Catch up with the Early Music Show!

The 250 th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775 has attracted a lot of attention this year. On 11th July, Magda, Tom and M-J were honoured to perform a specially curated Jane Austen programme with soprano Penelope Appleyard, at the Global Jane Austen Conference at the University of Southampton. Professor Jeanice Brooks and Dr Mary-Jannet Leith devised the programme, which featured entirely music owned by Austen and her family. We so much enjoyed exploring Austen's musical world together, reading from facsimile scores of pieces in her collection, many of them in the author's own, extremely neat, musical handwriting! The volumes in the Austen music collection are all digitised, and free to access online , and also searchable at the University of Southampton library catalogue. Most excitingly, this was our first performance with an early piano rather than our usual harpsichord. Our harpsichordist Tom played the university’s incredible 1796 Broadwood grand piano, and became immediately addicted! He writes: "Playing a part in this concert is something I will remember for a long time to come. The combination of the hall, instruments, repertoire, unique repertoire, and the academic context for this music made for something unique and special. Most of the scores I used were facsimiles of Jane Austen's own hand. The colours for accompaniment on the Broadwood piano were thrilling, sometimes very soft to colour the text and sometimes pushing the sound for orchestral effects in popular Overtures which were arranged for domestic enjoyment at the time." We were delighted to introduce this fascinating repertoire, most of it rarely played in concerts today, to an enthusiastic audience at the Turner Sims concert hall. Our recorder player and researcher Dr Mary-Jannet Leith also took part in a Q & A after the performance, in which the panel answered many excellent questions about the instruments and the repertoire, leading to a lively discussion about how Jane Austen engaged with music in her daily life.

This year, we have enjoyed a number of concerts and a fantastic series of coaching sessions at the University of York, where we have just finished our first year as Ensemble in Association. As part of the Baroque Day in March, we presented an evening showcase with the Baroque Ensemble at the NCEM (National Centre for Early Music), York. For this, we put together a version of our Queen Charlotte programme which many of you may remember from a few years back. Mary-Jannet put together a great mixture of repertoire, including a JC Bach Symphony, an aria which had been transcribed from a rare edition by one of her students, a Handel Concerto Grosso, a violin sonata by Jane Mary Guest, a harpsichord sonata by Elizabetta da Gambarini, an Abel flute concerto, and a James Oswald sonata. We were pleased to reflect International Women’s Day in this concert’s theme and roster of composers. On 7th July, we returned to York to perform again with the Baroque Ensemble, in a sold-out performance of eighteenth-century concertos, with three fabulous student soloists, performing Bach, Telemann, Hebden, Oswald and Stamitz. Before both concerts, we enjoyed leading a "weekend intensive" with the students. These are a great opportunity to work side-by-side with the ensemble members, working not only on the repertoire for the concert, but also supporting them in learning historical playing techniques and using historical instruments. The string players in the Baroque Ensemble use baroque bows, which are loaned to students by the university for the duration of their studies. During rehearsals, we share out our expertise, with M-J focussing on the winds, Magda on the upper strings, Florence on the bass section, and Tom working with the keyboardists and helping them with continuo and directing. Playing alongside students and demonstrating ourselves is worth a thousand words, and we hope that our sessions are both fun and educational - helped, of course, by pizza for dinner! Nobody can miss the cuts in university music departments and budgets in the press, and it has been sad to see the closure of several departments in the last few years across the UK. To see the fantastic things going on a York University is therefore all the more special, and we are very proud to be able to help deliver the Historical Performance programme there through running the University Baroque Ensemble and supporting music students with regular coaching sessions. We have so much enjoyed being Ensemble in Association this year, and look forward to returning in September for an exciting year head. 

Our second CD "A Gift for your Garden" was released with BIS Records on the 20th December 2024, and we are delighted that it has been so well received by our supporters, audiences, and in the media! The recording was featured in the January issue of Gramophone magazine, and on the review section of their website . It was also album of the month at the Early Music Shop in January 2025, and f eatured on BBC Radio 3's Record Review programme in Joseph McHardy's picks of the best Early Music albums of the week. In February, "A Gift for your Garden" was selected as Album of the Week on Radio 3's Essential Classics programme, with a track from the album featured every day around 12.30pm. You can listen again on BBC Sounds ! To celebrate the disc, we have started a new Instagram/YouTube short video series, "Friday Flowers" . Each week, until Spring finally arrives, we will celebrate a different flower each week - each one appears both in Telemann's list of plants, and in James Oswald's "Airs for the Seasons"! So far, we have had the Ranunculus and the Jonquil, and the Hyacinth, with the Crocus to come this Friday.

