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Music in

TOLEDO

CELEBRATING MUSIC AND PLACE 16–21 OCTOBER 2027

Exploring Spain’s rich musical heritage across the centuries

BEETHOVEN ALONG THE RHINE 5–12 MAY 2027 MUSIC IN PALLADIAN VILLAS 7–12 JUNE 2027 MUSIC ALONG THE DANUBE 8–15 JULY 2027 THE DIVINE OFFICE IN OXFORD 27 SEPTEMBER–1 OCTOBER 2027 OPERA IN SICILY 4–9 NOVEMBER 2027

Photograph: © Ben Ealovega.

Contents

4. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVAL

14.

24.

MEET THE MUSICIANS

TRAVEL OPTIONS

International musicians of the highest calibre.

6. THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME The day-by-day itinerary including details of the performances.

12. DISCOVER THE PLACE Toledo: with its ancient walls rising from the surrounding plain, both monumental and intimate.

19. ACCOMMODATION Choose between six 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels – five in the heart of Toledo and one overlooking the city.

A range of ways to travel to and from the festival.

25. BOOKING

Details of how to book.

26. PRE- AND POSTFESTIVAL TOURS

23.

Extend your stay in Spain or Portugal with a tour that has been designed to link with the festival.

EXPERT SPEAKERS Biographies for optional walks and visits lecturers.

Published: September 2026 WWW.MARTINRANDALL.COM

Introduction

MUSIC IN TOLEDO AN INTRODUCTION

When matching exceptional music with extraordinary places – the starting point for all my festival planning – it is easy to be drawn to the powerhouses of the Western tradition: Austria, Germany, Italy. But Spain was the dominant power in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and its musical life reflected that status. Some of the finest Renaissance and Baroque music is Spanish, yet much of it remains unknown. Nowhere makes the case better than Toledo – a city that sits outside the usual circuit of festival destinations, and deserves a place at its centre. As primatial church of Spain, the cathedral maintained a prodigious establishment of singers, organists and wind players (ministriles), and its goldenage chapel masters included Cristóbal de Morales, Bernardino de Ribera and Alonso Lobo. Its Renaissance manuscripts are the richest collection in the country. Two of the world’s finest vocal ensembles open and close this festival: the Tallis Scholars sing Victoria’s Good Friday Responsories and Allegri’s Miserere in the cathedral itself; The Sixteen bring Vivanco, Morales and Victoria to the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, performing music from the time of El Greco before his first major altarpiece.

modern expressionism. Dr Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, leads optional visits focussing on the painter, and experts Giles Tremlett and Gijs van Hensbergen lead walks on Toledo’s exceptionally rich history and gastronomy. The music is illuminated by a series of daily interviews with the musicians. Known as the ‘City of Three Cultures’, Toledo bears unique testimony to centuries of Christian, Jewish and Muslim life existing side by side. In its honour, ensemble Nereydas presents a programme of Sephardic music in the gorgeously intricate Sinagoga del Tránsito, and the daily schedule allows you to attend the distinctively Iberian Mozarabic Rite in the cathedral, still celebrated here daily nearly a thousand years after it was suppressed almost everywhere else.

El Greco lived in Toledo for almost 40 years, revolutionising religious art with a dramatic, visionary style that anticipated

The programme’s remaining concerts range as widely as Hispanic music itself. Ex Cathedra performs exuberant Latin American Baroque in San Juan de los Reyes, a 15th-century monastery built by the Catholic Monarchs who financed

Columbus. We hear two stars of the keyboard: Mahan Esfahani with Scarlatti sonatas in the Hospital de Tavera, and Judith Jáuregui who performs Postcards from Spain – Granados, Albéniz, Falla – in the Real Colegio de Doncellas Nobles. Finally, the Chamber Orchestra of Spain and guitarist José María Gallardo del Rey perform Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, after an excursion to the exquisite Palace of Aranjuez itself. Much of the city’s enchantment reveals itself around the concerts. Everything lies within walking distance: days begin with a stroll through lanes too steep and narrow for traffic, and end as the town quietly reclaims itself for the night. The stone holds the warmth; bells carry further than they should; and the ordinary business of a small provincial city carries on beneath centuries of extraordinary art. Lizzie Watson Artistic Director

Illustration: Toledo, bridge and cathedral, mezzotint c. 1920 by Fred Milland, after a painting c. 1900 by Henry Charles Brewer (1866 –1950).

