OCMF 2024: These Enchanted Isles
FRIENDS MEMBERS & FESTIVAL PASS HOLDERS: Enjoy priority queuing at concerts and invitations to meet the artists after concerts
Festival Pass – Access to all 13 events
- Your OCMF 2024 Festival Pass gives you:
Invitation to the Reception on the opening night with the artists - A saving of £58 compared to buying individual tickets
- One ticket that gives you access to all events
- Priority access to events so you can choose the best seats
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‘4’ the film
Phoenix Picturehouse, Walton Street
Sunday 22nd Sept – 6pm
Monday 23rd Sept – 5pm
‘4’ is an independent cinema documentary on one of the world’s most exciting string quartets – the Quatuor Ebène.
‘One of the finest, most sensitive films ever conceived about music.’ Luís Gago, El País
O Albion – Quatuor Ébène
Mon 23rd September
Christ Church Cathedral
8.00pm Opening Concert
Post-concert Friends & Festival Pass Holders Reception with performers
We are delighted to welcome one of the world’s great string quartets, the Quatuor Ébène, to this year’s festival.
This concert is dedicated to Dr Chris Kenyon.
Haydn ‘Sunrise’ Quartet op.76 no.4
Britten Three divertimenti
Adès O Albion, from Arcadiana op.12
Beethoven Grosse Fuge op.133
OCMF Studio – Animato Quartet, Valegro Quartet, Chaos String Quartet, Aestus Quartet and Fides Quartet
Tue 24th September
Holywell Music Room
7.30pm
Join us at the inaugural OCMF Studio for performances by ensembles from this year’s masterclasses, led by Quatuor Ébène, Reto Bieri, Priya Mitchell, and Dirk Mommertz.
Programme including:
Britten String Quartet No. 1
Haydn Quartet in A major Op. 20-6
Freakshow – Paddington Trio
Wed 25th September
Holywell Music Room
1.00pm
We are very excited to launch a platform for emerging British chamber ensembles. This year, the Paddington Trio tours nations with works by Weir, Perkin, and Clarke.
Judith Weir Piano Trio no.2
Rebecca Clarke Piano Trio
Sam Perkin Freakshow
Romani & Traveller Singers – Hazel Marsh
Wed 25th September
Bodleian Weston Library, Lecture Theatre
5.45pm
Romani and Traveller people have been excluded from British cultural imaginaries, in this talk, Hazel Marsh highlights their contributions to our shared folk heritage.
Discoveries – Reto Bieri, Guy Johnston, Polina Leschenko & friends
Wed 25th September
Holywell Music Room
7.45pm
A scintillating Swiss treatment of Irish folk music; vivid music for children from a twentieth-century Romantic; and a wistful waltz for a Georgian drawing room.
Frank Martin Trio on Irish folk themes
Bechstein Trio – Priya Mitchell, Guy Johnston, Emmanuel Despax
Elgar Violin Sonata
Priya Mitchell, Polina Leschenko
Bridge Valse Russe
Bechstein Trio – Priya Mitchell, Guy Johnston, Emmanuel Despax
Walton Façade Suite arr. for 4 hands
Polina Leschenko, Dirk Mommertz
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet in f-sharp minor, op.10
Reto Bieri, Priya Mitchell, Tetiana Lutsyk, Marc Sabbah, Guy Johnston
Singular Voices – Polina Leschenko, Reto Bieri, Sally Bayley and friends
Thur 26th September
The New Space, Mansfield Road, New College
1.00pm
Rebecca Clarke’s unique musical voice was overlooked for nearly seventy years. A talented viola player, her rediscovered Sonata now inspires violists globally.
Handel Violin Sonata in D major, HWV371
Tetiana Lutsyk, Dirk Mommertz
Vaughan Williams Six studies in English folksong
Reto Bieri, Dirk Mommertz
Rebecca Clarke Viola Sonata
Marc Sabbah, Polina Leschenko
Shape of my Heart – Hugo Ticciati, Priya Mitchell, Reto Bieri, O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra
Thur 26th September
SJE Arts at St John the Evangelist Church
7.30pm
Purcell Rondo from Abdelazer
Celtic traditional music
Finzi Romance from Five Bagatelles, op.2
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Britten Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge
Arrangements of songs by Radiohead, Sting, and Pink Floyd
Two contrasting 20th-century works: Vaughan Williams’ English summer and Britten’s tribute to mentor Frank Bridge, with variations showing personality.
Sacrifices – Julius Drake, Priya Mitchell, Dirk Mommertz and friends
Fri 27th September
Holywell Music Room
1.00pm
MacMillan Kiss on wood
Priya Mitchell, Dirk Mommertz
Sally Beamish The Flittin’
Priya Mitchell, Reto Bieri
Elgar Piano quintet, op.84
Julius Drake, Priya Mitchell, Tetiana Lutsyk, Marc Sabbah, Brian O’Kane
Elgar’s magnificent piano quintet is one of his last masterpieces, written around the end of the Great War which destroyed the world he had grown up in.
