vividly.
Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women from his own desperate life as his models to embody his depictions of classic religious scenes. Graham-Dixon shows very clearly how Caravggio created their drama, their immediacy and humanity, and how completely he departed from the conventions of his time
Running Time: 1hr
This Party's Got to Stop
Rupert Thompson, one of our finest novelists, turns his superb story-telling skills on himself, giving us a funny, frank and moving memoir, considered by many to be the finest book of his career.
In conversation with The Independent's Literary Editor, Boyd Tonkin, it is an irreverent, but honest portrait of a family dealing - or not dealing - with loss and grief. It's also a healing journey, and an account of one family's haphazard attempt to know itself, following the death of their father and their return to the family home.
"Very funny. Rupert Thomson is such an attentive writer, and the quality of his attention brings the smallest incidents to life" - Hilary Mantel.
Running Time: 1hr
Peter Snow - To War with Wellington: From the Peninsula to Waterloo
7pm reception for 7.30pm. Black Tie
Dinner in the Presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO
Preceded by a reception in the Duke of Marlborough's beautiful Italian Gardens, this year's Festival dinner is again staged in Sir John Vanbrugh’s Orangery. The dinner menu, based on dishes served in 1815, the year of Waterloo, has been researched by food historian and writer, Anne Menzies.
Our speaker is Peter Snow - one of Britain's most respected journalists and broadcasters. Peter was ITN's diplomatic defence correspondent. He presented BBC's Newsnight and was a legendary part of election nights' coverage for a generation.
This evening he will talk about his new book To War with Wellington. The Duke of Wellington's march from the coast of Portugal to victory at Waterloo in 1815 is one of the most spectacular military achievements in British Military history. Peter has drawn on first hand accounts by officers and men to describe life on and off the battlefield - the dreadful marches, the primitive state of medicine, the looting and drunken parties. Towering over all is Wellington, the Commander - but also the generous host, the huntsman and the ladies man.
Marcus Berkmann and Angus Fraser, Chaired by Brian Viner
Join us in the wonderful setting of the King's Arms atrium for a breakfast of coffee, juice, smoked salmon with scrambled eggs or eggs Benedict. Hear Independent sports columnist Brian Viner talking about the forthcoming Ashes series with his illustrious guests: the journalist and bestselling author Marcus Berkmann (Ashes to Ashes) and the celebrated former England cricketer Angus Fraser, who played in three Ashes series.
This event will finish at 11.00am
Running Time: 1:30
Transformational Leadership - Lessons from Shakespeare's The Tempest
A rare chance to work with one of the leading international leadership development consultants in the world, Nicholas Janni.
Olivier Mythodrama (established by Richard Olivier - son of Laurence Olivier - and Nicholas Janni, Director of Strategic Partnership Programmes) have gained an international reputation training senior leaders in the private and public sectors using Shakespeare stories as case-studies.
Shakespeare's genius provides timeless insights into the human nature of transformational leadership, while the narrative drive of this great play reveals the vital ingredients of a successful change initiative.
You will work with "The Tempest" to gain timeless insights into the nature of personal and organisational transformation. The session will include some experiential exercises and time for discussion.
Book early as places are limited.
The Boy Who Bit Picasso
An Introduction for Children to the Art of Picasso
When Antony Penrose was three years old he was lucky enough to meet and become friends with Pablo Picasso, the greatest artist of the 20th century.
Tony - the son of the American photographer Lee Miller and the British surrealist artist Roland Penrose - recalls the many happy hours he spent with Picasso at their family farm in Sussex, and in Picasso's house and studio in France. His memories include pretend bullfights on the floor, playing in Picasso's messy studio, being given a drawing as a consolation for not being allowed to visit him -- and the time he sank his teeth into the Spanish maestro.
For children aged 4 upwards.
Running Time: 1hr
The Reuters/Press Gazette launch of the Newspaper Hall of Fame listed Dame Ann Leslie as one of the 40 most influential journalists of our time. She has reported on the most dramatic events of the late 20th century, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to Nelson Mandela's walk to freedom. Steve McQueen, David Niven, James Mason and Salvador Dali were just some of the famous figures with whom she had close (sometimes too close) personal encounters. She regularly appears on television and radio shows, including Question Time and Any Questions.
Come and enjoy lunch at La Galleria in the heart of Woodstock, and hear Ann Leslie talk about her life and the people she's met in her long and rumbustious career.
Running Time: 1hr
Gardening Women - Their Stories from 1600 to the Present
From Flora, Roman goddess of plants, to today's horticulturalists at Kew, women have always ruled in the garden. They have grown vegetables from their kitchens and herbs for their medicine cupboards. They've been the subject of footnotes in horticultural annals, for specimens they collected abroad. They taught young women about gardening 25 years before women's horticultural schools officially existed, and their influence on the style of our own gardens - frequently unacknowledged - survives to the present day.
Catherine Horwood has uncovered some extraordinary gardening women. We discover that Beatrix Potter was barred from submitting research to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew because she was a woman; and that the Bramley apple should be called the Brailsford apple because it was first planted by Mary Ann Brailsford who later sold her home to a Matthew Bramley. Catherine Horwood will talk about the circumstances - always unusual, sometimes bizarre - that led these women to the garden.
Running Time: 1hr
My Father's Fortune
The award-winning author and playwright Michael Frayn talks about his father's life.