Introduction

MARTIN RANDALL FESTIVALS

THE FESTIVAL PACKAGE The price includes:

Optional extras:

— All seven concerts.

—A choice of pre- and post-festival tours. See pages 26–27.

— A ccommodation for five nights – choose between six hotels. See pages 19–22. — B reakfasts, three dinners, one lunch, and interval drinks. — D aily interviews with the musicians, in a series of pre-concert talks. — Travel by comfortable private coach. — T he assistance of festival staff and a detailed programme booklet.

—A rriving a day early in your festival hotel. See page 6. — E xtra dinners, so that each evening is spent in the company of other participants. Details will be available at a later stage.

This festival follows the format that Martin Randall established over 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival, of site-specific concerts for a private audience. Since then we have organised festivals along the Rhine, Loire and Seine rivers, in Oxford, Suffolk, York, Lincoln, the Cotswolds and the West Country, to Valletta, Seville, Toledo, Burgos, Santiago, Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna, Sicily, the Veneto, to St Petersburg, Prague, through Thuringia, and the Alentejo.

— A range of walks and visits led by experts in history, art history and gastronomy. See page 23 for their biographies. Further details will be available at a later stage.

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The programme

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Arrive a day early

Day 1

Friday 15 October

Saturday 16 October

We are offering the option of arriving at your hotel in Toledo a day before the festival begins.

Fly from London to Madrid, or make your own way independently. Coach transfer to Toledo. For travel options, see page 24.

Depending on the arrival of your flight, there is free time to become acquainted with Toledo. Settle into your chosen hotel before a drinks reception and dinner. Illustration: Toledo, 20th-century etching.

The programme

Day 2 Sunday 17 October

There is a morning talk on the music, before the first concert. Santo Domingo el Antiguo is a Cistercian convent, founded in 1085 after Toledo’s recapture from the Moors. But it’s probably much older than that, dating back to the 6th century, when Toledo was the seat of Visigothic kings. The church was rebuilt in the 16th century, and possesses an altarpiece by El Greco. His first major commission in Spain after his arrival from Rome, it’s understandable from its quality why the work brought the Cretan master instant celebrity. El Greco himself was originally buried here. Concert, 11.00am: Santo Domingo el Antiguo The Sixteen Harry Christophers director

Some free time in the afternoon, or the option of walks and visits with one of our experts. Dinner is included for everyone before the evening concert. Austere on the outside, flamboyant within, the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes was founded by the all-conquering ‘Catholic Monarchs’, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, who united Spain in the 15th century and authorised and financed the 1492 expedition of Christopher Columbus. Built to celebrate their defeat of Afonso V of Portugal in 1476, it was originally intended as their mausoleum too, which explains the richness of the decoration and the unusually spacious layout. Concert, 9.00pm: Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes

The Music of El Greco’s Toledo This programme concentrates on Cristóbal de Morales, maestro de capilla at Toledo cathedral, and Sebastián de Vivanco. The range of emotion is staggering: Morales sets out a journey from sadness to great rejoicing in the highly impassioned setting of Jacob’s lament for his two sons (Lamentabatur Jacob) alongside an ebullient motet rejoicing in peace, Iubilate Deo omnis terra. Vivanco’s sumptuous eight-part Magnif icat octavi toni, lively and brilliantly scored, and the exotic ninepart Caritas Pater est are testament to his underappreciated talent. We will also hear from Vivanco’s contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria, with his bittersweet motet Versa est in luctum.

Ex Cathedra Consort & Baroque Ensemble Jeffrey Skidmore director Latin American Baroque: Ritual 1631 Singers, harp, guitar, bajón, strings, winds and percussion revel in colourful music sung in Latin, Spanish, Nahuatl and Quechua (the languages of the Aztecs and Incas) for a glorious fusion of musical styles from the Americas and Europe. The seminal Quencha hymn Hanacpachap cussicuinin, the oldest printed polyphony in the Americas, punctuates a grand tour of the continent, from the Mexico of Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla to the Brazilian and Bolivian traditions with Emerico Lobo de Mesquita and Juan de Araujo, via outposts in the Amazonian jungle. WWW.MARTINRANDALL.COM

Photograph: The Santo Domingo el Antiguo Altarpiece by El Greco, Toledo (1577-1579).

