Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival 2025

EVENT 1:
LIFE AND MUSIC IN GEORGIAN BEVERLEY AND BEYOND

Friday 23 May 4.00pm – 5.00pm
£15.00
Venue: St Mary’s Church Hall, HU17 8DL

In the second half of the 18th century a remarkable diary was kept by a Beverley gentleman, John Courtney. At times it has the feel of a Jane Austen novel, with accounts of musical soirees, dancing in the assembly rooms, the presence of the militia in the town and the occasional elopement to Gretna Green. The importance of music to Courtney is evident. He owned a harpsichord and chamber organ, composed music, attended concerts and hosted visiting musicians. In this lecture Beverley historian and author of an edition of the diaries, Dr Susan Neave, will talk about John Courtney’s life in the town and beyond, including the part music played in his life.

The Festival is kindly supported by The Georgian Society of East Yorkshire

EVENT 2:
FLORILEGIUM & ROWAN PIERCE

Friday 23 May 7.30pm – 9.15pm
£35.00 Front Nave
£30.00 (£28.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35) Rear Nave and Side Aisles
Venue: St Mary’s Church, HU17 8DL

Ashley Solomon director, flute
Oonagh Lee & Andrés Villalobos Lépiz oboes
Sally Holman bassoon
Magdalena Loth-Hill & Gabriella Jones violins
James O’Toole viola Sarah McMahon cello
Rosie Moon bass Steven Devine harpsichord

Florilegium return to Beverley with soprano Rowan Pierce in a suitably celebratory programme of Handel and Bach, including Bach’s lively and elegant Orchestral Suite in C together with an expressive and serene secular cantata for solo soprano and chamber ensemble.

The two works by Handel include a famous aria from his opera L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato where the virtuosic parts for both solo flute and soprano present a homage to nature and its sweet imitation of bird calls. Whilst it is unlikely that Handel ever visited Beverley, John Courtney would certainly have known of his work as his music was deeply integrated into the cultural fabric of Georgian society.

“Florilegium – Remember their name. They are great poets, magicians who will hypnotise your mind in the magic of their music, touching the very heart of your soul.” Diapason, France

“the exquisite Rowan Pierce” The Guardian

Family Friendly:
PICK A CARD

Saturday 24 May 10.30am – 11.30am
£7.00 (£5.00 under 16)
Venue: Beverley Memorial Hall, HU17 8HN

The musicians of Ensemble Augelletti invite the young people of Beverley and their families to Pick a Card.

A pack of playing cards is a well-loved source of entertainment for families and friends. Playing cards together became particularly popular during the 18th century, and just like today, people designed packs with fun and topical designs.

In this family concert, we invite you to design your own playing cards, and explore Georgian history together through music and cards.

Come to see some amazing 18th-century card designs showing ships, animals, toys, princes and princesses and listen to music by composers including Telemann, Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Ucellini.

EVENT 3:
NARDUS WILLIAMS soprano ELIZABETH KENNY lute

Saturday 24 May 2.00pm – 3.00pm
£28.00 (£26.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35)
Venue: Toll Gavel United Church, HU17 9AA

Drammi in Musica

John Courtney may not have travelled to 17th-century Italy, but he would surely have been aware of the wealth of virtuoso songs written by Renaissance composers including Barbara Strozzi, Claudio Monteverdi and Sigismondo D’India. This is a programme full of contradictions: this is the age when solo singers created stories and characters that are eerily familiar in their range of human emotions, yet wildly strange in their plots and the extreme situations the characters find themselves. When a passion for storytelling – “drammi per musica” – for elevating the words over the music, coincided with a step change in vocal techniques required to deliver them, and with a corresponding sense of risk and adventurous harmony in the continuo part. This is an era where heroines are as expressive as heroes, and the sopranos who sang them became celebrated and notorious in equal measure.

“Williams’s vocal dexterity and emotional finesse turned the singer’s sorrow into the listener’s joy – as did Kenny’s ravishing accompaniments” Artsdesk

Event 4:
A TUNE AMONGST FRIENDS

Saturday 24 May 4.30pm – 5.30pm
£15.00
Venue: Monk’s Walk Inn HU17 0DN

Olwen Foulkes recorder
Ellen Bundy violín
Toby Carr lute/guitar
Carina Drury cello

In this informal performance, members of Ensemble Augelletti share some of the 17th- and 18th-century folk tunes and country dances that filled taverns, coffee houses and social spaces of Georgian towns. Join us with a drink to share 18th-century settings of folk tunes notated by Geminiani and Barsanti, hear domestic arrangements of theatre tunes by Purcell and Handel, and country dance tunes popularised by 18th-century balls and assemblies.

We regret that the venue for this event, located upstairs in Monk’s Walk Inn, does not currently have wheelchair access, and disability facilities are limited. If you have specific access concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at boxoffice@ncem.co.uk.

Event 5:
STILE ANTICO

Saturday 22 March 7.30pm
£22.00 (£20.00 concessions | £7.00 under 35)

Saturday 24 May 7.30pm
£35.00 Front Nave
£30.00 (£28.00 concessions) Rear Nave
£25.00 (£23.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35) Side Aisle
Venue: Beverley Minster, HU17 0DN

Stile Antico marks its twentieth season by honouring the undisputed master of the style which gives the group its name: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose quincentenary falls in 2025. Palestrina’s stellar career was inextricably entwined with the Papacy and the great churches of Rome for which he composed.

