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Our annual visit to Olga Polizzi’s fabled Hotel Tresanton in St.Mawes combines a relaxing spring escape in Cornwall with a series of world-class chamber music recitals, and is a highlight of the Kirker calendar. Performances in 2021 will be given by the Maxwell Quartet. In addition to the wonderful music on offer we will also enjoy a visit to the private garden at Lamorran, inspired by Lady Walton’s garden on the island of Ischia.
The 5 star Hotel Tresanton enjoys a wonderful position overlooking the sea. Olga Polizzi and her brother Sir Rocco Forte have won accolades around the world for their work as renowned hoteliers. The hotel has 29 bedrooms, a terrace and a cosy bar. The menus forthe three candlelit dinners will be carefully selected by the hotel’s chef to ensure guests enjoy the best locally sourced ingredients. Please note that there is no lift at this hotel.
Optional Excursion to Trelissick on the Roseland Peninsula
17 March, 9.30am – 2.30pm. £45 per person.
With sweeping views over the Fal estuary, Trelissick House & Garden is set amidst more than 500 acres of park and farmland. After an introduction to the garden there will be time to explore the house and gallery which displays arts and crafts created and designed by Cornish artisan before returning to St. Mawes.
Extra pre-tour night including dinner & breakfast available for £160 per person (single occupancy £264). Supplement to stay in a suite is £110 per night (subject to availability).
...when you travel with Kirker
Extra pre-tour night including dinner & breakfast available for £160 per person (single occupancy £264).
Supplement to stay in a suite is £110 per night (subject to availability).
The Maxwell String Quartet was internationally recognised after winning First Prize in the 9th Trondheim Chamber Music Competition in 2017. They very soon started to appear in leading chamber music venues throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, with performances in Copenhagen, Stavanger and Amsterdam. The quartet is comprised of players who grew up together and who played both classical music and Scottish folk music across Scotland.
They studied with the Endellion String Quartet and have been mentored by current and former members of the Belcea Quartet, Krysztof Chorzelski and Alasdair Tait. They have a very busy performing schedule planned for the 2018/9 season with performances in Trondheim, throughout Scotland, and nine concerts on a tour of the United States. At the start of 2019, they perform at St. John’s Smith Square and at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
"Performer, editor, composer and teacher, Simon Rowland-Jones has always led a very busy, all-embracing musical life. He was founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet, in which he played for a total of ten years, and subsequently performed with many other leading chamber groups.
His solo CDs, on the Meridian and Etcetera labels, include the first-ever complete version of the Bach Cello Suites on viola. Peters Edition published his viola transcription of the suites shortly after the recording was made and he then went on to make a new critical/performing edition of the Haydn String Quartets. His many works include pieces for viola, four string quartets, a string trio, a piano quartet, songs and ‘A Turn Outside’, a musical adaptation of a play by Stevie Smith commissioned by Dame Josephine Barstow. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal College of Music and is co-director of the North Norfolk Music Festival."
Jane has had a long association with Kirker Holidays and over the last decade she has escorted several exclusive Kirker music festivals in the UK and at sea, as well as tours in Europe.
barry.cheeseman@kirkerholidays.com
Barry Cheeseman has been the Manager of the Kirker Cultural Tours & Music Holidays programme for over 10 years.
Barry has been an opera lover for more than 40 years and has seen and heard every major singer during this period. He loves the challenges of organising complex arts events and working closely with the musicians. Out of the office, Barry manages to fit in time to organise his own Chamber Music Festival in North Norfolk where he lives
The concerts are given in the charming Old Methodist Hall in the village. The Hall, which has a fine acoustic ideal for chamber music, was restored and decorated by Olga Polizzi who has donated it to the village for community events. The talks will be given in the Hotel Tresanton. Tea and homemade biscuits will be provided.
A quartet by Haydn will be included in each of this week’s concerts alongside some familiar works and two less often pieces, Herbert Howell’s Fantasy String Quartet from 1917 and the first of two quartets by Sergei Prokofiev, commissioned in 1931 by the Library of Congress where the first premiere took place in April 1931, six months before it was performed in Moscow.
15 March
4pm
Barry Cheeseman and Simon Rowland-Jones will introduce the Maxwell Quartet to the audience and talk to them about their musical lives together.
6pm
Schubert: Quartettsatz D703
Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op.74 No.1
Dvorak: String Quartet in G Op. 106
16 March
4pm
Members of the Maxwell Quartet will be in conversation with Simon Rowland-Jones about their thoughts on Prokofiev’s Quartet in B minor.
6pm
Prokofiev: String Quartet No.1 in B minor, Op.50
Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat, Op.74 No10 ‘The Harp’
Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op.74 No.3
17 March
4pm
Herbert Howells Fantasy String Quartet, composed in 1917 and is just one of eight chamber works by the composer, so much better known for his choral works.
6pm
Simon Rowland-Jones, viola will join the quartet for this evening’s performance.
Haydn: String Quartet in F, Op.74 No.2
Howells: Fantasy String Quartet, Op.25
Mozart: String Quintet in C, K525
I enjoyed the holiday experience very much. The Quartet were delightful both musically & socially and the tour leaders were quietly authoritative, helpful & knowledgeable. I shall certainly hope to travel with Kirker again.
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String Quartet
The Maxwell String Quartet was internationally recognised after winning First Prize in the 9th Trondheim Chamber Music Competition in 2017. They very soon started to appear in leading chamber music venues throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, with performances in Copenhagen, Stavanger and Amsterdam. The quartet is comprised of players who grew up together and who played both classical music and Scottish folk music across Scotland.
They studied with the Endellion String Quartet and have been mentored by current and former members of the Belcea Quartet, Krysztof Chorzelski and Alasdair Tait. They have a very busy performing schedule planned for the 2018/9 season with performances in Trondheim, throughout Scotland, and nine concerts on a tour of the United States. At the start of 2019, they perform at St. John’s Smith Square and at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
I enjoyed the holiday experience very much. The Quartet were delightful both musically & socially and the tour leaders were quietly authoritative, helpful & knowledgeable. I shall certainly hope to travel with Kirker again.
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