Impressive musical line up at Holkham this year

The Marble Hall at Holkham will be resonating with the sounds of international musical talent during 2014 with an amazing line-up of musicians to perform in this stunning venue.

The Marble Hall at Holkham

The 2014 chamber music series of concerts, arranged by artistic directors Barry Cheeseman and Simon Rowland-Jones, begins on April 13 with the award winning Arcadia Quartet performing works by Haydn, Janáček and Beethoven.

A highlight of the series is the return of Andrei Bondarenko who won everyone’s hearts with his concert at Holkham in 2012.  For this performance on June 27, he will be joined by his wife Eleonora Vindau, soprano, who sang before HRH the Prince of Wales at Houghton Hall to launch the ‘Houghton Revisited’ exhibition in the summer of 2013.  The couple will sing songs by Rachmaninov and other Russian composers and arias and duets from their favourite operas accompanied by Gary Matthewman on piano.

Other chamber music concerts include the Gould Piano Trio with Robert Plane on clarinet. The trio has remained at the forefront of the chamber music scene for over twenty years.  One of the world’s leading pianists, Angela Hewitt, who regularly appears in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. The final chamber music concert of the season will be by Marianne Cornetti, mezzo soprano and David Harper, piano performing ‘Broadway and Beyond’ a musical journey across America, from spirituals to Broadway and American Art Song to arias by Verdi, Cilea and Saint-Saëns.

The programme of music continures with a special evening paying tribute to the legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf which takes place on June 7 featuring many of Piaf’s well-loved songs as well as a beautifully crafted narration of her tragic life story.

On August 4 as part of Holkham’s commemorations of World War One a special Centenary concert will be held. with a moving programme performed by tenor Joshua Ellicott to include readings by Joshua of a selection of his great uncle Jack’s letters which he wrote to his parents in Lancashire during his time on the front.  Joshua was given the entire collection of letters by his grandfather, Harry Ellicott.  Jack volunteered in 1914 and joined the South Lancashire Regiment, Prince of Wales Volunteers.  He died just a few weeks after arriving on the front in 1916.  The recital which will also include songs by Poulenc, Bridge, Finzi, Ireland and others will vividly bring to life in a very personal manner the experiences encountered by so many in the Great War.

The year will conclude on December 5 with a Christmas concert by The Upper Octave singing ensemble who impressed visitors to Holkham when they performed at the Holkham Christmas Celebrations weekend last year. Their repertoire will offer opera, classical and Broadway songs from composers such as Bizet, Handel, Schubert, Larsen and Schönberg.

Full details of all the concerts can be found at www.holkham.co.uk