The Bath International Music Festival, after nearly being subsumed entirely in the Literature Festival (I didn’t go to any of the handful of concerts in it last year as it clashed with my Romanian choir tour) now no longer runs concurrently with it and there was a satisfactory selection of concerts.
Others in the family went to a couple of piano recitals: firstly, Richard Goode playing Beethoven’s last three Sonatas (and op. 119 Bagatelles) in St Mary’s Bathwick. Goode is an undemonstrative pianist and his interpretations of his chosen repertoire have been refined over the years; with him, you know what you are getting. Later, Ethan Loch in St Swithin’s Church played some of his own compositions amongst other things including Liszt’s sonata and Chopin’s third Scherzo. It seemed that he had carefully chosen repertoire that suited him, though without much dynamic variation, even in the Liszt! The Chopin seemed to suit him best; his own compositions were not especially interesting.
I went to the last concert of all (thereby getting a free Festival programme), Brecon Baroque also in St Swithin’s Church. This was ‘The Muses Restor’d’: sequences of pieces from the English 17th and early 18th century, many by composers I hadn’t previously encountered, although Purcell, Blow and Handel also featured. Some had drawn on folk music (chiefly Scottish) for their inspiration, and much of it was suitable for dancing, which brought it close to the folk fiddle repertoire I heard a few years ago. As you would expect, there was a handsome array of instruments including an archlute (or was it a theorbo? I’m never quite sure how to distinguish them.)
Soon after the Festival ended we received our Mozartfest 2026 brochures. For a time the Mozartfest overtook the International Music Festival for its calibre of performers; I’d say they are currently about level.