Charivari Agréable
EARLY MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT SUMMER FESTIVAL
Exeter College Chapel
Friday and Sunday, 8pm
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
It’s your last chance to catch this lovely baroque festival this weekend as it comes to a close with two final concerts. First up, on Friday night, is Game of Queens, which marks the 500thanniversary of the birth of Catherine de Medici, the Queen consort of Henry II of France, with a look at the rivalries between the queens of 16thcentury France. The programme includes music by Attaignant, Arbeau, Bataille, Caccini, Dowland and Strozzi, interspersed with contemporary correspondence and the sonnets and speeches of Shakespeare. Performers are Isobel Collyer (reader and soprano), Layil Barr (records and bass viol) and Kah-Ming Ng (virginals).
On Sunday, baroque violinist Oliver Cave and harpsichordist Kah-Ming Ng present Unarum Fidium, a collection of virtuoso violin music by Bach, Vivaldi, Francoeur, Schmelzer and Corelli. Visit www.charivari.co.ukfor full details.
Music at St Peter’s
PAPAGENA: NUNS AND ROSES II
St Peter’s Church, Wallingford
Saturday, 8pm
Tickets: https://musicatstpeterswallingford.org.uk
For anyone who’s not into classical music, this might just be the group that changes your mind. This fun, adventurous a cappella quintet – three sopranos and two altos – brings together a range of musical genres that span the centuries, from medieval music to contemporary songs, interwoven with traditional folk music from England and the Continent.
Their Nuns and Roses II programme was a hit at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival, where it was described by Fringe Reviewas “the real crème de la crème of a cappella”. The group – Lizzie Drury, Suzie Purkis, Abbi Temple, Sarah Tenant-Flowers and Suzzie Vango – is a Making Music Selected Artist for 2019-20.
Oxford Coffee Concerts
PETR LIMONOV (PIANO) & LAURA VAN DER HEIJDEN (CELLO)
Holywell Music Room
Sunday, 11.15am
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
A regular performer in Oxford, the prize-winning Russian-British pianist Petr Limonov makes a welcome return to the Holywell on Sunday with one of the rising stars of classical music, cellist Laura van der Heijden, winner of the 2012 BBC Young Musician competition. The duo’s debut recording, 1948, released by Champs Hill Records last year, earned them the prestigious Edison Klassiek award and saw Laura scoop BBC Music Magazine’s Newcomer of the Year accolade. On Sunday they will perform Chopin’s Cello Sonata in G minor, op.65and Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata in C Major, op.147, transcribed for cello.
Fred Jacobs
THE DELIGHTS OF THE THEORBO
St Mary’s Church, Wootton-by-Woodstock
Sunday, 3pm
Tickets on the door
Here’s a concert with a difference – a chance to hear a theorbo, an instrument in the lute family that developed in Italy in the late 16thcentury. Lute and theorbo expert Fred Jacobs has played in early music festivals and opera productions all over Europe, accompanied many distinguished singers and released recordings of theorbo music to international acclaim. He has been the lute and theorbo teacher at Amsterdam Conservatory since 1995. In this fascinating event, he will give an introductory talk followed by an hour-long recital of theorbo music by the 17thcentury composer Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, with a break for tea in between.
He has been the lute and theorbo teacher at Amsterdam Conservatory since 1995. In this fascinating event, he will give an introductory talk followed by an hour-long recital of theorbo music by the 17thcentury composer Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, with a break for tea in between.
By Nicola Lisle