"An unknown place" -- this was what Frayn's children called the shadowy landscape of the past from which their family emerged. In My Father's Fortune, Frayn sets out to rediscover that lost land before all trace of it finally disappears beyond recall. As he tries to see it through the eyes of its inhabitants - his parents and some of the others who shaped his life - he comes to realise how little he himself ever knew or understood about them.
This is the story of his father, the quick-witted boy from a poor and struggling family, who overcame disadvantages and shouldered many burdens to make a go of his life; who found happiness, had it snatched away in an instant, and in the end, after many difficulties, perhaps found it again.
Michael Frayn's 15 plays range from the delirious farce Noises Off to the epic encounter between two quantum physicists in Copenhagen. His most recent novel Spies won the Whitbread Novel Award.
Running Time: 1hr
Woodstock and the Royal Park
Woodstock and the Royal Park has been published to celebrate the 900th anniversary of a stone wall around a royal park. Today we know this Park as the Unesco World Heritage site of Blenheim and the adjacent town as Woodstock. The royal Manor House has long gone but the Park, although no longer royal, remains. Monarchs from Alfred to Anne owned and walked on this stage but many of their actions here are not widely known. Join John Banbury, one of three editors of the book, as he takes you back 900 years and reveals the story of Woodstock and Blenheim and the affect they had on ordinary people. It's a story with a cast of great names and tremendous events.
Running Time: 1hr
The Hemlock Cup
We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism, "The unexamined life is not worth living" may have originated 25 centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life. Socrates lived and contributed to a city that nurtured key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought - yet he wrote nothing in his lifetime and remains an enigmatic figure.
Television historian and bestselling author of Helen of Troy, Bettany Hughes, tells the story of Socrates's life, following his footsteps across Greece and Asia Minor and examining the new archaeological discoveries that shed light on his world. For 70 years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but his beloved Athens turned on him and condemned him to death by poison. Socrates's pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear, but which must be told. Nobody tells it better than Bettany Hughes.
Running Time: 1hr
Chasing the Devil - The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirits
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been bedevilled by a uniquely brutal culture of violence from which many of Africa's cruellest contemporary cliches have sprung - child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars now officially over, Tim Butcher set out on a journey across both countries. Just as he followed H M Stanley through the Congo in order to write his bestseller, Blood River, he now pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935, and immortalised in the travel classic Journey without Maps.
As a journalist in Africa, Tim came to know both countries well, although the wars meant that trips to the jungle hinterland became far too risky. But he persevered, knowing that he had to explore the jungle to see if the devil of war had truly been chased away. What he encountered were other devils - masked figures guarding the spiritual secrets of jungle communities. His book is a record of a dramatic journey to one of the most fraught parts of the globe, at a unique moment in its history.
Running Time: 1hr
Yoluma and the King
The artist James Naughton, renowned for breathtaking, Turneresque landscapes which capture the essence of light, has now written and illustrated a children's book.
Yoluma and the King is a mysterious tale of a young boy's journey to overcome adversity and regain self-confidence. Written in the style of a fairy tale, its message is universal and optimistic: ultimately good overcomes evil, and light overcomes darkness. The sepia-coloured illustrations have the same timeless quality about them.
For children aged 8 years upwards
Running Time: 1hr
Tastings from the The Settler's Cookbook
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's family history is one of constant displacement and repeated relocation, in which feeling "settled" doesn’t come from putting down roots, but from taking up a pot and creating a feast that tastes and smells like home. The Settler's Cookbook follows her family story and brings it to life, describing the food they cooked together. Yasmin presents a cultural and culinary history of her people, full of recipes and stories passed on and shared around, which continue to feed and inspire friends and relatives to this day. Yasmin will cook some of her family recipes for you to taste, and will tell of the memories each dish evokes.
Running Time: 1hr
The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe
Award-winning novelist Andrew O'Hagan discusses his work with Sarah Crompton, Arts Editor of the Daily Telegraph and reads from his new book, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog.
Maf the dog was Marilyn Monroe's constant companion for the last two years of her life. His licence and photographs were sold at auction along with Marilyn's other personal effects. He was much more than a canine pal, however: he was also a scholar, witnessing the rise of America's new liberalism, civil rights, the space race and the New York critics.
The story of Maf is a hilarious and highly original peek into the life of a complex canine hero. Through his eyes, you'll be given unique insights into the life of Monroe herself, and into one of the most extraordinary periods of the twentieth century.
Running Time: 1hr
David Aaronovitch, Kevin Maguire and Paul Staines, Chaired by Ann Leslie
In an era of 24-hour news and the internet, have conspiracy theorists and online gossips begun to distort the news agenda? Has healthy scepticism now turned into a poisoned cynicism which damages the body politic?
Discussing this issue are the Times columnist David Aaronovitch, author of Voodoo Histories: the Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History; the highly influential Paul Staines whose political blog "Guido Fawkes" is much feared by politicians; Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor (Politics) of the Daily Mirror, who also writes the Village Voice column on "high politics and low life in Westminster" for the New Statesman, and is co-author of Great Parliamentary Scandals.
The award-winning foreign correspondent and political commentator Dame Ann Leslie will chair the discussion.
Running Time: 1hr
The Jumping Rocks
Mark Ryder will talk about The Jumping Rocks, a novel he wrote from his screenplay of the same name, which he plans to shoot in Italy later this year. It's the story of an Englishman and his family, who arrive to spend the summer with some friends on the Italian Riviera. But the idyllic surroundings mask terrible secrets. A nightmare slowly ensues. Tragic events peel back the thin veneer of normality in two English families, to reveal their fragile grasp on reality.
