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Ensemble 360 & Elizabeth Watts - A Schubertiade
Ensemble 360
Elizabeth Watts soprano
Formed originally in 2005 by Music in the Round as its resident ensemble, to continue the great legacy of the Lindsay Quartet, Ensemble 360 now performs all over the UK and abroad, boasting a glowing reputation for the outstanding quality of its performances, the breadth of its work and its passion for reaching new audiences. In 2023 Ensemble 360’s significant contribution to the UK’s chamber music scene was acknowledged in a shortlisting for the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award, and their recording “Pierrot Portraits” with soprano Claire Booth, to mark the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth, was released on Onyx Classics in September 2024 to critical acclaim in the press.
With a voice described by International Record Review as “one of the most beautiful Britain has produced in a generation” Elizabeth Watts is “now established as one of Britain’s leading sopranos” (The Guardian). A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Elizabeth is much in demand as a recitalist at the UK’s leading venues and festivals.
Franz Liszt dubbed Schubert ‘the most poetic of composers’. Few would disagree. No music seems to speak to us more directly, or more touchingly. Paradoxically, Schubert is at once the most friendly of the great composers, and the one who expresses most piercingly a Romantic sense of separation and ‘otherness’; a creator of some of the world’s most lovable melodies who is also revered for his visionary approach to harmony.
During his short life, spent almost entirely in Vienna, Schubert was known overwhelmingly for his songs and shorter piano works. Many of these were first performed at the parties that came to be known as Schubertiades: evenings of music and dancing. This weekend we hear the ever-fresh ’Trout’ Quintet’ and the sublime String Quintet, beloved of Desert Island Discs castaways, as well as relative rarities such as the C major violin-piano Fantasy and the cantata for voice, horn and piano ‘Auf dem Strom’, composed as a tribute to Beethoven on the anniversary of his death.
Other perennial favourites in our Schubert celebration include the darkly dramatic ‘Death and the Maiden’ String Quartet and the E flat Piano Trio, with its haunting slow movement said to be based on a Swedish song. No Schubertiade would be complete without a smattering of piano dances, where Schubert raises popular art to a new level of poetry. And if you have eight players on hand, what could make a better ending than the colourful, life-affirming Octet?
Brochure
Itinerary
Concert 1: Friday 17 April, 5.30pm
Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F, D.487
Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821
String Quartet No. 14 ‘Death & the Maiden’
Concert 2: Saturday 18 April, 10.30am
Selection of Lieder
Piano Trio No.2 in E flat major, D.929
Concert 3: Saturday 18 April, 5.30pm
Fantasie in C major for Violin and Piano, D.934
String Quintet in C major, Op.163, D.956
Concert 4: Sunday 19 April, 10.30am
Auf dem Strom, D.943
The Shepherd on the Rock, D.965
Piano Quintet in A major, D.667, ‘The Trout’
Concert 5: Sunday 19 April, 5.30pm
Selection of Impromptus
Selection of German Dances
Octet in F major, D.803
Expert speaker
Mr Richard Wigmore
Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and has taught classes in Lieder history and interpretation at the Guildhall, Trinity College of Music and Birkbeck College. He read French and German at Cambridge and later studied Music at the Guildhall. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn. Twitter: @wigmoresworld | Website: wigmoresworld.co.uk
More tours led by Mr Richard Wigmore
Practicalities
Two sharing:
Standard double US$2,430
Garden Room US$2,730
Single occupancy:
Single bedded room US$2,160
Double for sole use US$2,610
Garden Room US$2,880
Five concerts, talks on the music, accommodation for three nights, breakfasts, three afternoon teas, three dinners, interval drinks, programme, tips for hotel staff.
The Castle is renowned for its excellent service, for comforts traditional and modern, and for its superb catering. It has been owned and run by the Chapman family for over 60 years. Chamber music events have been held here since 1977, and Martin Randall Travel took over the running of them in 2003.
The hotel’s bedrooms are individually and charmingly decorated. Doubles and twins are mainly of a good size, and the largest – the Garden Rooms – overlook the garden.
There is no single-occupancy supplement for the rooms with single beds. The majority of rooms have a bath with a shower fitment.
The hotel has a lift, though some bedrooms are then accessed via stairs. The Music Room is on a mezzanine level, up a flight of stairs from the lobby.
Taunton lies on the doorstep of Exmoor and the Quantocks, areas with some of the loveliest countryside in England.
Start and finish times. The event begins on Friday 17th April with afternoon tea available from 3.00–5.00pm (check in is from 3.00pm). The final concert ends at c. 7.45pm on Sunday 19th April, followed by dinner in the hotel. Check-out is by 11am on Monday 20th April.
Dates & prices
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2026
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
17th - 20th April 2026
Speaker:
Mr Richard Wigmore
Price:
from US$2,430
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