BATH MUSIC FESTIVAL: BIGGER AND BETTER FOR 2025
Bath Festivals is delighted to present Bath Music Festival 2025, with a stellar programme of internationally renowned artists. This May’s curated collection of concerts in some of Bath’s most beautiful buildings sees twice as many events as 2024, with pieces from the classical canon, including Beethoven, JS Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Brahms, alongside some Renaissance masterpieces by Byrd and Palestrina, as well as an evening of raucous drinking songs.
The Bath Music Festival will run from Saturday 17 May to Sunday 25 May.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Tuesday 21 January.
Patrons, Benefactors and Gold and Silver Members have priority booking from Friday 17 January, while festival friends, sponsors and partners can buy tickets from Monday 20 January.
This year’s classical artists: The Marian Consort, Stile Antico, Marmen Quartet, cellist Guy Johnston, guitarist Sean Shibe, tenor Ben Johnson, pianist Janeba Kanneh-Mason, Ensemble Moliere, Fibonacci String Quartet, violinist Elena Urioste, flautist Adam Walker, clarinettist Yann Ghiro, pianist Tom Poster, The Chamber Orchestra of the West.
Bath Music Festival’s classical music programmer James Waters said: “The 2025 Bath Music Festival has something for everyone. Fabulous choral music from Stile Antico and The Marian Consort, great chamber music from the Marmen and Fibonacci String Quartets, all of Bach’s unforgettable cello suites with Guy Johnston and three performances by our artist in residence the world-leading guitarist, Sean Shibe. All of the above together with a virtuoso performance of Mendelssohn’s amazing Octet and a star piano recital by Jeneba Kanneh-Mason form part of a programme of fabulous music-making performed by great artists. See you there!”
Buy your tickets: https://bathfestivals.org.uk/the-bath-festival/whats-on/
You can also buy tickets from Bath Box Office, by phone on 01225 463362, Monday to Friday 10am- 5pm, or in person during those hours at Bath Box Office counter, 1A Forum Buildings, St James’ Parade, BATH BA1 1UG.
The full programme:
WILLIAM BYRD: SINGING IN SECRET
The Marian Consort, with director Rory McCleery
Saturday 17 May, 7:30pm
Bath Abbey
Tickets: £45 / £35 / £20 / £10
£10 concession* (exc. fees)
Programme includes Byrd’s Mass in four parts.
William Byrd, arguably the greatest of English Renaissance composers, lived and worked as a Catholic in England at a time when to do so meant constantly courting danger. Despite this, Byrd wrote a huge amount of music for the Catholic liturgy and this programme is woven around his unforgettable four-part mass. The Marian Consort is one of today’s most renowned choral ensembles and ideal for this repertoire.
‘Singing one person to a part, The Marian Consort gives sublimely refined, spacious and impeccably tuned performances.’ – The Sunday Times
MARMEN STRING QUARTET
Sunday 18 May, 2.30pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Tickets: £35, £25, £15,
£10 concession*(exc. fees)
Three timeless masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire are performed by the Marmen String Quartet, one of today’s most exciting young ensembles. Haydn is the only composer who can make you laugh out loud, and his Joke quartet Op 33 No 2 in E flat opens this programme which ends with Mozart’s String Quartet in C major K465 Dissonance, dedicated to Haydn. The programme is completed by Ravel’s gorgeous masterwork, marking the composer’s 150th anniversary year.
‘The Marmens succeeded in wringing every last drop of turbulent yearning and passion.’ Bachtrack
GUY JOHNSTON PLAYS THE BACH CELLO SUITES OVER THREE CONCERTS
Bach’s Cello Suites are among his very finest compositions. The achievement of creating a huge variety of emotions and virtuoso techniques on one solo instrument is quite extraordinary. One of today’s leading cellists Guy Johnston will play all six suites over three concerts, taking us on a wonderful musical journey.
