The Gran Partita is one of Mozart’s greatest works, written in 1781 at the height of his powers. It is laid out on the largest scale, with the richest harmonie scoring…

A pre-concert talk by Professor Richard Andrews of the University of Leeds

We begin The Monteverdi Project, our extended cycle of performances of Monteverdi’s major works, with his last masterpiece, written and performed in the final year of his life…

A pre-concert talk by Michael Lowe, master luthier

The theorbo is the largest and most sonorous member of the lute family, with an extended neck, two sets of strings and two peg-boxes. In this solo recital, Fred Jacobs pairs Kapsberger and de Visée, two of the greatest seventeenth-century composers for the theorbo.

This entertaining lecture recital on double-reed instruments brings the sound world of the courts and cities of Mediaeval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe vividly alive. Music by Landini, Machaut, Josquin, Praetorius, Purcell, Telemann and others

A pre-concert talk by Richard Maunder

The first half of the concert is a contribution to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, exploring music written for his plays by Arne, Linley, Storace, Bishop and Mendelssohn. In the second half, we hear Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, reconstructed by Richard Maunder in Mozart’s late style. The result is a fascinating new insight into a familiar masterpiece.