Our first venture in this field was the Austro-Hungarian Music Festival in 1994, which has become an annual event. This was joined three years later by the biennial Rhine Valley Music Festival. For both of these, the audience lives for the week on a river cruiser.
Land-based international music festivals began with Venice in 1999, and Prague, Rome, Castile, Vienna, St Petersburg, Thuringia and Saxony (The Bach Journey), Seville, Naples and Mozart in the (Italian) Marches have followed.
These all-inclusive international music festivals comprise some of the most musically rewarding and intellectually stimulating classical music holidays available.
In 2003 Martin Randall Music Management took over the running of Music at the Castle – the thirty-year-old chamber music festival at the Castle Hotel in Taunton, Somerset, an ideal location for a less strenuous, shorter classical music holiday in the UK, with performances by some of the world’s leading musicians.
The following festivals are taking place in 2010:
Music at the Castle 2010
• The Fitzwilliam Quartet 15–17 January 2010
• The Wihan Quartet 19–21 February 2010
• The Schumann Weekend 12–14 March 2010
• Vienna Piano Trio 16–18 April 2010
Music in Palladian Villas 10–14 May 2010
The J S Bach Journey 20–26 June 2010
The Danube Music Festival 20–27 August 2010