Cambridge Summer Music Festival opens 15 July

Summer and beautiful music come together perfectly in our city each year, with the two-week Cambridge Summer Music Festival. The Festival gives audiences the chance to hear world-class musicians performing in superb venues in and around this historic university town.

 

Trinity College Chapel is the perfect setting for the inaugural concert for the 2016 Festival on 15 July, with its beautiful acoustic and glorious 16th century architecture. Admirers of English chamber music will be particularly delighted by the opening programme, to be performed by the award-winning Schubert Ensemble (pictured). In addition to Frank Bridge's Phantasy Piano Quartet and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Piano Quintet in C minor, they will play two exciting contemporary works. The Whole Earth Dances, a new piano quintet by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and the world premiere of a new string quartet by Cambridge composer Jeremy Thurlow – commissioned by the Friends of Cambridge Summer Music and dedicated to former Festival director Juliet Abrahamson.

Saturday special

Cambridge Summer Music likes to provide something for all musical tastes and all ages, and we're getting the kids on board right from the start, with a hilarious new take on Mozart's fairy-tale opera The Magic Flute. The Classic Buskers and Neil Henry take you on an enchanting musical journey full of wonderful tunes, amazing conjuring tricks, baffling illusions and a lot of laughs – and plenty of opportunities to join in.

Saturday 16th is also the occasion for the first of the Festival's Lunchtime Concerts with Copenhagen ensemble Trio Con Brio performing Per Nørgård's piano trio The Spell, Mozart's Piano Trio in E major, and Mendelssohn's tuneful Piano Trio in D minor. Then in the evening the vaulted interior of St John's College Chapel will resound to the choral music of Mendelssohn, Harris and Vaughan Williams, alongside traditional music from New Zealand – performed by the energetic and accomplished New Zealand Youth Choir.

Words and music

Sunday and Monday evenings both feature words and music – but separated by five hundred years. First, renowned lyric tenor John Mark Ainsley with pianist Gary Matthewman will celebrate English song and the poetry of WH Auden with settings by Benjamin Britten, Lennox Berkeley and Huw Watkins (Sunday 17 July, 7.30pm, Old Divinity School, St John’s College). The following evening, The Marian Consort with actor Gerald Kyd will immerse us in the sensational world of Gesualdo, with a concert-play marking the 450th anniversary of his birth. Breaking the Rules: the imagined testimony of Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) explores the life and work of this enigmatic and tempestuous composer – remembered for the extraordinary intensity of his musical language and the gruesome murder of his wife! Please note this event is not suitable for children under 12 (Monday 18 July, 7.30pm – free pre-concert talk 6.30pm – Jesus College Chapel).

From Bach to Britten

We’re delighted to welcome back Harriet Mackenzie and Graham Walker after sold-out performances last year. In the first of two lunchtime recitals they’ll continue their exploration of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, combining solo partitas and suites with duets for violin and cello (Tuesday 19 July, 1.15pm, Clare College Chapel).

Then in the evening you can hear the dazzling skills of guitarist Sean Shibe, the first of our emerging young artists to perform this year. He has chosen a captivating programme of English music written for the legendary Julian Bream, ranging from John Dowland to Malcolm Arnold, William Walton and Benjamin Britten (Tuesday 19 July, 7.30pm, Corpus Christi College Chapel).

Virtuoso violin

There’s a double treat in store for fans of the violin. In the first of our late night concerts, Elena Urioste and Tom Poster will perform Prokofiev Sonata No.1 in F minor Op.80 and Fauré Sonata No.1 in A major Op.13, together with a selection of song transcriptions in an intimate cabaret-style evening (Wednesday 20 July, 9.30pm, Hidden Rooms, Jesus Lane).

Then Akiko Ono (winner of the 2000 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition) and Nigel Hutchison will put on a bravura display of string technique in a Shakespeare themed programme of Tartini, Ysaye, Ernst and Korngold (Thursday 21 July, 1.15pm, Corpus Christi College Chapel).

On with the new

Cambridge Summer Music has always championed new approaches to classical music, and Thursday evening’s concert is sure to challenge and inspire. The adventurous and experimental Trio Apaches (violinist Matthew Trusler, cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Ashley Wass) will join forces with percussion ensemble O Duo to present an innovative reworking of Shostakovich’s final, disquieting Symphony No.15. They’ll also play the most original versions of Rossini’s William Tell overture and Liebesnacht from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde that you’re ever likely to hear! (Thursday 21 July, 7.30pm, Trinity College Chapel).

The Festival's first week finishes in style with a beautifully-balanced piano recital by another rising star – pianist Martin James Bartlett, who shot to fame in 2014 as winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition with an electrifying performance of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Martin will be joining us just two days after his twentieth birthday to perform Mozart’s deeply emotional Sonata in A minor (K.310), three demanding Chopin Etudes and the mighty Ballade No.1, and some less familiar repertoire by Poulenc and Bax (Friday 22 July, 7.30pm, Jesus College Chapel).

The Festival continues for a further week of world-class performances, finishing on Saturday 30 July.

For details of all the concerts in this year’s Festival visit www.cambridgesummermusic.com

Book tickets online at www.cambridgesummermusic.com or

www.cambridgelivetickets.co.uk/tickets

Book tickets by phone: Cambridge Live Tickets 01223 357851 (Monday–Saturday 10am–6pm)

Book tickets in person: Cambridge Live Box Office (formerly Cambridge Corn Exchange Box

Office), 2 Wheeler St, Cambridge, CB2 3QB (Monday–Friday 12pm–6pm, Saturday 10am–6pm)

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