The Italian arts are reckoned to typify the glory of the Renaissance, yet it was principally the great Flemish musicians of the late 15th and early 16th centuries who kick-started the music of that period. Josquin des Près, Johannes Ockeghem and their contemporaries are sometimes regarded as “difficult” composers and it is true that some of their music can present rhythmic challenges. But thereare also musical textures of beguiling simplicity revealing soundscapes of sublime beauty. During this weekend, experienced recorder players will discover that the pure sonorities of their instruments will offer an ideal means to explore some of this less familiar musical territory

Winterreise – Schubert, Dichteliebe and Frauenliebe und Leben – Schumann, Vier Ernstegesänge - Brahms, Sea Pictures – Elgar, Caberet Songs and Serenade – Britten

A weekend for those who love to sing – maybe they have attended our You Too Can Sing course – and who want to find out more about their voices without the demands of choral singing. Most of the music will be sung in unison, with everyone singing the same tune, using a repertoire of well-known classical, operatic, folk and musical songs. It is hoped to include some two and three part singing and there will also be a chance for each individual to sing a solo if they wish, but the emphasis overall is on simply “singing together”.

A weekend of informal music making for those who enjoy singing in a group and have some basic musical skills. Basses, tenors, altos and sopranos are all welcome but participants are recommended to have some previous experience of singing and/or reading music.

Our chosen work for the weekend will be the Mozart “Requiem”. There will also be opportunities to develop choral skills and technique through exercises and vocal routines.

Now regarded by many as one of the most imaginative of composer geniuses, Berlioz’s reputation since his death in 1869 has had mixed fortunes. Always accepted as perhaps the greatest exponent of orchestral colour, there have been denigrators of the music. However, there were champions such as Thomas Beecham who described “The Damnation of Faust” as “a bunch of the loveliest tunes in existence”. Berlioz’s greatness is now accepted  to a point where there may be few raised eyebrows at conductor Sir Colin Davis’s judgment on  the opera “The Trojans”, as “one of the greatest creations of Western Man”. These two works will be included in an enjoyable survey of the composer’s extraordinary oeuvre using fine recordings, film and some readings from the Memoirs, thought by many to be one of the greatest and most entertaining autobiographies ever written.

From opera’s earliest days the lives of prima donnas were full of drama, and the roles written for them were tailored to their voices like the elegant costumes they wore. Many of them were treated like royalty and even today, they lead lives that seem glamorous. The soprano voice has always been of paramount importance: what would opera be without the divas? The course will examine some of the stories and legends associated with legendary sopranos past and present and the music that was written for them, the rigorous training; the problems they had in managing international careers. Composers weren’t always easy to work with, other singers could be even worse! There’ll be plenty of extracts from films and sound recordings to illustrate the information and there will be ample opportunity for discussion. No previous musical knowledge is necessary.

Written for the Christmas season of 1734, Bach’s famous oratorio has become one of the cornerstones of the Christmas concert repertoire. It comprises six cantatas each assigned to one of the major feast days of the Christmas period, beginning on the 25th December and ending with 6th January. However, as was usual with Bach in large scale choral pieces, he took the majority of the choruses and arias from works which had been written some time earlier. The unravelling of his self borrowings - as well as an in-depth study of the score as we know it - is the focus of the weekend.

With Wagner's career and subsequent reputation, opera reached the peak of its influence upon Western intellectual life, extending beyond music to the spoken drama and other literary forms, as well as to philosophy and psychology. Wagner's ideal was the perfect fusion of all the arts, in order to achieve the greatest degree of insight and truth. In “Lohengrin” (Weimar, 1850), he sought to let plot and characters evolve in a way that was dramatically convincing and musically cohesive. The mood of expressive longing is appropriate since the story concerns the knight of the Holy Grail, Parsifal's son, who descends from Montsalvat in search of earthly love, to seek, in Wagner's words, “a woman who would believe in him and love him as he was”. Thus the plot deals with that favourite preoccupation of the German Romantics, the conflict between the human world and the supernatural, and the achievement of redemption through sacrifice. Our weekend will explore the music and drama of this great opera, using illustrations from modern sound recordings and films.