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In a ten-day Easter Festival, Taunton’s Castle Hotel is playing host to ten of the world’s great string quartets who will be performing all 68 Haydn string quartets including four performances of the Seven Last Words op. 51. No other performing arts centre, never mind a hotel, is undertaking a festival on this scale.
Weekend music festivals have been an important aspect of the Castle’s cultural calendar since 1977, the year proprietor Kit Chapman launched the hotel’s first musical weekend. They have been running annually ever since. In 2003 Martin Randall took over as artistic director of “Music at the Castle”. The concept of Haydn at the Castle was devised and planned by him to mark the composer’s bicentenary.
This Haydn Festival, in collaboration with Martin Randall Music Management, is the Castle’s most ambitious initiative to date. Over the Easter period the Castle will be hosting many of world’s greatest string quartets. They are: The Auryn Quartet; The Chilingirian Quartet; The Dante Quartet; The Doric String Quartet; The Endellion String Quartet; The Fitzwilliam Quartet; The London Haydn Quartet; The Sacconi Quartet; The Tokyo String Quartet and the Wihan Quartet.
Each concert (42 in all) is preceded by a brief talk from Richard Wigmore, the distinguished musicologist and Haydn authority. All the string quartets are being performed in the Castle’s Music Room – a hall ideally suited for chamber music and accommodating an audience of 140.
The four performances of Haydn’s Seven Last Words, composed by Josef Haydn for Cadiz Cathedral in 1787, are taking place in the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, Taunton.
For further information and full details, please contact:
Kit Chapman
Properietor, The Castle at Taunton
Tel: 01823 272671 Email: chapman@the-castle-hotel.com
or
Martin Randall
Martin Randall Music Management
Tel: 020 8742 3355 Email: martin@martinrandall.co.uk
Web: www.martinrandall.com
Photographs by Anita Corbin. |
