The Oxford 'Early Music by Candlelight' Summer Festival 2025
7.30pm Wednesday 9 July — Sunday 24 August 2025
Exeter College Chapel, Turl Street, Oxford University OX1 3DP
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
Please scroll down for programme synopses/details and links to tickets.
NB: tickets also available at the door (cash only).
Programme synopses + Links to buy tickets
In Envy of the Night
Dark Deeds twixt Dusk and Dawn
An enthralling narrative of witchcraft in court intrigues, domestic terrorism and foreign policy in Tudor and Jacobean England. In an age when the boundary between science and sorcery is fluid, we recall aspects of the dealings of polymath alchemist Dr John Dee, illuminated with readings from contemporary correspondence, as well as sonnets and speeches from Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Tempest, and illustrated with
music by Byrd, Gibbons, Farnaby, Lawes, Tomkins, incl. our unique re-imagining of the
haunting ballad The Three Ravens and the masque song In Envy of the Night.
Charivari Agréable
Isobel Collyer—reader & soprano
Layil Barr—recorders & bass viol
Kah-Ming Ng—virginals
Sunday 20 July, Tuesday 29 July, Friday 22 August 2025: £17, £16 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
[Sunday 6 July cancelled]
Double-reed Delights of Dresden
Virtuosic wind music from baroque Saxony
Vivaldi—Bach—Heinichen—Fasch—Telemann—Zelenka
Charivari Agréable
Kate Bingham—baroque oboe & recorder
Angelika Stangl—baroque oboe
Matthew Lewis—baroque bassoon
Kah-Ming Ng—harpsichord
Wednesdays 9 July, 23 July, 30 July 2025: £18, £17 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Salve Regina
Dramatic settings of this poignant Marian antiphon by
George Frideric Handel, Nicola Porpora, Claudio Monteverdi & Heinrich Schütz
with church sonatas by Johann Rosenmüller & Antonio Vivaldi
Charivari Agréable
Charlie Morris—contralto
Edmund Taylor—baroque violin
Matthew Millkey—baroque violin
Kah-Ming Ng—chamber organ
Tuesday 15 July, Friday 1 August, Wednesday 20 August 2025: £20, £19 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Divertissement Spirituel
A Tercentenary jubilation of France’s first public commercial subscription concert series
The Concert Spirituel provided entertainment during religious holidays when staged performances were banned. It immediately became a prestigious avenue for composers and virtuoso performers, as well as an important cornerstone in the development of both sacred choral and secular instrumental genres. This programme highlights the latter with iconic works by the most significant composers associated with the series.
Pierre Danican Philidor: Suite in C op.1/3
Louis-Antoine Dornel: Suite en Trio in A op.1/2
Jean-Fery Rebel: Les Elémens, excerpts
Georg Philipp Telemann: Paris Quartets #1 TWV43:G1 & #3 TWV43:A1
and excerpts by Jean-Marie Leclair, Jean-Baptiste Antoine Forqueray & Jean-Philippe Rameau
Charivari Agréable
Gabriel Alves/Dan Watts—baroque flute & recorder
Fernando Santiago—baroque violin
Pablo Gutiérrez—viola da gamba
Kah-Ming Ng—harpsichord
Sunday 27 July, Wednesday 6 August, Sunday 17 August 2025: £18, £17 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Anne's Amorous Ayres
Chamber Music in Stuart England
Two queens called Anne bookended the Stuart dynasty: Anne of Denmark (d. 1619, consort of King James I), and her great-granddaughter Queen Anne (of the Oscar & Bafta-winning film ‘The Favourite’). English composers such as Byrd, Dowland, Purcell, and Locke flourished under the Stuarts, as did such émigrés as Matteis, Baltzar and Handel.
Thomas Tomkins: A Verse of 3 parts
John Dowland: Mr Collier his Galiard
William Lawes: Ayre and Almain
Henry Purcell: Sonata XII Z.801 & Chaconne Z.807
Matthew Locke: Broken Consort Set #4
William Byrd & Thomas Baltzar: Divisions on ‘John come kiss me’
Nicola Matteis: Aria Amorosa
George Frideric Handel: Trio sonata op. 2/6 HWV391
Charivari Agréable
May Robertson—baroque violin
Hannah Parry—baroque violin
Sarah Small—bass viol
dir. Kah-Ming Ng—harpsichord
Friday 25 July, Sunday 3 August, Friday 15 August 2025: £18, £17 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
De Profundis
Moving and contemplative choral masterpieces which serve as salve for the soul
Antonio Lotti: Requiem aeternam
Antonio Scarlatti: Salve Regina
Johann Ernst Bach: De profundis
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: De profundis H222
Heinrich Schütz: Erbarme Dich SWV148
Henry Purcell: Man that is born of a woman
Charivari Agréable
Olwen Lintern Smyth—soprano
Pete Dockrill—countertenor
Will Anderson—tenor
Ben Watkins—bass
dir. Kah-Ming Ng—chamber organ
Friday 18 July, Friday 8 August, 24 August 2025: £20, £19 (seniors), £10 (students <25)
Tickets also available at the door — cash only