The programme

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 3 Monday 18 October

A chance to visit the cathedral to attend the Mozarabic rite precedes the morning talks and interviews. The audience is split in two today, as our concert venues cannot hold everyone at once. Each group attends both concerts, but at different times of day. There were once ten synagogues in Toledo – testament to the city’s religious tolerance before the Inquisition. El Tránsito is one of two that remain. It was built c. 1357 by Samuel Ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to King Pedro the Cruel, and is a simple galleried hall, made magical by its decoration. The raised stucco frieze bears comparison with the decoration in the Alhambra in Granada, and survived the building’s 400-year stint as a church as well as its years as a barracks during the Peninsular War. Concert, 11.15am or 7.00pm: Synagogue of El Tránsito Nereydas Javier Ulises Illán director Voices of Sefarad: From Toledo to the World

Nereydas tells this story through the voices that, for generations, have played a decisive role in preserving it: Sephardic mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers. Lullabies, songs of love, weddings, separation and remembrance weave a journey in which music travels, changes and endures. This concert, performed in the prayer hall of the Synagogue of El Tránsito, finally brings things full circle: after more than five centuries of diaspora, the voices of Sepharad symbolically return to the heart of Toledo’s old Jewish quarter. Some free time in the afternoon, or the option of walks and visits with one of our experts. Founded in 1551 by Archbishop Juan Martínez Silíceo, Archbishop of Toledo, the Real Colegio de Doncellas Nobles educated young women of both noble and humble birth – an enlightened social experiment for its age. Its finest surviving interior is the Rector’s Hall: spacious, austere and unmistakably Toledan in its blend of Renaissance proportion and Mudéjar craftsmanship. Overhead, an intricately carved artesonado ceiling of geometric coffering catches the light in shifting patterns of shadow and reflection.

Voices of Sepharad: From Toledo to the World traces the journey of Sephardic musical memory from Toledo to the various regions of the diaspora. After 1492, the Jewish communities expelled from Spain carried their language, their stories, their romances and their songs with them to North Africa, Thessaloniki, Izmir, Sarajevo and, centuries later, the Americas.

Recital, 11.15am or 7.00pm: Real Colegio de Doncellas Nobles, Rector’s Hall Judith Jáuregui piano Postcards from Spain Late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish composers produced some of the most sparkling and evocative works in the piano repertoire. This programme offers a variety of scenes, from Enrique Granados’s soulful danzas españolas and vivid representations of Goya paintings to the Catalan folk songs of Federico Mompou’s Scènes d’enfants. Excerpts from suites by Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz take us on a similar geographical tour, from the Andalusian sounds of Seville and Granada to Aragón in the east and Asturias in the north, all captured with flamenco verve and intensity. Dinner is independent, unless you choose to attend an optional dinner.

Meet the musicians. See pages 14–18 for their biographies.

The programme

Illustration: Toledo, etching 1884 by A.H. Haig.

Day 4 Tuesday 19 October

This concert takes the Spanish sound Coaches depart for Aranjuez in the morning, for a visit to the Palace and lunch. further into the twentieth century, beginning with Joaquin Rodrigo’s two Danzas españolas, demonstrating the Begun in 1561 under Philip II as a green, composer’s lyrical elegance and rhythmic spring retreat on the banks of the Tagus, vitality. His Concierto de Aranjuez then the Palace of Aranjuez was conceived as summons the glorious past of the a softer, more sensuous counterpart to eponymous Royal Palace with some of the Escorial’s austerity. Philip V, dreaming the most famous melodies of all time. of Versailles, revived the stalled project; José Maria Gallardo del Rey’s Diamantes Ferdinand VI and Charles III, aided by para Aranjuez is conceived in dialogue Sabatini, lent it its present Rococo and Neoclassical grace. Its jewel, the Porcelain with Rodrigo’s concerto, offering new reflections on the same landscape. We Room, is sheathed in luminous chinoiserie finish with Manuel de Falla’s ballet suite El reliefs by Giuseppe Gricci – a glittering amor brujo, a thrilling evocation of ghostly extravagance amid otherwise measured terror and romance in bright colours and Bourbon taste. sharp edges. Lunch is included today. Coaches depart in the early afternoon for Chinchón. There is Return to Toledo by coach. Dinner is independent, unless you choose to attend a talk on the music before the concert. an optional dinner. In Chinchón, whose timber-balconied Plaza Mayor ranks among Spain’s most beguiling squares, the small Teatro Lope de Vega rises from the ruins of the Counts’ Palace, destroyed in the War of the Spanish Succession. Built in 1891 by a local society of vintners – fitting, in a town famous for its anís – it keeps an intimate, jewel-box charm, its stage curtain painted by Luis Muriel with allegorical views of the town itself, echoing the square, which has long doubled as stage and bullring. Concert, 4.15pm: Chinchón, Teatro Lope de Vega Chamber Orchestra of Spain Vicente Cueva director José María Gallardo del Rey guitar Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez

