Sunday 22 March 2026 3.00pm
Christ Church, Avenue Road, Malvern WR14 3AY
Orchestra Pro Anima
Directed from the violin by Michael Bochmann MBE
Piano soloist: Tim Sidford
Orchestra Pro Anima will perform music covering the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras, including a Mozart Piano Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
‘Each work illuminated the expressive power of strings, whether in intimate reflection or collective exuberance. Brian Owen (Worcester News)
Tim Sidford – ‘ … a soloist centre-stage and in full command.’ ’ Peter Williams (formerly
Hereford Times)
The concert opens with a much-loved Concerto Grosso by Corelli in which the dialogue between the solo instruments and the orchestra is particularly telling. There follows a well-known Vivaldi Concerto in which the texture of the four violin solo parts is constantly varied. To complete the first half, the fine pianist Tim Sidford is the soloist in a most charming, intimate Mozart Piano Concerto.
Tim begins the second half with Chopin’s exquisite G minor Ballade, a most poetic work in which virtuosity is at the service of art. The orchestra then returns, with Michael Bochmann as soloist, in Vaughan Williams’ famous, highly evocative The Lark Ascending. The programme finishes with Holst’s lyrical Brook Green Suite, the concluding Dance of which provides a most vibrant end to the concert.
| Corelli | Concerto Grosso in D major Op 6 No 4 |
|---|---|
| Vivaldi | Concerto for four violins in B minor RV580 |
| Mozart | Piano Concerto No 12 in A major K414 |
| Chopin | Ballade No 1 in G minor Op 23 (piano solo) |
| Vaughan Williams | The Lark Ascending |
| Holst | Brook Green Suite H190 |
Tickets : £22 and £17 students half-price and free entry for children aged 10 and under from
online at www.courtyard.org.uk
and Malvern TIC, The Lyttelton Well Courtyard, 6 Church Street, Malvern WR14 2AY
(01684 892289)
Saturday 16 May 2026 7.00pm
Lion Ballroom, off Broad Street, Leominster HR6 8BT
Bochmann String Trio
Michael Bochmann (violin)
Carol Hubel-Allen (viola)
Nicola Tait Baxter (cello)
The highly acclaimed Bochmann String Trio play an exciting early composition by Beethoven; a folk-inspired work by the Hungarian composer Kodály; and Mozart’s sublime Divertimento for String Trio K563.
Michael Bochmann – ‘ … treated us to an endless flow of golden melody.’ Daily Telegraph
Carol Hubel-Allen – ‘ … her playing is always a delight.’ The Sanctuary Studio and Gallery, Newnham on Severn
Nicola Tait Baxter – ‘… performed in an intoxicating and beautiful way.’ The Bremervorde Regional Art and Music Festival, Lower Saxony, Germany
The Bochmann String Trio, favourites at the Lion Ballroom, open their programme with an early work by Beethoven, one of great youthful energy in which there are glimpses of what was to come from this great genius. Kodály’s compositions are infused with the folk music of his homeland of Hungary and this is reflected in his serenade-like Intermezzo which follows. In the second half there is just one work: Mozart’s expansive six-movement Divertimento K563, a work of ever-changing beauty.
| Beethoven | String Trio in D major Op 9 No 2 |
|---|---|
| Kodály | Intermezzo for String Trio |
| Mozart | Divertimento for String Trio in E flat major K563 |
Tickets : £20 (students half-price) from
online at www.courtyard.org.uk
Saturday 18 July 2026 at 7.30pm
The Great Barn, Hellens Manor, Much Marcle, HR8 2LY
The celebrated French pianist PASCAL ROGÉ comes to Hellens
The celebrated French pianist Pascal Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe, often collaborating with the most famous conductors. As a prolific recording artist, he has won countless prestigious awards. He is especially renowned for his performances of the music of his homeland, exemplifying as he does the finest in French pianism. In such repertoire, which provides the music for Pascal’s entire recital at Hellens, his playing is noted for its wonderful elegance and very real beauty.
‘he produces beautiful sounds and has that kind of poetry peculiar to the French at their most sensitive
’ Naxos
The recital opens with three charming, engaging miniatures by Francis Poulenc, full of lyricism and wit. The suite of five pieces which make up Ravel’s Miroirs follows the Poulenc. The musical impressions, which abound in local colour, cover the flickering of moths at night; sorrowful birds in a forest; the dangers of a ship on the ocean; a dawn song; and the sonority of the tolling of bells. The first half ends with the pictorial imagery of Debussy’s Estampes: the ‘engravings’ are of pagodas, an evening in Granada and raindrops in a garden. Book I of Debussy’s Preludes, comprising twelve self-contained evocative and atmospheric pieces, fills the second half: the subjects here include both a whispering and a terrifying wind; a melancholy winter landscape with footsteps in the snow; the legend of a submerged cathedral; and, most famously, ‘the girl with the flaxen hair’.
| Poulenc | Trois Novelettes |
|---|---|
| Miroirs | Miroirs |
| Debussy | Estampes |
| Debussy | Preludes Book 1 |
Tickets £22 (students in full-time education and carers free) from Hellens at www.hellensmanor.com and shortly at The Courtyard, Hereford on 01432 340555