War and Peace in Wimbledon

This year's Wimbledon International Music Festival takes as its theme, War and Peace. Running from 8 to 23 November 2014 in various venues in and around Wimbledon the festival will be kicking off with the Academy Choir and Baroque Players performing Haydn's Nelson Mass, whilst the final concert sees the Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Robin O'Neill, performing Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen his response to the destruction of Munich and Dresden in 1945.

In between, artistic director Anthony Wilkinson (see my interview with Anthony) has put together a programme which explores all sorts of aspects of war. There is Spanish Civil War with Hungarian duo the Katona Twins performing guitar music, the young British artists of the Myrthen Ensemble in Anthems for Doomed Youth with music by Schubert, Wolf, Mahler and many others, Russian pianist Denis Kozhukin performs Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7, his war sonata. Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale will be given a staged performance at Wimbledon College of Art.

Away from war, the distinguished Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair sings Schubert's Die Winterreise, the Borodin Quartet is joined by Michael Collins for Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, and York2 play the piano four hands versions of Holst's The Planets, Debussy's La Mer and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and the Fibonacci Sequence performs a pair of concerts exploring Schubert's chamber music.

On a lighter note, the Musicians of the Globe explore penny broad-sheet ballads in Death by Custard. And the festival ends not only with the Philharmonia Orchestra in concert, but with Jessica Duchen's Alicia's Gift at the Orange Tree Theatre.


Full information from the Wimbledon International Music Festival website.