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Our newest UK Music Festival takes place in the Garden of England, at the elegant Chilston Park Hotel on the edge of the Kent Downs. This is a verdant corner of the country, with vineyards, orchards and great gardens such as Sissinghurst, as well as a long coastline – we shall make excursions to both. The music will be provided by the Carducci Quartet, who will also discuss the works and their musical lives in a series of talks with Kirker’s Barry Cheeseman.
We will include two excursions. The first is to the Turner Gallery in Margate, proof that a single building can help regenerate an entire area. Designed by David Chipperfield, the gallery was built on the site of a boarding house which the artist visited, and overlooks the sea and the famous beach. We will also see the long-running exhibition Anthony Gormley: Another Time with its 100 solid cast-iron statues. We also visit Sissinghurst to see the garden created by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. Sissinghurst is famous for its series of garden rooms, copied by gardeners all over the world. We will return to the hotel from both excursions in time for tea, followed by talks with the musicians prior to each performance.
The tour is based at the Grade I listed 17th-century manor house in Chilston between Maidstone and Ashford. The hotel is set in 22 acres of parkland with rooms in the main house or in the Mews building. All rooms are elegantly and comfortably furnished and the hotel’s restaurant, Culpeper’s has a good reputation. Concerts will be held in the former stables building across the courtyard. Chilston is just off the M20, between Maidstone and Ashford, and you can travel by train from London Victoria to Lenham station, or from both London St Pancras and Brighton to Ashford. The taxi journey will be approximately £20 from Lenham and £30 from Ashford.
...when you travel with Kirker
Our prices are per person, based on the shared occupancy of a twin/double room. Supplement for single occupancy as shown.
Supplement for Manor House Double: £90
Manor House Executive Double: £144
Mews Junior Suite: £180
Feature Period Room: £270
Manor House Suite: £480
Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire.
During 2015 they presented a number of complete cycles of the 15 quartets composed by Shostakovich – this won them the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in May 2016. Engagements during the 2016 season include performances at the Presteigne Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival, at the Frick Collection in New York and at Wigmore Hall. The Carducci often take part in the Kirker series of music festivals both on land and at sea.
6 May
Mozart: String Quartet in C K465 ‘ Dissonance’
Ravel: String Quartet
Arvo Pärt (1935-): Summa
The Estonian composer is one of the most successful composers of recent times. Summa was originally composed for an a cappella choir in 1977 and arranged by the composer for string quartet in 1991.
7 May
Beethoven: String Quartet in F minor, Op.95 ‘Serioso’
Shostakovich: String Quartet No.1 in C major, Op.49
Shostakovich wrote 15 quartets, and they have all been recorded by the Carducci Quartet. They have chosen to play the first quartet composed in 1938.
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op.13
8 May
Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op.20 No.4
Rebecca Clarke: Poem
The English composer, Rebecca Clarke was born in London in 1886 and was also a much-lauded viola player. Her string quartet, Poem, was first performed in 1926. She died in New York in 1979.
Mozart: String Quintet in G minor, K 516
Simon Rowland-Jones joins the quartet for this work.
Quartet
Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire.
During 2015 they presented a number of complete cycles of the 15 quartets composed by Shostakovich – this won them the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in May 2016. Engagements during the 2016 season include performances at the Presteigne Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival, at the Frick Collection in New York and at Wigmore Hall. The Carducci often take part in the Kirker series of music festivals both on land and at sea.
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