Ryder will discuss the strange journey the book took, and his battle to get the film made. It takes in Rome, Portofino, London - and its origins, when he was working as a composer in Los Angeles.
Running Time: 1hr
The Hare with Amber Eyes.
In association with The Woodstock Bookshop
Artist Edmund de Waal travelled the world, standing in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited, in order to discover the story of a unique collection of wooden and ivory carvings - the netsuke. He first encountered them in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie: 264 pieces, depicting animals, plants and people, none of them larger than a matchbox. Later, when he inherited the collection, he discovered it unlocked a fascinating story.
Bought by Charles Ephrussi as a wedding present for his cousin in Vienna, it remained banished to the bride's dressing-room. But during the Second World War, the collection was smuggled out of his cousin's Viennese palace (then occupied by Hitler's theorist on the "Jewish Question,") one piece at a time, in the pocket of a loyal maid.
Edmund de Waal will tell the story of this unique collection which passed from hand to hand - and which, in an ironic twist of fate, found its way home to Japan.
Running Time: 1hr
Hugh Trevor-Roper, and the Feud with Evelyn Waugh
Clever, witty and sophisticated, Hugh Trevor-Roper was the most brilliant historian of his generation. Until his downfall, he seemed to have everything: wealth and connections, a chair at Oxford, an aristocratic wife, and, eventually, a title of his own.
He developed a lucid prose style which he used to deadly effect. He was notorious for his acerbic attacks on other historians. But ultimately he destroyed his own reputation with a catastrophic error when he authenticated the forged “Hitler Diaries”.
Award-wining biographer Adam Sisman reveals that there was much more to Trevor-Roper's career than the Diaries fiasco that became his epitaph. From wartime code-breaking to grilling Nazis when the trail was still fresh in 1945, to his snobbery, his malice and his formidable post-war feud with Evelyn Waugh.
Running Time: 1hr
My Last Duchess
Daisy Goodwin is one of the nation's greatest promoters of poetry through her books and television series. In conversation with Simon Kelner, Editor in Chief of The Independent, she launches her debut novel My Last Duchess - a story full of exquisite period details and a phalanx of historical characters.
The heroine, American heiress Cora Cash, has grown up in a world in which money unlocks every door, yet her fortune cannot buy her the one thing she craves - the freedom to choose her own destiny. Cora's mother has her heart set on a title for her daughter. Impoverished English blue-bloods are queuing up for introductions to her - but Cora loses her heart to a man she barely knows.
Running Time: 1hr
Did Labour's Demise result in a Hung Parliament?
"For the first time in 36 years, a general election resulted in no overall majority and a battle to see which leader could form a government. Was the demise of Labour inevitable? Did Gordon Brown lose an election that Labour might have won had he departed sooner? Was a Lib-Lab coalition ever thought to be a likelihood? How effective is the Lib-Con coalition after five months, and will it hold together for five years? What are the implications for Britain?
These questions will be discussed by Polly Toynbee, the Guardian columnist and writer (The Verdict; Did Labour Change Britain?), Steve Richards, TV presenter and chief political columnist for The Independent (Whatever it Takes; The Inside Story of GB and New Labour), and Peter Hennessy, English historian of government, award winning author and journalist.
Running Time: 1hr
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
Must You Go?
"Must You Go?" were the first words Harold Pinter said to Antonia Fraser, as she prepared to leave a dinner party one night in 1975. She didn't go. It was the beginning of one of the great love affairs, that ended 34 years later with Pinter's death in 2009. This book is based partly on Antonia Fraser's diaries which she has kept since October 1968; she began them because she suffered from withdrawal symptoms after finishing her first historical biography, Mary Queen of Scots.
Lady Antonia talks about her life with Pinter, revealing an insightful testimony to modern literature's most celebrated marriage, between the greatest playwright of the age and a beautiful and famous, prize-winning biographer.
Running Time: 1hr
Courtiers - The Secret History of Kensington Palace
"In the 18th century, talented and ambitious people flocked to Kensington Palace in search of power and prestige, only to find it was a gilded cage and a bloody battlefield.
Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces. She presents an eye-opening group portrait of the royal servants who inhabited Kensington Palace during the early 18th century: they include the feral "Wild Boy," the hermit of the royal gardens and the Bedchamber Woman. Her book throws new light on the dramatic life of George II and Queen Caroline - a lover murdered, snatched babies, horrific illnesses and tearful deathbed reconciliations - while satisfying our greedy curiosity about backstairs life in the Hanoverian court.
Running Time: 1hr
Ancient Worlds - The Search of the Origins of Human Civilization
Richard Miles talks about his forthcoming book which accompanies a BBC2 series on Ancient Worlds, to be aired during the autumn. In his quest for the origins of our civilization, he recreates the ancient cities of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta: cities that defined culture, religion and economic success and were humanity's greatest invention, yet also had a cruel edge to them. And building systems that provided backbreaking hardship and amazing results.
Richard will also discuss his most recently published book, Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilisation, a spectacular account of the generations-long battle for supremacy between Carthage and Rome.
Running Time: 1hr
A Tribute to Colin Dexter at 80
Colin Dexter will be 80 in September and 2010 also marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of his first Inspector Morse novel Last Bus to Woodstock.