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The programme

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 5 Wednesday 20 October

This morning the group divides in two: half attend the concert in the morning, the other half in the early afternoon. For each group, optional walks and visits are offered during the time they are not at the concert. Coaches transfer everyone the short distance to the concert venue.

The Hospital de Tavera is situated just outside the city walls – a remarkable project, begun in 1541, which embraced many new ideas from Renaissance Italy. This was Castile’s first purely classical building, commissioned by one of its most powerful men – Cardinal Tavera – and it was a tourist attraction even in the 17th century. Most remarkable are its elegant and airy courtyards, but the complex is also home to an exquisite pharmacy, and an altarpiece by El Greco. Recital, 11.15am or 3.15pm: Hospital de Tavera Mahan Esfahani harpsichord Scarlatti Sonatas Much of Domenico Scarlatti’s present-day reputation rests on his huge output of keyboard sonatas, formally and stylistically anticipating essential shifts from the baroque style to the classical. Most of these pieces were written for Princess Maria Barbara of Portugal, who became Queen of Spain in 1746, and Scarlatti followed her from Lisbon to Seville and to Madrid. He poured his extraordinary creative gifts into pieces that not only illustrated the full emotional spectrum that could be achieved on a harpsichord, but which also evoked Spanish sounds of castanets and guitars. A gala dinner is included for everyone at the Parador hotel, by far the best viewpoint over the historic city.

Built between 1226 and 1493, Toledo’s magnificent cathedral is one of the greatest examples of Gothic architecture in Spain and is overflowing with extraordinary works of art (El Greco, Velázquez, Titian), though none is more striking than the ceiling-high retablo mayor. Festooned with painted sculpture, it constitutes a vast and defiant expression of late-gothic sensibility in the face of the Renaissance, making for a thrilling backdrop to our final concert. Concert, 9.00pm: Toledo Cathedral The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips director From Shadow to Light: The Spanish Golden Age A showcase for a generation: this programme takes us through some of the most important sixteenth-century Spanish sacred composers. We start with the grandly spacious Maria magdalene et altera Maria by Francisco Guerrero, and our journey encompasses his teacher Cristóbal de Morales (Regina caeli) along with his assistant Alonso Lobo and the doleful Versa est in luctum. Amongst them is Tomás Luis de Victoria, one of the most successful composers of the Renaissance, with a selection of his lamenting Tenebrae Responsories and sonorous polychoral Magnif icat primi toni. The evening is rounded out with Gregorio Allegri’s iconic Miserere.

The programme

Day 6

Illustration: Toledo, Jenaro P é rez Villaamil.

Thursday 21 October

Coaches take participants to Madrid airport. Fly to London, or leave the festival independently. For travel options, see page 24.

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The place

DISCOVER THE PLACE: TOLEDO

Tagus has carved this stone island Crammed onto the crown The out of hard granite; the countryside of a river-girt promontory, begins abruptly at the foot of the city walls, in the green, undulating plain of Toledo is a compact, La Mancha, playground of Don Quixote. architecture and great works of enchanting city, the walled Great art – a Gothic cathedral among the largest city today home to barely in Spain, a hilltop Alcázar, palaces and built in the same warm stone a tenth of the population it monasteries as the streets around them – sit alongside held at its sixteenth-century unspoilt, near-deserted backstreets and byways, a combination that makes a stay height. here deeply rewarding.

Ready to book? See page 25 for details.