A Little Known Masterpiece: Schubert’s Grand Duo – Elisabeth Leonskaja and Julius Drake
Fri 27th September
Holywell Music Room
6.00pm
An unmissable opportunity to hear one of the keyboard giants, Elizabeth Leonskaja, on a rare visit to the UK, playing a composer very close to her heart.
Schubert Grand Duo
Elisabeth Leonskaja and Julius Drake
Hidden Treasures – Natalie Clein, Julius Drake, Hugo Ticciati, Reto Bieri and friends
Fri 27th September
Holywell Music Room
8.00pm
From 16th-century William Byrd, a great Renaissance composer, to Henry Purcell, who defined Restoration London and Britten’s 1970s string innovations.
Purcell Chacony
Hugo Ticciati, Priya Mitchell, Sascha Bota, Brian O’Kane, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm
Gibbons Fantasia of foure parts
Dirk Mommertz
Byrd Pavana Lachrymae (after John Dowland) and The Bells
Dirk Mommertz
Bull In Nomine IV
Julius Drake, Reto Bieri, Brian O’Kane
Britten Cello suite no.3, op.87
Natalie Clein
Tavener Dhyana
Hugo Ticciati, Priya Mitchell, Tetiana Lutsyk, Linda Suohlahti, Sascha Bota, Marc Sabbah, Claude Frochaux, Brian O’Kane, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm
Tavener Hidden Treasure
Tetiana Lutsyk, Linda Suolahti, Sascha Bota, Claude Frochaux
Workshop Lovers of Story and Song
Sat 28th September
Core Music Studio
11.00am
Singer and performer Emma Bonnici presents a unique workshop for lovers of story and song.
This practice based workshop focuses on the initiation of folk songs and its roots in landscape and a life lived- its trials and growths.
Radiance, Romance and a Rocket – Natalie Clein, Priya Mitchell, Linda Suolahti and friends
Sat 28th September
Holywell Music Room
1.00pm
An 18th-century manuscript found at Christ Church revealed Handel’s chamber version of Water Music, originally composed for a Royal Thames pageant.
Handel The ‘Oxford’ Water Music – chamber suite
Linda Suolahti, Tetiana Lutsyk, Sascha Bota, Brian O’Kane, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm
E.J. Moeran Prelude for cello and piano
Brian O’Kane, Dirk Mommertz
Jennifer Walshe That’s a lot of money at the top of a rocket
Natalie Clein
Deborah Pritchard Radiance
Natalie Clein
Vaughan Williams Romance
Priya Mitchell, Dirk Mommertz
Bridge Phantasy piano quartet
Dirk Mommertz, Tetiana Lutsyk, Marc Sabbah, Brian O’Kane
Singing England – Steve Roud
Sat 28th September
Bodleian Weston Library, Lecture Theatre
3.00pm
Join Steve Roud, author of Folk Song in England, for a talk on the history of English folk songs. Book signing of his recently published ‘Singing England’ at the event.
Farewell! – Polina Leschenko, Julius Drake, Priya Mitchell and friends
Sat 28th September
Holywell Music Room
7.30pm
Vaughan Williams’ Piano Quintet; Finzi’s pastoral Eclogue; Delius’ romanticism; Elgar’s early Serenade. We end with a beautiful Scottish farewell.
Delius Violin sonata, op. posth.
Priya Mitchell, Polina Leschenko
Elgar Larghetto from Serenade for strings, op.20
All strings
Finzi Eclogue, for solo piano and strings, op.10
Julius Drake, all strings
Vaughan Williams Piano quintet
Dirk Mommertz, Priya Mitchell, Marc Sabbah, Brian O’Kane, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm
Peter Maxwell Davies Farewell to Stromness
All strings
OCMF 2024 Dinner Party with artists
Sat 28th September
Vaults & Garden
9.30pm
Join the artists and OCMF team to celebrate the close of our 2024 festival. There will be special performances alongside 2-course dinner and wine.
FRIENDS MEMBERS & FESTIVAL PASS HOLDERS: Enjoy priority queuing at concerts and invitations to meet the artists after concerts
Our Friends members have been the cornerstone of our support each year, enabling us to deliver unforgettable concerts for the past 24 years. As a Friend you have:
- special access to receptions and dinners with artists during the festival and throughout the year
- priority queuing at the festival to have entry before general ticket bookers to choose the best seatsWe are hosting a very special opening night reception at Christ Church Cathedral to mingle with the performers of the 2024 festival.Monday 23rd Sept, post-concert (c. 9.30pm) – Opening night Friends & Festival Pass Holders reception with Quatuor Ébène and the festival artists and teamThe reception is open to our Friends and Festival Pass Holders only. Buy your membership below, or your festival pass above, to join us at this.
As well as the exclusive access your Membership affords you, it will also help us sustain and enhance the magical experience of our festival for future audiences.
Free Ticket details
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- Free tickets for 8-25 year olds Limited number available through the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust – book through the Tickets Oxford website.