To mark these landmarks, the Festival is organising a tribute to Colin. On the morning of Sunday 19 September, a special Stagecoach bus will draw up to the Randolph Hotel in Oxford - setting for so many Morse encounters - to collect Colin, his family and friends for the journey to Woodstock and Blenheim Palace. There, in the Orangery, Colin will talk about his life, career and writing.
Sponsored by The Oxford Times with The Macdonald Randolph Hotel and Stagecoach
Running Time: 1hr
The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945 - 2010
Peter Hennessy's new edition of his landmark book The Secret State completely revises his original picture of the Soviet threat, as it was successively presented to ministers from the last days of the Second World War right up to the 1970s.
He is able to do this thanks to extraordinary new material from the most secret of Whitehall's Cold War files, including the War Book for World War II, and details of the transition to war exercises that tested it.
Peter Hennessy, one of our most distinguished historians, maps out the size and shape of the Cold War state built in response to that threat, traces the arguments used to justify the British nuclear capability, and finds civil defence bunkers deep under the Cotswolds to shelter Britain's elite rulers from attack. He brings us up to date by explaining the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee and the protective "counter-terror" state that was formed in response to the threats presented by radical Islamic terrorists after September 11, 2001.
Running Time: 1hr
Italy's Private Gardens: An Inside View
Helena Attlee and her photographer husband Alex Ramsay have been visiting Italian gardens, photographing them and writing about them, for two decades.
In recent years Helena has been leading garden tours to Italy, arranging for clients to enjoy lunch with the gardens' owners, chat with them and discuss designs with landscape architects.
These excursions are the inspiration for Italy's Private Gardens, a book built around conversations with people intimately associated with some of Italy's most intriguing private gardens situated in Piedmont, the Veneto, Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria and Sicily. Helena talks to Victoria Summerley, Executive Weekend Editor of The Independent.
Running Time: 1hr
Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45
The pre-eminent military historian Max Hastings presents Winston Churchill as he has never been seen before, by looking at him from the outside in, through the eyes of British soldiers, civilians and newspapers - and also through the eyes of Russians and Americans. Hastings paints a wonderfully vivid image of Churchill in both triumph and tragedy, and points just how low his popularity fell in 1942, amid an unbroken succession of battlefield defeats.
Finest Years is an intimate and affectionate portrait of Churchill as Britain's saviour, but it is also an unsparing examination of the wartime nation that he led.
Running Time: 1hr
The International Baroque Players present outstanding period instrument performance by talented young musicians from all over the world. The Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century provided Londoners from all walks of life with evenings of multi-sensory entertainment. Food, wine, music and visual spectacle provided respite from the crowded city. In this programme, IBP will perform an eclectic programme of eighteenth century popular hits by Handel and Arne, alongside beautiful and rare repertoire by Avison and Boyce. On this occasion the ensemble will be directed by up-and-coming harpsichordist Christopher Bucknall who recently toured as a concerto soloist with Rachel Podger and works extensively in baroque opera and chamber music. For these concerts the IBP also welcome talented soprano Mary Bevan (“when she opened up her high register…the effect was ravishing” The Independent).
By kind permission of the Vicar and PCC
Running Time: 2:15
Season Ticket Price: FULL - £117 & Concession - £104
Free Admission To Children between the ages of 10 and 5 When Accompanied By An Adult.
Please note we do not allow Children under the age of 5.
Running Time: 1:00
This second teatime concert by The Holywell Ensemble and OXUS again spans the centuries and continents. Haydn’s delightful D minor quartet, with its poignant slow movement and gypsy-themed finale precedes a rare chance to hear Steve Reich’s powerful minimalist work Different Trains for string quartet with pre-recorded tape accompaniment. Brahms’s beautiful clarinet quintet closes the concert. An enriching way to spend your Sunday afternoon.
