The Oxford 'Early Music by Candlelight' Summer Festival 2024
7.30pm 7 July — 25 August 2024
Exeter College Chapel, Turl Street, Oxford University OX1 3DP
New festival programme announced end of May '24 — please scroll down for last year's.
Charivari Agréable's annual summer festival is the highlight of Oxford's cultural cornucopia
'Every series consists of six or so different programmes, repeated several times each. Ng picks pieces to fit a theme, and then chooses ensembles from among his enormous pool of talented musicians, with readings or introductions which tie the pieces together. They're laid back and professional, irreverent yet learned, and make for an evening that's both calm and stimulating. It is a pleasing irony that these concerts are Oxford institutions, organised by someone with such an international background: Ng was born in Malaysia and came to Oxford by way of Melbourne and Frankfurt.' — Daily Info Oxford
She Loves Me Not
Unrequited Love — Forlorn Hope — Rejection — Thwarted Trysts
Marking the quatercentenary of Prince Charles’ diplomatically disastrous courtship of the Infanta Maria (a.k.a. the Spanish Match), the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, and the death of iconic English composer William Byrd in 1623, with sonnets (2, 57 & 152), speeches, extracts from Cymbeline and Love’s Labour’s Lost, and anecdotes from the reigns Elizabeth I & James I, featuring Elizabeth's rousing Tilbury speech. Music by Byrd, Dowland, Ortiz, Playford, incl. our distinctive interpretation of the haunting Gaspar Fernandes villancico 'No haya más'.
Charivari Agréable
Isobel Collyer—reader & soprano
Layil Barr—recorders & bass viol
Kah-Ming Ng—virginals
She Loves Me Not: £17, £15 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Songs of Syrinx
The beguilingly beautiful pairing of two dulcet winds
Vivaldi (Concerto for 2 flutes), Bach (Trio in G major BWV 1039)
Telemann (Tafelmusik), Handel, Locatelli, Quantz
Charivari Agréable
Mafalda Ramos—traverso & recorder
Dan Watts—baroque flute
Kah-Ming Ng—harpsichord
Songs of Syrinx: £17, £15 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
The Prince and the Pauper
The sonorous yet uncommon pairing of 2 gut-string instruments of
opposing pedigrees: leisured aristocrats vs professional fiddlers
Becker—Buxtehude—Krieger—Marais—Schmelzer—Telemann—Rameau
Charivari Agréable
May Robertson—baroque violin
Sarah Small—viola da gamba
Kah-Ming Ng—harpsichord
The Prince & the Pauper: £17, £15 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
The Songbird Ascending
Sacred Music from Venice to Vienna
Monteverdi (Salve Regina), Porpora (Avis Canora in Fronde)
Vivaldi (Nisi Dominus), Sonate da chiesa by Albinoni, Caldara & Legrenzi
Charivari Agréable
Charlie Morris—alto
Edmund Taylor—baroque violin
Christopher McClain—baroque violin
dir. Kah-Ming Ng—chamber organ
The Songbird Ascending: £20, £19 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Feuding Friends
Keyboardists in Conflict
Bach vs Marchand | Scarlatti vs Handel | Handel vs Mattheson | Gabrieli vs Merulo |
“no chance” Finger vs “no contest” Pachelbel
A candlelit harpsichord recital by Kah-Ming Ng
'Dazzling display of keyboard prowess'—The Independent
'Undoubted technical virtuosity and intellectual grasp'—Early Music News
Feuding Friends £15, £14 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Attend unto my Tears
Salve for the Soul
Lotti (Requiem), JE Bach (De Profundis), Bull (Attend unto my Teares)
A. Scarlatti (Salve Regina), Purcell (Funeral Sentences)
Charivari Agréable
Olwen Lintern Smyth—soprano
Henry Kimber—countertenor
Colin Danskin—tenor
Francis Brown—bass
dir. Kah-Ming Ng—chamber organ
Attend unto my Tears: £20, £19 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Tickets in June from The Oxford Playhouse, Beaumont Street OX1 2LW, Tel: 01865-305305, or at the door (cash only)