2023 Festival On Sale

May 15, 2023

Vienna: A Musical Legacy

Welcome- Willkommen!

I am delighted to share with you this exciting array of concerts and events, many of which celebrate the significant musical heritage of Vienna. Our richly varied programme, from baroque and classical masters to jazz, improvisation, contemporary and folk, will be given by outstanding, internationally renowned, award-winning and rapidly emerging artists.

We launch the festival with Dame Evelyn Glennie and the New London Chamber Ensemble in a trail-blazing concert. Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Melvyn Tan return to LDSM for a mini-residence, performing the complete sonatas and variations of Beethoven together with some Viennese gems, and in addition they will lead intensive masterclasses for our resident LDSM students.

Chamber ensembles include the acclaimed Chiaroscuro & Sacconi Quartets and multi award-winners, the Barbican Quartet, and the Mithras and Paddington Trios. Renowned pianist, jazz/classical composer Gwilym Simcock will give a solo late-night performance and another partnered by the Sacconi Quartet and friends. We also return to Brantwood for two solo violin concerts ‘Inspired by Bach’ given by rising star Maria Gîlicel.

Once more we offer a range of popular family events – indoor and outdoor – with 2 village walks, creative workshops, opportunities to play alongside our artists, and to experience the children’s folksong event at the Docks Museum, led by the superb Lizzie Ball whose virtuosic and versatile band will also perform their unmissable ‘Classical Kicks’ programme in Kendal.

Look out also for the mini-tour given by folk duo The Apple Sellers who will be raising money for the ‘Save Ruskin’s View’ appeal.

Embedded within the festival are a dozen student musicians whose musical journey you can share via our acclaimed series of masterclasses. Their residency includes not only their invaluable festival debut ‘Kaffe und Küchen’ concerts, but as part of our developing Academy Programme, unique opportunities to perform alongside our premiere artists and mentors.

The final concert, introducing the specially created LDSM Chamber Ensemble, pays homage to the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen – the Society for Private Musical Performance, created in Vienna in 1918 to promote ‘comprehensible performances of newly composed music available to genuinely interested members of the musical public’, which presented larger works in chamber ensemble arrangements. This concert will recreate that format, offering a programme of famed works by Johann and Richard Strauss, Korngold, Berg and Mahler- his Fourth Symphony, with its sublime concluding vision of heaven ending the concert and the festival.

I wish to thank everyone who has generously supported this festival – in whatever way – and in doing so, support the future of live music making in these often-precarious times.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Stephen Threlfall
Artistic Director

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