This programme explores the music he would have sung at the Sistine Chapel, the changes in his style demanded by the Counter-Reformation, his tragic personal life, and his influence on his successors. The repertoire is sumptuous, including several of Palestrina’s most beloved and timeless motets, gems by other leading composers active in Rome, and a new work by leading British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, written especially for this programme.

“The singing is staggeringly beautiful, the balance meticulous” The Sunday Times

Workshop

STILE ANTICO WORKSHOP

Sunday 25 May 10.00am – 2.30pm
£25.00 (£15.00 full time students)
Venue: Hexahon Music Centre, HU17 9LP

Join a consort of singers from Stile Antico in a wonderful session singing music from the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel was home to some of the finest composers of the Renaissance, starting with the trailblazer Josquin des Prez, and reaching its high point with the undisputed master of the ‘stile antico’, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Marking 500 years since the birth of Palestrina, this workshop will give participants the chance to explore in depth a selection of beautiful motets and masses by him and his contemporaries, sitting alongside singers from Stile Antico. The workshop will finish with a short informal run-through for family and friends.

A certain amount of choral experience and the ability to sight-read is helpful. However, scores will be made available in advance, to give everyone a chance to study the music and get the most out of the experience. Tea and coffee will be served but please bring a packed lunch for the break.

Supported by the Stile Antico Foundation

Event 6:
GEORGIAN BEVERLEY

Sunday 25 May 10.00am – 11.30am
£25.00
Venue: Meet outside Beverley Arms

A walking tour around John Courtney’s town – guided by historian David Neave – exploring the Georgian diarist’s world.

Beverley is remarkable in that so much remains of the town he knew and recorded. We will see where he and many of his friends lived, the inns he frequented, as well as the meeting places, assembly rooms and theatres.

This tour will last 1½ hrs. Distance about 2 miles. Numbers are limited so book early.

Event 7:
CONTRE LE TEMPS

Sunday 25 May 3.00pm – 4.00pm
£22.00 (£20.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35)
Venue: The Quire, Beverley Minster, HU17 0DN

Ubi sunt mulieres

Karin Weston, Cécile Walch, Julia Marty, Amy Farnell singers

Woman has inspired thinkers, poets and creators for thousands of years with tenderness and charm, beauty and dedication, fragility and sensuality. This talented young vocal quartet turn their kaleidoscope on the Middle Ages, where Mary is enthroned in glory as the virgin, mother and love incarnate. Mary is clothed in the finest robes of sound, in music from the Winchester Troparium, Las Huelgas Codex, Cyprus Manuscript and Oxford Codex. Works by Guillaume Du Fay – the man who heralded the Renaissance – and Hildegard von Bingen, herself one of the most acclaimed women in music history, complete this dazzling tableau.

“they captivated their audience with their medieval artistry” L’ Alsace

Event 8:
THE YORK WAITS

Sunday 25 May 5.15pm – 6.15pm
£24.00 (£22.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35)
Venue: St John’s Church, HU17 7AG

Deborah Catterall & Gareth Glyn Roberts voices

As I went to Walsingham: A Tudor musical pilgrimage

Long before Beverley became a centre for Georgian entertainment, pilgrims flocked to the shrine of John of Beverley – the canonised 8thcentury cleric who effectively founded the town. This came to an abrupt end in the 1540s, in the wake of the Reformation. However, folk memory of pilgrimage and a nostalgia for its places and symbols remained strong even as 16th century England made its transition to Protestantism.

A ballad, As I Went to Walsingham – recounting an enigmatic meeting between a pilgrim and a woman who spurns his affections – remained widely known well into the 1600s. This ballad is a thread running through this concert of 16th century instrumental and vocal music untilising many of the wind and stringed instruments heard in court, chapel, theatres and on the streets of Tudor England.

The repertoire includes compositions – sacred and secular – by composers such as Byrd, Tallis and Campion who retained their Catholicism but adapted their music and public lives to the prevailing orthodoxy. There is musical ribaldry in the concert too – a reminder that, as Chaucer showed us, pilgrimage had its social and roistering element alongside the search for spirituality and salvation.

“characteristically infectious” York Press

Event 9:
ENSEMBLE AUGELLETTI

Sunday 25 may 7.30pm
£24.00 (£22.00 concessions | £10.00 under 35)
Venue: Toll Gavel United Church, HU17 9AA

And we were enchanted

Ellen Bundy violin Toby Carr lutes
Carina Drury cello Olwen Foulkes recorders
Benedict Williams keyboards

John Courtney (1734-1806) was a local Beverley gentleman with a love of music, dancing, and playing cards. Declaring that ‘musick is better than cards by far’, he eagerly participated in music making with local musicians and had an organ built in his house for this purpose. He also frequented concerts and plays in Beverley and London, hearing some of the most exciting performers of the time. Regularly recording these musical exploits in a diary, Courtney leaves us with a fascinating insight into Georgian music making in Beverley and London. In this programme Ensemble Augelletti explore the music-making in Courtney’s world. This programme will include music by Corelli, Sammartini, Handel, Giardini, and Bach.

“the playing is wonderful, with exquisite sensitivity, a refined tone and perfect balance between the instruments” Early Music Review

The New Generation Baroque Ensemble is supported by BBC Radio 3, the Royal College of Music and the National Centre for Early Music.

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