Running Time: 2hrs
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 2hrs
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 1hr
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 2:15
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 1hr
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 2hrs
Oxford Chamber Music Festival 10 - White Nights Nordic Jam
Friday 1/10 21:45 at Vaults & Gardens, & Old Library, University Church of St Mary the Virgin
Classical Music | Oxford Chamber Music Foundation
More details and ticket booking
Ticket includes 2 course supper and wine
Running Time: 90min
Includes buffet brunch
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 2hrs
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor
Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
The Vespers of 1610 is a monumental work in the history of Western music. Monteverdi's spectacular writing for choir and orchestra, with colourful use of sackbutts, cornetts, theorbo and soloists is as spell-binding today as for the work's first audiences. It will no doubt have many anniversary performances, but Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s return to the work with which the Monteverdi Choir's unparalleled career began, is surely the one to catch. Music at Oxford is privileged to join forces with Wadham College, also celebrating its 400th anniversary, to bring one of the most enduringly magnificent works of the seventeenth century to Oxford.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:30
Book 4+ OCMF10 events and get 10% discount by calling 01865 305305
Free tickets are available for students/children through the Cavatina ticket scheme by calling 0845 652 0762 or emailing office@ocmf.net
Running Time: 2hrs
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
PART ONE 6.30 – 7.35pm
BACH Suite No.1 in G major BWV1007 (19')
BACH Suite No.2 in D minor BWV1008 (21')
BACH Suite No.3 in C major BWV1009 (23')
Interval 1
PART TWO 8.00 – 8.50pm
BACH Suite No.4 in Eb major BWV1010 (24')
BACH Suite No.5 in C minor BWV1011 (23')
Interval 2
9.10 – 9.45pm
BACH Suite No.6 in D major BWV1012 (32')
(Part One and Part Two must be booked separately)
Bach’s Cello Suites are arguably the best music ever written for the cello. Every cellist makes their own mark on the various miniature masterpieces that make up the splendid, contemplative whole, and this evening’s is one of the best interpreters. Come and sample an after-work performance or as many parts as you like and design your evening to suit your listening appetite.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 50min
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
PART ONE 6.30 – 7.35pm
BACH Suite No.1 in G major BWV1007 (19')
BACH Suite No.2 in D minor BWV1008 (21')
BACH Suite No.3 in C major BWV1009 (23')
Interval 1
PART TWO 8.00 – 8.50pm
BACH Suite No.4 in Eb major BWV1010 (24')
BACH Suite No.5 in C minor BWV1011 (23')
Interval 2
9.10 – 9.45pm
BACH Suite No.6 in D major BWV1012 (32')
(Part One and Part Two must be booked separately)
Bach’s Cello Suites are arguably the best music ever writeen for the cello. Every cellist makes their own mark on the various miniature masterpieces that make up the splendid, contemplative whole, and this evening’s is one of the best interpreters. Come and sample an after-work performance or as many parts as you like and design your evening to suit your listening appetite.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:00
Alasdair Malloy presenter
Awesome Al, the cabin boy of our Pirate Ship welcomes you aboard this suitably swashbuckling seafaring adventure. From the stirring sounds of Leroy Anderson's Pirate March to the spectacular finale where everyone learns The Sailor's Hornpipe, this is an unforgettable voyage through uncharted waters in search of a treasure trove of musical gems. Hear about the pirates hiding their treasure in Fingal's Cave, head off Over the Waves to the Caribbean and sing about the Jamaican Rumba. Encounter Cap'n Jack Sparrow in music from the Pirates of the Caribbean films and test your nautical knowledge in our quiz Nautical Notes.
Come dressed as a pirate for the pre-concert craft activities from 2pm. Concert suitable for ages 4 – 8 but the whole family is welcome.
In partnership with Oxford City Council
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 1:10
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 in E minor, ‘From the New World’
Tatiana Kolesova piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Oxford Philomusica
Russian pianist Tatiana Kolesova, finalist in the Leeds International Piano Competition when she was only 15, has been attending the Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival and Summer Academy regularly since 2000. We are therefore delighted that she will be making her debut with Oxford Philomusica performing Chopin’s 1st Piano Concerto where her extraordinary pianistic talents will be in full display. Chopin’s poetic and deeply moving work is complemented by Dvořák’s ‘The New World’ Symphony, a work that employs European folk music to evoke the composer’s emotional response to Native American music.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
To view the seating plan please click HERE
Running Time: 1:50
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Book Tickets
Prices: £37 / £26 / £17.50 / £10
Season ticket for all 6 concerts in the 2010/2011 Oxford Chamber Music Society on the following dates: 31 October, 21 November, 16 January, 6 February, 13 March, 10 April.
See individual website entries for full programme.
Running Time: 2hrs
Haydn in G Hob XV:25 ‘Gipsy Rondo’
Mendelssohn no 1 in D minor opus 49
Dvořák no 3 in F minor opus 65
The Sitkovetsky Piano Trio comprise three young musicians who met and worked together at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Formed in 2007, they have already received numerous awards and critical acclaim.
Running Time: 2hrs
MOZART Clarinet Concerto in A major
MOZART The Requiem Mass in D minor
Mark Simpson clarinet
Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford
Stephen Darlington conductor
Oxford Philomusica orchestra
This concert on Armistice Day features two great masterpieces Mozart composed in 1791, the final year of his life. The Clarinet Concerto, played by the 2006 BBC Young Musician of the Year Mark Simpson, is complemented by a performance of the Requiem by the Christ Church Cathedral Choir under their Music Director Stephen Darlington as a fitting tribute to the war dead.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
To view the seating plan please click HERE
Running Time: 1:45
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Book Tickets
Prices: £37 / £26 / £17.50 (partial view) / £10 (no view)
Chapel Series
Sally Pryce harp
Adam Walker flute
Programme to include works by Mozart, Faure, Bach, Jean-Michel Damase and Debussy.
The combination of flute and harp is in many ways a perfect marriage, yet is heard surprisingly rarely in the concert hall. Adam and Sally’s programme could not better showcase their instruments, ranging from the understated sophistication of Bach to the colour and charisma of Debussy.
Book all 3 events in the Chapel series and get 10% discount, or book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount, by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Jerusalem Quartet
Mozart String Quartet K175
Mendelssohn Quartet Op 44/2
Brahms Quartet No 1 Op 51/1
One of the most vibrant international chamber music ensembles to emerge in recent years, The Jerusalem Quartet includes Oxford in its new tour of top European venues. They perform three works which are central to the quartet repertoire and represent some of each composer’s best writing. Whether you know then or not, this quartet will certainly bring something new and fresh to such well-loved classics.
With the generous support of Ruth & John Deech; Sandra and Raymond Dwek; Zvi and Ophra Meitar; Alison and Simon Ryde
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:15
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Book Tickets
Prices: £40 / £26 / £18 (Partial View) / £10 (No View)
Haydn in G op 54 no 1,
Ireland no 1 in D minor.
