Saturday 7 March 12noon – c.1pm
£12 (£10 concessions | £5 students)

University of York Baroque+ Day 2026: Friendship and Obsession

This year, the University of York’s annual takeover of NCEM takes you on a magical tour: from the 18th century horticultural craze, to the ‘guitar mania’ of the early 19th century, to the legendary Devil’s Tavern on Fleet St, where the obsession was music itself as Handel’s musical rivals gathered to share their latest compositions…

Join Ensemble Hesperi for a celebration of eighteenth-century horticultural gift-giving through the music of the Baroque composer Telemann and his friends. This programme presents a cornucopia of music by Telemann himself – a sonata from his Paris Quartets, a folky trio sonata, and a virtuosic solo fantasia – and two pieces by friends from whom he begged specimens for his Hamburg garden – Johann Gottlieb Graun and no other than Handel himself. Telemann’s love of plants in later life neared obsession, as he admitted to a friend: “I am insatiable where hyacinths and tulips are concerned, greedy for ranunculi, and especially for anemones”. In London, the Scottish composer James Oswald was no stranger to the mid-eighteenth-century floral craze, publishing two collections of “Airs for the Seasons”, and his airs depicting Telemann’s favourites frame the programme. “A Gift for your Garden” was released on BIS records in 2024, and was featured as album of the week on BBC Radio 3’s Essential Classics.

Please note there is a £1.50 administration fee per transaction.