Festival with a difference

Unlike other festivals, where artists arrive with a well-rehearsed programme, play and leave, the 20 musicians playing in the Wye Valley festival meet at Treowen Manor, an ancient pile outside Monmouth, to rehearse an entirely new programme and play concerts in some of the best venues in the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean.

Following the opening concert, the festival moves to Wyastone Concert Hall on Saturday then Hereford's Holy Trinity Church on Tuesday, January 15, back to St Briavels on January 16 and ending at Hellens Manor with an afternoon concert on Sunday, January 20.

The music, mostly from Vienna, will include such masterpieces as Beethoven's String Quartet op 130 and Archduke Trio, Schubert's Trout Quintet, Berg's Lyric Suite and Strauss' Metamorphosen and feature pieces from Vienna's 20th century masters like Mahler, Webern, Berg and Zemlinsk, with each concert featuring a different mix of musicians.

Dan Tong, who founded the festival, continues as its artistic director, along with the highly-acclaimed pianist, Simon Crawford-Phillips. Many of the players who came to the earlier festivals as bright young singletons have, over the years, metamorphosed into couples with small children.

Violinist Ben Nabarro with Israeli violinist Anna Safanova; pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips with Swedish violinist Malin Broman, French cellist Pierre Doumenge with Finnish pianist Annika Palm.

Tickets are available in Hereford at the Outback, Church St, in Ross-on-Wye at the Tourist Information Centre, in Monmouth at GTS in Agincourt Street and in Chepstow at the bookshop in St Mary Street. Call 07812 633 923 (9am to 5pm) a day before each concert to check the chances of getting tickets at the door.

For full details of the festival, click on the link below.