Beethoven in F opus 135
The Maggini Quartet is one of the finest British string quartets, both in performance and through award winning recordings. They have sold more than 100,000 discs, and won several individual awards.
Running Time: 2hrs
Geoffrey Hopkins returns to the J.D.P. to perform the complete Chopin Études: 12 Études Bk.1. Op.10, 12 Études Bk.2. Op 25, 3 Novelles Études.
Running Time: 1:30
BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D
Nicola Benedetti violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Beethoven wrote his only violin concerto in 1806. It quickly fell into obscurity after a disastrous premiere, but has long since become a staple in the instrument’s repertoire. Nicola Benedetti, the 2004 BBC Young Musician of the Year, joins the Philomusica for tonight’s performance. Brahms’ autumnal 2nd Symphony is one of his later works, characterised by a distinctively nostalgic lyricism. Sponsored by Raymond and Sandra Dwek
YOUNG ARTISTS PLATFORM, 6.30pm
Free access for evening concert ticket holders
Directing from the keyboard Masterclass with Marios Papadopoulos
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23 in A
Alissa Firsova piano, Oxford Philomusica
Music Director Marios Papadopoulos is this year’s Honorary Fellow of The Worshipful Company of Musicians. As such, he has undertaken a number of projects in association with the Company to assist young musicians. One of these features a brilliant musician, Alissa Firsova, in a Directing from the Keyboard masterclass offering an unparalleled opportunity for a wonderful young artist to play and conduct a professional orchestra and receive guidance on this aspect of music-making that she is interested in pursuing as a career. In association with The Worshipful Company of Musicians
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2hrs
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Book Tickets
Prices: £37 / £26 / £17.50 / £10
Albanian virtuoso Alda Dizdari and renowned pianist Sholto Kynoch perform Brahms' three sonatas, pinnacles of the romantic repertoire. From the serene but passionate first sonata (G major), to the autumnal lyricism of the second (A major) to the drama and turbulence of the third (D minor), these works are among Brahms' finest output. Also included in the programme is the fiery C-minor Scherzo, Brahms' contribution to the FAE sonata, a present from Brahms, Schumann and Albert Dietrich to the great violinist Jospeh Joachim.
Running Time: 2hrs
Chopin Piano Recital to celebrate the composer's 200th anniversary
CHOPIN Barcarolle in F sharp major
CHOPIN Nocturne in C sharp minor
CHOPIN Ballade No. 3 in A flat major
CHOPIN Mazurka A minor No. 2
CHOPIN Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor
CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor
Marios Papadopoulos piano
Marios Papadopoulos, a leading pianist of his generation, performs a solo recital to celebrate Chopin’s bicentenary. The programme features some of Chopin’s most popular works alongside a selection of his lesser-heard masterpieces. The evening will conclude with the composer’s epic Third Sonata, one of his most substantial compositions in any genre.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2hrs
Christmas Concert
Featuring the music of Howard Goodall
Howard Goodall conductor
EMMY- and BAFTA-winning composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall leads tonight’s concert, which boasts a unique Christmas theme. Come and welcome in the Festive season with a wide array of yuletide favourites, bound to entertain the whole family at this special time of year.
Children £1: Book child tickets in the Upper Gallery for only £1 on 020 8450 1060.
Pre-concert activities from 6.30pm and FREE activity pack.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2hrs
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Book Tickets
Prices: £37 / £26 / £17.50 / £10
Christ Church Cathedral Choir
Stephen Darlington director
Jean Marsh reader
Take a break from the incessant rush and bustle of shopping, parties and preparations and stop awhile. The evening’s event is the start of Christmas for many of the regular audience, a chance to link into the spirit of Christmas through inspirational words and music from across the centuries performed in this stunningly majestic and spiritual of venues. Tickets sell out every year, so do book early.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:15
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Book Tickets
Prices: £40 / £26 / £18 / £10 (No View)
-
Book Tickets
Prices: £40 / £26 / £18 / £10 (No View)
Traditional Viennese New Year’s Concert
ROSSINI Barber of Seville Overture
PROTO Carmen Fantasy for double bass and Orchestra
STRAUSS Waltzes, Marches Polkas
Thomas Martin double bass
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
The shoebox-shaped Oxford Town Hall with its opulent decor is reminiscent of Vienna’s illustrious Musikverein. What better setting for our annual Viennese New Year’s concert where all the traditional Waltzes, Marches and Polkas by the Strauss family will usher in the New Year. The first half of the concert features Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Frank Proto’s virtuosic Carmen Fantasy, a work that makes extraordinary demands on the double bass soloist, performed by the Philomusica’s Principal Thomas Martin.
To view the seating plan please click HERE
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 2hrs
Martinu’s Viola Sonata
Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor opus 15
Dvořák’s Piano Quartet no 2 in E flat
The Phoenix Piano Trio was reformed in 2009 by Sholto Kynoch (founder of the Oxford Lieder Festival). Ylvali Zilliacus is a soloist and chamber musician in her own right.