Monday 19 May, 1pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011
Wednesday 21 May, 1pm
Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009
Suite No. 4 in E♭ major, BWV 1010
Friday 23 May, 1pm
Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008
Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012
Tickets: £20 unreserved
£10 concession * (exc. fees)
‘Guy Johnston gives a towering performance that responds to the score’s every shift in mood with complete assurance.’ BBC Music Magazine
BAWDY SONG: SEAN SHIBE AND BEN JOHNSON
Monday 19 May, 7:30pm
Upstairs at Bath Pizza Co, above Green Park Brasserie, Bath BA1 1JB
Tickets: £35
£10 concession*(exc. fees)
Sean Shibe, guitar
Ben Johnson, tenor
Raucous drinking songs and lusty declarations of heartbreak come together in an energising selection of lute-song and folk arrangements. William Walton and Benjamin Britten illuminate Tudor texts and familiar tunes in their own inimitable styles, by turn haunting and hilarious. Prefacing that, England’s Elizabethan lutenist-composers demonstrate a sublime understanding of vocal melody and laconic affect while 20th and 21st century composers allude to Baroque masters obliquely – homage and spectacle culminating in Thomas Adès’s devastatingly beautiful realisation of Purcell’s Evening Hymn.
‘Shibe’s music-making is masterful, beautiful and convincing in every way.’ The Times
This concert is kindly sponsored by William and Wera Hobhouse
SEAN SHIBE IN RECITAL
Tuesday 20 May, 1pm
St Mary’s Bathwick, Bathwick, Bath BA2 4EB
Tickets: £35, £25, £15,
£10 concession* (exc. fees)
Programme includes:
Bach Suite BWV 1012
Frank Martin Quatre pièces brèves
Adès Forgotten Dances
These three suites explore relationships to baroque dance – each work in some sense ‘forgotten’. Martin’s Quatre Pièces Brèves, written for (but neglected by) Segovia, lay unplayed until Julian Bream championed the suite in the 1960s; the first recorded performance of Bach’s Cello Suites was over 100 years after they were likely written. Thomas Adès’s Forgotten Dances invokes a stunning range of past composers and artists. In his 6th Cello Suite Bach is at his most futuristic.
‘What’s really striking is the way in which Shibe sustains a world of intensity and introspection through playing that buzzes with vitality. The attention to detail in his playing is breathtaking; nothing interrupts the flow of the music, and nothing is done purely for effect.’ The Guardian
This concert is kindly sponsored by Evelyn Strasburger
JUKE BOX with ELENA URIOSTE and TOM POSTER
Tuesday 20 May, 7.30pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Tickets: £35, £25, £15,
£10 concession* (exc. fees)
Mozart: Violin Sonata in A major, K. 305
Lekeu: Violin Sonata in G major
Selections from UriPosteJukeBox
Juke Box was the self-isolation brainchild of these two fabulous musicians, violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster, devised to keep their minds sharp, their fingers busy and the online community smiling during the first pandemic lockdown. Inspired by suggestions from social media friends and followers they posted a new performance each day which included music ranging from Fauré to Cole Porter, and from the Baroque to Jerome Kern and Mark Simpson. Their eclectic, barrier-breaking choice of music, including new commissions, lives on.
‘Warm lyricism in a deft mix of old and new works’ – The Guardian
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF THE WEST plays MENDELSSOHN’S OCTET
Thursday 22 May, 4.30pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Tickets: £35, £25, £15, £10 concession* (exc. fees)
Hildegard von Bingen: O Virtus Sapientiae (arr. Jackie Shave)
Glass: String Quartet No 2 ‘Company’
Brahms: String Sextet No 1 in B flat Op 18
Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat major Op 20
Elena Urioste, violin
Chamber Orchestra of the West
Jackie Shave director
Chamber Orchestra of the West is a brilliant new ensemble led by director Jackie Shave, with one of today’s leading violinists Elena Urioste and a fabulous set of solo players. Mendelssohn’s Octet is a piece of sparkling charm and virtuosity written when the composer was only 16 years old. Brahms’s B flat Sextet is quite simply one of the most irresistible of all chamber works.
STILE ANTICO: PALESTRINA, THE PRINCE OF MUSIC
Wednesday 21 May, 7:30pm
Venue: Bath Abbey
Tickets: £45 / £35 / £20 / £10
£10 concession* (exc. fees)
Music by Palestrina with works by Victoria, Josquin, Arcadelt, Anerio, Lassus and Cheryl Frances Hoad.
Stile Antico, one of the world’s leading a cappella ensembles make a welcome return after a stellar performance at The Bath Festival 2024. Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s remarkable career was inextricably entwined with the Papacy and the great churches of Rome, for which he composed five centuries ago. 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 and excerpts from the timeless masterpiece Missa Papae Marcelli.
This concert is kindly sponsored by Heritage Events Ltd.
