16th December 2016
Sounds of the Season
On Friday 16th December 2016 ‘Music in the Castle’s’ celebration of Christmas in Powderham Castle featured ‘Amamus Cantare’, Directed by Alison Burnett. Their programme was delivered to our largest audience yet in the Castle’s historic and...
11th November 2016
Zephyr – Flute & Harp Duo
The duo of Flute and Harp has been remarkably versatile throughout the ages. They’re equally at home playing on the village green as as in an 18th century concert hall (Mozart). They played arrangements of popular operas in 19th century drawing...
7th October 2016
Divertimento Piano Trio
Music in the Castle presented a virtually full-house audience with a unique experience last week. Louise Farrenc’s Piano Trio no.1 has laid hidden for 172 years since she wrote it in Paris. She broke all the conventions of her age, as Professor...
10th June 2016
Volt & Potenza Piano Duo
Oda Voltersvik, a Trinity Laban Conservatoire post-graduate from Norway, opened with Rachmaninov’s romantically extravagant Variations on a theme of Corelli. Oda presented the Variations – particularly hard to memorise as they don’t...
15th April 2016
26th February 2016
The Éolienne Quintet
An audience of nearly 100 was treated to a remarkably varied programme, played with thoroughly polished technique, ensemble and above all verve and enthusiasm, by these five postgraduate students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Their concert...
11th December 2015
Messiah – Handel
For the first performance in Dublin in 1741 Handel had a choir of 26 trebles and altos and tenors and basses, all from the two Dublin cathedrals. By the centenary performance in 1784 (the organisers mistook Handel’s birth-date,1685) there were 513 performers...
13th November 2015
David Davies – Organ
David Davies, currently Acting Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral, played an astonishing recital on the recently-restored Brice Seede organ in the James Wyatt Music Room of Powderham Castle. The organ was originally a single-manual instrument without...
16th October 2015
Rosie Bowker – Flute with Divertimento
On Friday last, 16th October, ‘Music in the Castle’ was host to another New Generation Artist, Rosie Bowker, a flautist. I knew of her only by reputation and recommendation – she’s on the Post- Graduate Orchestral course at the Guildhall School...
18th September 2015
Handel’s Annus Mirabilis – 1707
Handel enjoyed phenomenal success, comparable to that of a present-day pop star, during his first year in Italy. Cries of ‘Viva il caro Sassone’ rang from his audiences, and he responded with exceptionally passionate, intense and exuberant music....
