NEW IN 2011: A Festival of Music in Florence (23-29 October 2011)

Ten concerts of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque performed in appropriate historic settings, including private palaces, the Uffizi, and the Basilica of San Lorenzo.

Universally known as the crucible of change in the field of the visual arts, ‘the cradle of the Renaissance’ was also an integral centre for the development of music, with Florence’s huge cultural and political prestige attracting the finest musicians from all over Europe.

The music in this new, all-inclusive festival (the latest addition to our series of own-brand music festivals) ranges from 14th-century devotional songs to Puccini’s string quartet, from bawdy ditties of the Early Renaissance to the magnificent celebrations of a Grand Ducal wedding. Medici patronage accounts for much of the programme, among which are the extraordinary sixty part mass written in 1566 by Alessandro Striggio, the most ambitious piece of music of its time.

The performers we have selected are Italian and British musicians of the highest calibre, leading specialists in their genre: Modo Antiquo, The Fitzwilliam String Quartet, I Fagiolini, La Reverdie, the Orlando Consort, Mark Tucker & Paola Chateauneuf, and Il Ricercar Continuo. The concert venues range from Brunelleschi’s Basilica of San Lorenzo to a private palace on the western periphery, from the exquisite Gothic church of Santa Trinita to the Uffizi, Italy’s most important art museum.

All the concerts are private, access being exclusive to those who purchase a package which includes not only all the concerts but also hotel, flights, coach travel, lectures, many meals and many other services. Starting at £4,600 per person, the festival package includes:
Ten concerts, access to which is exclusive to those who take the festival package.
Accommodation for six nights in one of six carefully selected hotels within the historic centre of Florence.

Flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick to Pisa, Florence and Bologna. There is a price reduction for those that make their own arrangements for travelling to Florence.
Coach transfers from the Italian airports to the hotels and vice versa.
Meals: four dinners, all with wine, water and coffee, and all breakfasts. Interval drinks are provided during some concerts.
Lectures on the music by renowned musicologist and broadcaster Roderick Swanston.
All tips for restaurant staff, porters.
All taxes and obligatory charges.

In addition, there are extra services which can be booked:
The option of arriving a day early, with drinks reception and dinner.
An optional package of two dinners, which means each evening is spent in the company of other festival participants.
A range of visits and short walks led by art historians and appropriate experts.

During the festival there will be a team of Italian-speaking staff to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and every participant is provided with comprehensive information in a printed programme.