Music
We break our music-themed tours into “Lives of Great Composers”, in which we visit the places closely associated with great composers, where we learn about their lives and hear their music, and “Great Musical Breaks” which take us to a single destination with multiple connections. Of course, concert programmes are constant only in their variety, but as soon as we know your dates and destinations, we shall advise on recitals and other performances which might fit with your tour.
Whichever tour you choose, you may be sure that we can recommend visits to sites of interest in the neighbourhood.
Choose your tour below
Great Composers - JS Bach
Our tour follows the journey through life of Johann Sebastian Bach, starting in Eisenach, where he was born, through Arnstadt, where he was appointed as church organist at the tender age of 18. Just outside Arnstadt is Dornheim where we visit the church in which he married Marie Barbara when he was 22. On to Weimar, where he remained for nine years as organist and chamber musician. The final stage of the tour takes us to Leipzig, where he worked for more than a quarter of a century and in whose Thomaskirche he is buried.At each stage of the tour, we hear his music, performed on church organs and on contemporary keyboards. In Leipzig, depending on dates, we attend a recital by the world famous boys choir of the Thomaskirche.
Great Composers - Mozart / Haydn
If Mozart is your choice, your tour starts in Salzburg where he was born in 1756 and which he finally left for Vienna in 1781. We visit the house in which he was born, and that where he lived from the age of seventeen until his departure. We also visit the Mozarteum which researches his life and work.Vienna is the connection between the lives of these two renowned musicians, and it is here that our tour continues with a suitably themed guided walk, which can include either or both (and even add in Beethoven and Strauss, if you wish). An excursion to Eisenstadt brings us to to the Esterhazy Palace where Haydn worked as court musician for over thirty years and where he is buried.
Musical Break - Budapest
The Hungarian capital is a great destination for so many reasons, not least of which is its connections with Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly. Our tour takes in the places associated with these three greats of Hungarian music – the buildings where they lived and worked. We also sit in on a chamber music class at the Franz Liszt Musical Academy.
Musical Break -Leipzig
A short break in Leipzig gives the chance to sample so many different aspects of music that we are really spoiled for choice. Of course there is the Thomaskirche Boys Choir and the Bach Archive just across the road from the church, but we may also visit the Mendelssohn House for a recital and museum visit. The Musical Instruments Museum contains the world’s first fortepiano from 1726 and also the oldest clavichord, dating from 1542. Robert and Clara Schumann spent their first years of marriage together here in Leipzig and their apartment is now a museum. And have we mentioned Telemann, Wagner, Grieg and Mahler?
Musical Break - Vienna
The greatness of Vienna came when it was capital of an empire, but the atmosphere of the city suggests that this was only in the recent past. During those years, Vienna was home at different times to Mozart, Johann Strauss, Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, Gluck, Salieri (to name but a few, as they say).