We have two exciting programmes, which we can't wait to bring to you for the 2025-2026 season! The first is "A Gift for your Garden", which celebrates the Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), and his obsession with plants! Telemann was part of a lively network of plant exchange across Germany and beyond, and he often begged his long-suffering musical friends and correspondents for rare specimens. 1742, he wrote to his friend Uffenbach on the subject of his new love of flowers: “I am insatiable where hyacinths and tulips are concerned, greedy for ranunculi, and especially for anemones.” Our programme features a cornucopia of music by Telemann and his horticultural correspondents: a sonata from his astonishing Paris Quartets; a folky trio sonata and two virtuosic solo fantasias, alongside trio sonatas by Handel and a rarely heard galant work by Johann Gottlieb Graun - all framed by charming airs by Oswald depicting Telemann’s floral favourites. Our recording of music from this programme will be released in late 2024 on the internationally renowned label BIS Records. Our second programme is brand new for 2025! In 1738, the violinist and composer Michael Christian Festing saw two poverty-stricken young boys dragging donkeys along a busy London street, and recognised them as the sons of a fellow oboe player who had recently died. Inspired to help, Festing and 227 of his musical colleagues established a ‘Fund for Decay’d Musicians’, now the Royal Society of Musicians , which still supports musicians and their families today. The music in this programme celebrates the founding and the eighteenth-century history of this remarkable organisation, featuring works by subscribing composers, all of whom worked in London’s thriving theatres and pleasure gardens. Handel himself directed the first benefit concert for the new fund in 1739, which featured music from ‘Alexander’s Feast’, including the bewitching aria, “Softly Sweet in Lydian measures”. Our soprano Claire will perform this alongside Handel’s famous aria “Nel’ dolce”, popular songs by Thomas Arne, a rarely-heard Italian cantata by Maurice Greene, and Scots songs by the London-based composer Robert Bremner. We also showcase the virtuosity of instrumental writing in the high Baroque, with trio sonatas by Handel, the harmonically adventurous Michael Festing, and William Boyce, as well as a sparkling sonata for harpsichord by the blind organist John Stanley, himself a subscriber to the fund. Weaved amongst the music itself will be fascinating stories from the Royal Society’s archives about the men, women and children who received support from the fund in its early years. We look forward to performing this programme with guest soprano and fellow City Music Foundation artist Claire Ward . Click the button below to download details!

In June, we had a wonderful time in Orkney, performing two lunchtime concerts at St Magnus Cathedral at the St Magnus International Festival, and appearing in studio at BBC Radio Orkney! We're delighted to receive a brilliant review from Early Music Review. Here are a few choice quotes: "Playing with consummate technical virtuosity and charming musicality, Ensemble Hesperi won the hearts of their St Magnus Cathedral audience, introducing many for the first time to the rich treasury of 18th-century Scottish music." "I was hugely impressed by the virtuosity and musicality of these accomplished young musicians, and their boundless energy, their well-researched programmes and their relaxed rapport with their audiences make me sure that they will become an established and admired ensemble in the very near future – another great ‘find’ by the St Magnus Festival!" To read the full review, head to Early Music Review here . 

We are so excited to be fundraising towards the costs of recording our second CD, A Gift for your Garden, to be released on the fantastic label BIS records , in Autumn 2024. Our debut CD recording, Full of the Highland Humours , has been highly praised and hugely popular with our audiences, and we can’t wait to share more of our music with our supporters across the world. We first performed "A Gift for your Garden" as City Music Foundation Artists in 2022 as part of their artists' concert series, and it will be a real milestone for us to record this intriguing story in musical form for posterity. A little more about the music... "A Gift for your Garden" celebrates Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) and his little-known love of plant life! Towards the end of his life, Telemann filled his Hamburg garden with exotic flowers, and often wrote to many of his musical friends abroad, asking them to send plant specimens in the post. These included George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) and Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771), whose beautiful trio sonatas will feature on the disc, alongside music by Telemann himself: one of his challenging "Paris Quartets", a raucous sonata in G minor, and a haunting solo flute fantasia. Telemann declared in one letter to a friend: "I am insatiable where hyacinths and tulips are concerned, greedy for ranunculi, and especially for anemones". We are therefore delighted to be able to include in this programme three of our favourite Scottish floral airs by our favourite Scottish composer James Oswald (1710-1769): "The Hyacinth", "The Anemone" and "The Tulip". These delightful airs really capture the galant spirit of the age, and are guaranteed to transport you to Scotland itself. This music is full of charm and energy, and really conveys the chamber music spirit at the heart of everything we do at Hesperi. We believe that it deserves to be enjoyed by audiences around the world. How can you help? We need your help to bring our project life! We have many costs to cover, including the services of our brilliant sound engineer, Oscar Torres , our harpsichord tuner, venue hire for rehearsals and the recording itself, travel, accommodation, and much, much more... We would be delighted if you can contribute to our campaign , no matter how little! Thank-you so much - and do share with your friends if you can. Mary-Jannet, Magda, Florence and Thomas :) 

