November 2008       

Our 2009 tours are booking quickly. There are still places available on : The RNCM Chamber Music Festival in Manchester is dedicated to Music in Vienna from Schubert to Schoenberg. The Endellion Quartet and Jane Manning are among the artists and we can attend the NYO concert at the Bridgewater Hall (Strauss An Alpine Symphony) (7-12 January). Haydn and the other anniversary-composer Mendelssohn feature in András Schiff's Vicenza Festival in concerts given in the incomparable setting of Palladio's Teatro Olimpico. We start in Venice and attend a performance of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Teatro la Fenice (29 April-5 May). A Haydn TRIOthalon at Eisenstadt with piano trios, string trios, flute trios and bartyon trios by Haydn and includes the 1909 works written by French composers in honour of Haydn and premieres of similar works commissioned this year. Richard Wigmore accompanies our party (30 April - 4 May) The Eisenstadt Haydn Memorial Days tour includes a day where we visit the place Haydn was born and where he died 200 years ago with a recreation of the Requiem Mass in the church where his funeral took place. The Creation is performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer with Thomas Quasthoff among the soloists. Talks are given by Prof Denis McCaldin of the Haydn Society (27 May-1 June) Wagner's Ring in the Budapest Palace of Arts conducted by Adam Fischer over four evenings in a "semi-staged" production that impressed everyone in 2008. It is being repeated again with a cast of the finest Wagner singers around, and we have secured seats in the front row (and others) for our tour which is accompanied by Michael Kennedy (10-15 June). The Schubertiade at Schwarzenberg always brings together the cream of singers and instrumentalists and this year is no exception. Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finlay, Matthias Goerne, Robert Holl, Thomas Quastoff and Andreas Scholl are among the singers and pianists include Till Fellner, Paul Lewis and András Schiff. We stay in a lovely small hotel in a peaceful valley setting. We are offering two tours and it is possible to stay for both (17-22-28 June). We are planning a return to Heinrich Schiff's Mondsee Musiktage in its beautiful lakeside setting (29 August - 7 September) - register now for details when available. We first took a party to Eisenstadt for the anniversary exhibition in 1982. We helped establish the September festival and have seen the Iron Curtain fall and watched the restoration of the Esterházy Schloss and the summer palace in Hungary. The International Haydn Festival features Haydn's London opera L'animo del filosofo, the first appearance of Colin Davis with the ECO and of course the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. Introductory talks by Richard Wigmore (21-27 September). This years Indian Summer festival in Eastern Slovakia was enjoyed by all. Next year there are two recitals by the Vienna Piano Trio and the Budapest Baryton Trio and Slovak Chamber Orchestra appear. (2-7 October). Please email, call or write to reserve a place on any of these holidays.