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Trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch – Friday 2 May

Trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch
Hagai Shaham violin | Arnon Erez piano
Raphael Wallfisch cello

Ben-Haim   Variations on a Hebrew Melody
Shostakovich   Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
Ravel   Piano Trio in A minor

 

Festival favourite Raphael Wallfisch brings his Trio back to Leamington for the first time since 2015 when they delighted our audience with all of Brahms’ wonderful piano trios. The Trio have performed, broadcast, and recorded widely throughout Europe, Canada, and Israel including concerts in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, and Spain.

Composed in his ‘Mediterranean Style’ – a blend of Mizrahi-Jewish, Bedouin, and Arabic folk music conjuring a local national colour – Paul Ben-Haim’s Variations on a Hebrew Melody open the concert. We then continue celebrations of Shostakovich in the 50th year after his death and hear our first work of Ravel’s in this Festival, celebrating 150 years since his birth.

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9pm

Tickets:
Centre section: £28 full price | £3 child/student
Side sections: £18 full price | £9 under-35s | £3 child/student

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Generously supported by Diane Holt and Peter Robinson

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

Ben Goldscheider (horn) & Richard Uttley (piano) – Monday 6 May

Kofron   Horn Sonatina

Mahler   Urlicht from Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Janáček   On an Overgrown Path selections

Kaprálová   April Preludes  

Punto   Adagio from Horn Concerto No 5

Beethoven   Horn Sonata in F Op 17

 

Ben Goldscheider’s stunning performance in the final concert of the 2023 Festival, plus his family’s Czech background, made an invitation to return inevitable. Finalist in the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2016, he plays regularly now in leading continental concert halls and with major orchestras, including his BBC Proms debut in 2022. Richard Uttley, Ben’s regular recital partner, comes to Leamington for the first time.

Generously supported by Stan & Helen Ireland

£18 | £12
(£1 children / students)

Imogen Whitehead (trumpet) & Oliver Hancock (organ) – Monday 6 May

Dvořák   Song to the Moon from Rusalka
Eben   Okna
Smetana   Vltava from Má vlast
Hummel   Trumpet Concerto in E flat

 

One of the big successes in the Warwick & Leamington Midsummer Music Festival after lockdown in 2021 was a recital at Holy Trinity Church when Imogen Whitehead played Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in what is now the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, and he succeeded Haydn at the Court of Esterhazy in 1804 – a year after he completed his Trumpet Concerto. Petr Eben’s major work, Okna, was inspired by the glass windows created by the painter Marc Chagall.

Imogen again teams up with Oliver Hancock, Director of Music at St Mary’s Church in Warwick.

Tea, coffee and cake on sale from 10.30am and straight after the recital.

Generously supported by the Friends of All Saints Music

Free entry | Retiring collection

Martinů String Quartet / Vilém Veverka (oboe) / Martin Kasík (piano) – Sunday 5 May

Martinů String Quartet
Lubomír Havlák violin and Adéla Štajnochrová violins
Martin Stupka viola, Jitka Vlašánková cello
with Vilém Veverka oboe 
and Martin Kasík piano

Bohemian Pot Pourri

Martinů   Quartet for oboe, violin, cello & piano H315
Haas   Suite for oboe and piano Op 17
Klein   Wiegenlied
Smetana   From My Homeland
Dvořák   Silent Woods Op 68
Dvořák   Humoreske Op 101 No 7
Dvořák   Terzetto in C Op 74
Martinů   Mazurka-Nocturne H325

 

Imagine being part of a relaxed Sunday evening in a spacious drawing room in a palace in Prague and enjoy, with the Festival’s Czech musicians in residence, an eclectic mix of works ranging from Dvořák’s ever-popular Humoreske, to some lesser-known Martinů for discovery, and other well-chosen bonbons.

Generously supported by Hugh & Jane Beale, Malcolm & Jenny Burns, and Jennifer Lorch

£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)

Talk: The Low-Beer Story – Sunday 5 May

Leamington Town Hall

 

Daniel Low-Beer talks about The Low-Beer story behind Schindler’s List and the Brněnec project. In association with the Friends of Czech Heritage. Donations to the project welcome.

Tickets: £8

Includes tea and cake served afterwards

Simon Wallfisch (baritone) & Iain Farrington (piano) – Sunday 5 May

Mahler   Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Haas   Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
Ullmann   Two Chinese Songs
Korngold   Der Kranke Op 38 No 2
Suk   Longing from Spring Op 22a
Janáček   Andante from In the Mists
Dvořák   Gypsy Songs Op 55

 

Simon Wallfisch returns to Leamington for the first time since 2016 for this recital and to repeat his memorable performance of Terezín Ghetto Requiem. In 2022, for BBC Radio 3, he curated and sang in a programme of works by Terezín composers at the Barbican. Last year he made his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he now lives. Leamington Music is delighted to welcome the distinguished pianist and composer Iain Farrington here for the first time.

£18 | £12
(£1 children / students)