Fiori Musicali

Castle Ashby NN7 1LQ  Castle Ashby Church, Northampton (9 miles), NN7 1LQ  Sunday 27th July 2025 The Castle Ashby Concert part of Fiori Musicali’s summer series 2025 - Hortus Musicus - the musical garden. The romantic Italian gardens at Castle Ashby with their topiary and orangery are the inspiration for our popular midsummer concert in the idyllic church at Castle Ashby. The nightingale makes a passing appearance in the music of Italian early baroque composer Merula.  Flute and recorder represent other members of the feathered world and Uccellini’s Sinfonie Boscarecie is a nod to the arboretum and parkland of this heavenly venue. Brandenburg too had wonderful baroque gardens, so JS Bach must make an appearance.  And an intriguing alternative portrayal of Summer from the Four Seasons captures the time of year – not by Vivaldi this time, but by his rarely heard Italian contemporary Giovanni Guido. Telemann - Violin concerto in A Imitiert die Reelinge Merula -  La lusignuola (the nightingale)  Uccellini  - Sinfonie Boscarecie no.34 ‘Gran Battaglia’  Telemann - Concerto for recorder & flute in E minor Guido - Summer from the Four Seasons  JS Bach - Brandenburg concerto no.4 Kerstin Linder Dewan solo violin, Eva Caballero flute/recorder, Heidi Fardell recorder with the Fiori Musicali Chamber Orchestra, Penelope Rapson harpsichord/director picnic from 4pm...

part of Fiori Musicali’s summer series 2025 – Hortus Musicus –the musical garden HAYDN THERESIENMESSE To wrap up Fiori’s Hortus Musicus series, the full quota of Fiori musicians will be at Fotheringhay (Mary Queen of Scots country).  But it isn’t the Tudor Queen we celebrate.  Instead we honour an Empress – Maria Theresa – whose baroque gardens at Schönbrunn (the main summer residence of the Hapsburg rulers) were an impressive symbol of imperial power.  So for our grand finale we perform Haydn’s Theresienmesse –  a splendidly regal tribute to the ‘musical garden’ replete with vocal soloists, choir and chamber orchestra. (With an aside to Mozart in arias from his youthful opera La  finta giardiniera). Fiori’s popular high summer concert in this iconic Northamptonshire church.   Mozart – Arias from La finta giardiniera Haydn – Theresienmesse Judit Felszeghy soprano, Edmund Hastings tenor, Andrew Tipple bass with the Fiori Musicali Chamber Choir & Fiori Musicali Chamber Orchestra, leader  Kerstin Linder-Dewan, Penelope Rapson conductor