Running Time: 2hrs
Elizabeth Kenny
Theatre Of The Ayre
Rachel Podger violin
Clare Salaman violin
Galina Zinchenko viola
Alison McGillivray bass violin
Pamela Thorby recorder
Kate Latham recorder
Merlin Harrison recorder
Elizabeth Kenny theorboe/guitar
David Miller theorboe/guitar
Ayres from John Blow's Amphion Anglicus, 1700 Welcome, welcome every guest; Go, perjured man; Cloe found Amintas Lying all in Tears
Instrumental music by Robert de Visée and Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Ayres from Michel Lambert's Livre d'Airs de Cour, 1689
Il est vrai, l'amour est charmant; Vos mespris chaque jour me causent des alarmes
John Blow Venus & Adonis (Purcell Society’s new edition by Bruce Wood)
Written to intrigue the court of Charles II at the height of its opulence, John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, newly edited for the Purcell Society, is performed by a specially assembled group of the UK’s most accomplished performers of the baroque. The entrancing story of love and loss is told in a form which lies somewhere between masque and opera. Theorbo, guitars, voices and recorders bring to life a lost masterpiece from the teacher who inspired Henry Purcell.
Pre-concert talk at 6.30pm given by Elizabeth Kenny
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
BAROQUE SERIES
ALBINONI Adagio
HANDEL Organ Concerto
VIVALDI La Tempesta di Mare
BACH Brandenburgh Concerto No. 5
Soloists of Oxford Philomusica
Tamás András violin/director
Following his highly successful rendition of Vivaldi’s and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons last May in front of a capacity audience in the Sheldonian Theatre, Philomusica leader Tamás András returns to direct another concert of Baroque masterpieces. From the solemnity and dignity of Albinoni’s Adagio, the staggering virtuosity of Vivaldi’s ‘La Tempesta’, to the eclecticism and innovation of Bach’s enigmatic 5th Brandenburg Concerto, tonight’s concert presents a kaleidoscope of all that characterizes the music of the Baroque era.
YOUNG ARTISTS PLATFORM, 7pm
Free access for evening concert ticket holders
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ Scherzo
EUGENE BOZZA Trois Impressions
LUCIANO BERIO Sequenza
PAUL TAFFANEL Fantaisie sur le Freischutz
Claire Wickes flute
Claire Wickes dazzled the panel when she auditioned for the Young Artists Platform,featuring, this time, music students from the University of Oxford. Do not miss a great opportunity to witness an outstanding talent with a wonderful career ahead of her.
To join Oxford Philomusica’s mailing or e-list please click HERE
Running Time: 90min
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Book Tickets
Prices: £37 / £26 / £17.50 / £10
Nielsen in G minor opus 13
Thomas Adès’ Arcadiana
Beethoven’s opus 127 in E flat major
The Danish Quartet, formed in 2001 won the London International String Quartet Competition in 2009, is now undertaking tours in the UK and Germany and has recorded all the Nielsen quartets on DaCapo.
Running Time: 2hrs
Paul Lewis piano
Schubert Sonata for Piano no.15 in C D840
Schubert Drei Klavierstücke D946 No.1 in E flat minor
Schubert Drei Klavierstücke D946 No.2 in E flat Major
Schubert Drei Klavierstücke D946 No.3 in C major
Schubert Sonata for Piano no. 17 in D major D850
The first of three performances this season in Paul Lewis’s exploration of the works of Franz Schubert. Available dates have been snapped up by concert promoters across the world. We are fortunate to have secured appearances here.
Please note the series discount if you book for performances on May 27 and June 17 too.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:00
Mae Heydoorn mezzo soprano
Sholto Kynoch piano
Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder will be the main work in this programme, with songs by Schubert, Grieg, Stenhammar & others.
Mae gave a wonderful but all too brief lunchtime recital in Oxford in 2009. We all agreed that we must bring her back with accompanist Sholto Kynoch, creator of the Oxford Lieder Festival, to share more of the romantic European and Scandinavian repertoire for which her warm, rich voice is perfect. Join us to enjoy a full evening in the company of two remarkable performers in a little known gem of an Oxford chapel.
Book all 3 events in the Chapel series and get 10% discount, or book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount, by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Probably the world’s greatest living classical guitarist, John Williams has worked with legendary musicians throughout his long career, from du Pre to Previn to Paco Pena. A guitarists’ guitarist, he is still busy with concerts throughout the world. This evening’s programme will be a charismatic cocktail of dazzling showpieces and contemporary classics.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Gabriel Faure Requiem
James MacMillan Seven Last Words from the Cross
A concert featuring Oxford’s premier large choir and one of the country’s prominent chamber orchestras in a programme showcasing two stunning choral works. Faure’s Requiem is deservedly one of the most popular works in the repertoire and James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross is a work widely admired as one of his finest achievements, promising an absorbing and moving evening.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:00
Bruckner Intermezzo
Mozart K.593 in D
Mendelssohn 2nd Quintet
The Fine Arts Quartet is one of most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, receiving numerous international awards. Toby Hoffman is an international viola soloist, chamber musician and conductor.
Running Time: 2hrs
Telemann Fantasia in F minor
Bach Sonata in A minor
Biber Passacaglia
Bach Partita in D minor
This evening is frankly an experiment and we would like to know what our audience thinks of it. It’s certainly not a musical experiment (there could hardly be a better chance of total enjoyment than to hear Rachel Podger in solo works of Bach and Biber) but we will try a new seating lay-out in the Sheldonian, putting our star performer at the centre of an intimate, in-the-round lay-out. There isn’t a bad seat in the house.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Bridge’s Three Idylls for String Quartet
Bliss’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings
Berkeley’s Sextet for Clarinet, Horn and String Quartet
Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet
The Berkeley Ensemble formed by London musicians champions British music alongside mainstream repertoire.