JENEBA KANNEH-MASON: PIANO RECITAL
Friday 23 May, 7:30pm
The Bath Forum
Tickets: £41, £31, £21 £11, (£11 student/U18 in Band B/C)
This includes a £1 venue restoration and improvement levy. (exc. fees)
Bach Partita No. 5
Beethoven Sonata No. 17 in D minor ‘Tempest’
Chopin Nocturnes Nos 7 and 8
Still Summerland
Debussy La fille aux cheveux de lin
Debussy Bruyères
Price Fantasie Nègre
A member of the extraordinary Kanneh-Mason family, who last performed together at The Bath Festival in 2018, Jeneba made her debut on the international scene at the BBC Proms, performing the Florence Price Concerto and was much heralded by the press. Now an exclusive Sony Classical Artist, Jeneba’s debut solo album will be released this spring. She now performs worldwide both in recital and with major orchestras. Her programme is a fantastic combination of gorgeous music, ranging from the high baroque of Bach and the classical drive of Beethoven to the impressionistic perfection of Debussy’s Preludes. This prodigiously talented young pianist will also be adding a dash of American flavour to this evening programme. This concert is kindly supported by Wessex Water.
‘Price could have no more persuasive an advocate (than Jeneba Kanneh-Mason).’ The Guardian
STEVE REICH COUNTERPOINTS
Saturday 24 May, 3pm
St Mary’s Church, Bathwick, Bath BA2 4EB
Tickets: £35, £25, £15, £10 concession* (exc. fees)
Adam Walker flute
Yann Ghiro clarinet
Sean Shibe guitar
Reich: Vermont Counterpoint
Reich: New York Counterpoint
Reich: Electric Counterpoint
With works by JS Bach and Arvo Pärt
Steve Reich wrote amazing solo works for guitar (Electric Counterpoint), clarinet (New York Counterpoint) and flute (Vermont Counterpoint). Sean has invited two friends to join him for three of these miniature minimalist masterpieces and other works involving flute, clarinet and guitar.
‘Shibe’s music-making is masterful, beautiful and convincing in every way.’ The Times.
FIBONACCI STRING QUARTET
Saturday 24 May, 7:30pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Tickets: £35, £25, £15, £10 concession* (exc. fees)
Haydn: String Quartet in B flat, Op.76 No.4 The Sunrise
Smetana: String Quartet in E minor, From My Life
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131
It is hard to imagine a richer quartet programme. Haydn’s great Sunrise quartet is coupled with the unashamed Bohemian romanticism of Smetana’s From My Life. Beethoven’s Op 131 quartet has long been regarded as one of the great musical and emotional journeys. Schumann said of Beethoven’s late quartets ‘They seem to me to stand . . .on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination.’
This concert is kindly sponsored by Jimmy and Hiroko Sherwin.
BAROQUE AT ITS BEST
ENSEMBLE MOLIERE – THE DANCING STAR
Sunday 25 May, 3pm
St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Tickets: £35, £25, £15, £10 concession* (exc. fees)
Campra: Ouverture from Tancrède
Handel: Entrée des songes from Alcina
Rameau: Suites from Dardanus
Handel: Suites from Terpsicore
Rameau: Les Fleurs Suites from Les Indes Galantes
Rebel: Les Caractères de la danse
Ensemble Molière, a brilliant period ensemble who have been BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, bring a delectable programme of dance music by two very different geniuses, Handel and Rameau. The juxtaposition of German and French high Baroque music with a bit of Italian music thrown in for good measure.
‘Ensemble Molière are clearly totally absorbed into the French Baroque style of performing, their eloquent playing revealing the sensitivities and bon goût that the genre demands.’- Early Music Review
Booking fees and concessions
All tickets are subject to a fee of 10%
All orders are subject to a booking fee of £1.50
Concession prices are available to under 26s, full-time students, Jobseekers Allowance Receivers, Pension Credit Receivers and visitors with a disability. Concession seating will be in the balcony, rear and sides of the venue. Only one concession may apply per ticket.
An Essential Companion (carer) ticket will still be available to those who require one. This will be across all prices and is a free ticket. Group Discounts: Bath Festivals offer one free seat for every ten purchased for the same event when booked at the same time.
Bath Festivals 2025
Bath Festivals presents Bath Music Festival and Bath Literature Festival in May 2025, with the two festivals running concurrently, from Saturday 17 May to Sunday 25 May.
Party in the City, the annual celebration of live music which traditionally launches the festival season, will take place on Friday 16 May at dozens of city centre venues.
Follow us on social media: @bathmusicfest @bathlitfest #BathMusicFest25 #BathLitFest25.