We are delighted to share with you our concert film of "Celestial Music did the Gods Inspire", which has been produced by our wonderful videographer Tom Mungall . This project, generously supported by the Continuo Foundation , was filmed in October at Temple Church, London, and features for the first time our new vocal group, the Hesperi Voices. We hope you enjoy it! The programme for "Celestial Music did the Music Inspire" celebrates the historic 'Organ Battle' at the Temple Church in the 1680s. Following the refurbishment of the church by Christopher Wren, a dispute arose as to which of two leading organ builders of the day, Bernhard Smith and Renatus Harris, should furnish the church with a new instrument. The Benchers of Middle Temple had a strong preference for Smith’s organ, but those of Inner Temple favoured the challenger, Harris. In a matter of months, the two men erected two organs at opposite ends of the church, and vied with each other, showcasing their instruments on alternate Sundays. Each organ maker invited the most celebrated players of the day to showcase their craftsmanship, who astonished the crowds gathered for the ‘trials’ with their virtuosic performances. As the societies of the Inner and Middle Temples struggled to choose a winner, a fierce rivalry developed, and each builder strived to outdo the other, rumours of sabotage never far away. Finally, Smith’s organ triumphed, preferred for its volume and tonal qualities. Our programme features music by the two organists who demonstrated Smith’s winning instrument, John Blow and his student Henry Purcell. The two men were leading musicians in late seventeenth-century London, particularly in the realm of church music. Sadly, Blow’s illustrious career is largely forgotten today, but he, together with Purcell, monopolised the high offices at the choral establishments of the Chapel Royal, St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey during his lifetime. Click here to download the programme , which contains full programme notes and a list of performers and sponsors. 

Our programme at Temple Music Foundation on Friday 13th October, generously supported by the Continuo Foundation , celebrates an organ battle! The famous Temple Church, refurbished in 1682 under the direction of none other than Christopher Wren, decided to purchase a brand new organ, but the Societies of the Inner and Middle Temple disagreed upon which maker should build it, and the issue was not resolved for several years! Eighteenth-century music historians Charles Burney and John Hawkins both wrote about this "battle" between two of the foremost organ builders of their age, Renatus Harris and Bernhard Smith, and the lengths to which they (and their supporters!) went to win the contract once and for all. For a long time, two organs stood in the Temple Church, and were demonstrated by virtuoso organists of the day. The two players demonstrating the winning instrument (spoiler-alert, it was Smith) were none other than Henry Purcell and his teacher John Blow, and it's their music we'll be performing in the very church where they showed off their skills over 300 years ago! Ahead of "Celestial Music did the Gods Inspire", our harpsichord Thomas Allery and our recorder player Mary-Jannet Leith chat about the the launch of the Hesperi Voices, the spirit of chamber music, and more! Book your tickets here.

In November, we're looking forward to performing at the Torbay Music Weekend, which has been running over 50 years: "a weekend away from home before the pre-Christmas rush, listening to music in comfortable surroundings amongst congenial companions who share your interests and tastes." You can listen and talk to a wide variety of people from the world of music, such as critics, performers, composers, broadcasters, presenters and writers. We'll be presenting our programme, "Handel on the Strand", and also giving a short talk and demonstration about the Outreach work we have done over the years. The weekend is held at the Grand Hotel, Torquay, on the sea-front; we can't wait to share our music on the English Riviera! For more information, and to book a place on this fantastic weekend, head to their website .