Running Time: 2HRS
‘Passion and Resurrection’
Lenten choral masterworks by Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, Tallis and Victoria. Stile Antico are Gramophone Award winners and Grammy nominated. Working as chamber musicians without a director, they bring intensity and passion to their interpretation of early music. Unmissable.
Running Time: 1:30
Rachmaninov The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
Tenebrae’s unique choral palette equips it perfectly for Rachmaninov’s setting of one of the most solemn rites of the Orthodox Church. This is a follow-up to the group’s powerful performance of the Vespers at Christ Church which was remarkable. Enjoy candlelight and an intense musical experience.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:15
Peter Phillips Director
Benjamin Nicholas Director
In the beginning - Gabriel Jackson (written for Merton 2009)
Lugebat Absalom - Gombert
When David heard - Whitacre
When David heard – Weelkes
Nunc Dimittis - Holst
Nunc Dimittis - Palestrina
Nunc Dimittis – Lukaszewski
In the beginning - Aaron Copland
We are very glad to begin an annual association with Merton to track the development of Oxford’s newest choir, instituted at Merton Chapel in 2009. It is already one of the most exciting choral ensembles in the city, with a strong commissioning programme and outstanding leadership in the shape of Peter Phillips, founder and director of the Tallis Scholars, and Ben Nicholas, director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey. Music by Palestrina, Whitacre, Holst and Gabriel Jackson.
Pre-concert Talk at 7pm. Peter and Ben will discuss the ideas behind the creation in of the choir and its work to date.
Co-promotion with Merton College
Book all 3 events in the Chapel series and get 10% discount, or book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount, by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Hear classical stars in the making showcased in a day of recitals plus a finale evening concert. In the fourth year of this successful concert project, we welcome back pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Levon Chilingirian as mentors to our emerging classical stars.
Beyond the superb music, bask in the beautiful riverside grounds, browse the art exhibition, hear insightful musical guest speakers and indulge in the delicious food on offer. And of course no Oxford festival would be complete without lawn games!
(Each recital must be booked separately)
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined.)
Hear classical stars in the making showcased in a day of recitals plus a finale evening concert. In the fourth year of this successful concert project, we welcome back pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Levon Chilingirian as mentors to our emerging classical stars.
Beyond the superb music, bask in the beautiful riverside grounds, browse the art exhibition, hear insightful musical guest speakers and indulge in the delicious food on offer. And of course no Oxford festival would be complete without lawn games!
(Each recital must be booked separately)
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined.)
Hear classical stars in the making showcased in a day of recitals plus a finale evening concert. In the fourth year of this successful concert project, we welcome back pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Levon Chilingirian as mentors to our emerging classical stars.
Beyond the superb music, bask in the beautiful riverside grounds, browse the art exhibition, hear insightful musical guest speakers and indulge in the delicious food on offer. And of course no Oxford festival would be complete without lawn games!
(Each recital must be booked separately)
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined.)
Hear classical stars in the making showcased in a day of recitals plus a finale evening concert. In the fourth year of this successful concert project, we welcome back pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Levon Chilingirian as mentors to our emerging classical stars.
Beyond the superb music, bask in the beautiful riverside grounds, browse the art exhibition, hear insightful musical guest speakers and indulge in the delicious food on offer. And of course no Oxford festival would be complete without lawn games!
(Each recital must be booked separately)
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined.)
Hear classical stars in the making showcased in a day of recitals plus a finale evening concert. In the fourth year of this successful concert project, we welcome back pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Levon Chilingirian as mentors to our emerging classical stars.
Beyond the superb music, bask in the beautiful riverside grounds, browse the art exhibition, hear insightful musical guest speakers and indulge in the delicious food on offer. And of course no Oxford festival would be complete without lawn games!
(Each recital must be booked separately)
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined.)
Mark Padmore tenor
Paul Lewis piano
Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin Op 25
The second of our Paul Lewis/Schubert series. This is sure to be a benchmark interpretation of one of the great feats of the Romantic imagination. The opportunity to hear it live should not be missed.
Pre-concert talk at 7.00pm given by Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis, free to all ticket-holders.
Please note the series discount if you book for performances on February 11 and June 17 too.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:45
Paul Lewis piano
Schubert Twelve Waltzes D145
Schubert Four Impromptus D899
Schubert Hungarian Melody in B minor D817
Schubert Sonata for Piano no.18 in G major D894 (1826)
The last of three performances this season in Paul Lewis’s exploration of the works of Franz Schubert. Available dates have been snapped up by concert promoters across the world. We are fortunate to have secured appearances here.
Please note the series discount if you book for performances on February 11 and May 27 too.
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 1:30
Christian Vasquez conductor
Natalie Clein cello
Elgar Serenade for Strings
Elgar Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4
Graham Pye Memorial Concert
It’s a delight to welcome the Philharmonia back to the Sheldonian for a spectacular season finale. They bring with them one of the world’s most exciting conductors, Christian Vasquez, fresh from his triumphs with the extraordinary Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. With the invariably popular Natalie Clein and a marvellous programme, this will be a sell-out. You are advised to book in good time.
Sponsored by Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Book 6 or more events in the Music at Oxford Season Oct 10 – June 2011 and get 15% discount by calling 01865 305305 or in person at Oxford Playhouse. (Please note different discounts cannot be combined)
Running Time: 2:30
Tickets Oxford is managed by Oxford Playhouse.