Toledo lost its status as capital to Madrid in 1561; not long after, in about 1577, El Greco arrived by way of Venice and Rome from his native Crete. He remained here for the rest of his life, almost 40 years, fulfilling innumerable commissions, and many of his incandescent, spiritually charged paintings survive in situ, in the very churches and chapels for which they were painted. His Burial of the Count of Orgaz, seen in the church for which it was created, reveals why the Cretan painter dared imagine a triumphant response to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel; the skies above the city still sweep out over the meseta under his bruised clouds. This Imperial City of the three faiths offers much more than El Greco. Toledo was capital of the Visigothic kingdom, home to the remarkable seventh-century St Ildefonso, and later seat of a Berber taifa court and, after the Christian conquest of 1085, of its celebrated School of Translators. The exquisite 10th-century mosque of Bab al-Mardum, the 14thcentury synagogue of El Tránsito, and the

magnificent San Juan de los Reyes stand within a few streets of one another, each built centuries apart, in a different idiom, for a different faith – a sequence that makes visible how the city layered one civilisation onto the next. The Visigothic museum, meanwhile, is itself an eclectic marriage of Mudéjar, Renaissance and Romanesque work. Tolerance and Inquisition faced off in these streets, an uneasy, sometimes violent contest that sits at the heart of the Spanish character and its rich, quixotic diversity – streets that still trace the tangled, Arabera plan of the medieval city. Centuries later, Buñuel and Dalí loved getting lost in that same meandering layout, fuelling their alcohol-soaked ‘Toledan Nights’ as they wandered it after dark. An evening spent this way has few equals. Except, perhaps, as Quixote would tease Sancho Panza, a ‘pickled partridge’ married with a deep, rich caldo of blood-red wine, followed by the sweetest marzipan heart, rolled out by a nun.

Photograph: Toledo, Spain © Mazur

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The musicians

MEET THE MUSICIANS

THE SIXTEEN

HARRY CHRISTOPHERS

Founded in 1979 by Harry Christophers, The Sixteen has established itself as one of the world’s outstanding vocal ensembles, admired for the vitality, clarity and expressive intensity it brings to five centuries of choral music, from Renaissance polyphony to newly commissioned works. Touring with a period-instrument orchestra for largescale repertoire, the choir divides its year between an ambitious international schedule – the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, the Vienna Musikverein, the Sydney Opera House – and residencies closer to home, including at Wigmore Hall and St James’s Piccadilly.

Harry Christophers CBE founded The Sixteen in 1979 and has directed the choir ever since, establishing it as one of Britain’s foremost interpreters of Renaissance and Baroque choral music. A former chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he sang with the BBC Singers before turning to conducting. From 2009 to 2022 he was Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, where he remains Conductor Laureate, and he appears regularly as a guest conductor with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony.

Its annual Choral Pilgrimage, taking major works to cathedrals across Britain, has run since 2000. Recordings on the choir’s own label, CORO, founded in 2001, have earned Gramophone, Diapason d’Or and Classical BRIT awards, along with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Music Award. The Sixteen also champions the next generation of singers through Genesis Sixteen, its free choral training programme, and continues to broaden its reach through broadcasts, staged opera and newly commissioned choral works, sustaining the reputation for excellence that Christophers established almost half a century ago.

His opera credits include productions for English National Opera. Appointed CBE in 2012 for services to music, Christophers continues to lead The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage and championed the choir’s 2026 Sistine Chapel premiere of James MacMillan’s Angels Unawares. He was also named BBC Music Magazine’s Personality of the Year for 2026.

EX CATHEDRA CONSORT & BAROQUE ENSEMBLE Founded in Birmingham in 1969 by Jeffrey Skidmore, Ex Cathedra is one of Britain’s most versatile vocal and instrumental ensembles, encompassing a chamber choir, a 10-voice Consort and a periodinstrument Baroque orchestra established in 1983. Resident at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and Town Hall since 2007, the ensemble ranges across eight centuries of repertoire, with a particular reputation for researching and championing French and Latin American Baroque music alongside new commissions. Its recordings, released on Hyperion and other labels, include the Gramophone award-winning A French Baroque Diva and the Grammy-shortlisted Britten to America, and its annual Christmas Music by Candlelight has become a fixture of the Midlands festive season. Ex Cathedra’s education programmes – among them the Academy of Vocal Music, Singing Playgrounds and Singing Medicine, which brings live music to hospital patients – extend its work well beyond the concert hall. As Jeffrey Skidmore prepares to step back after fifty-seven years at the helm, James Burton joins as Artistic Director Designate, continuing the ensemble’s tradition of scholarship and adventurous programming.

The musicians

JEFFREY SKIDMORE

NEREYDAS

JAVIER ULISES ILLÁN

Jeffrey Skidmore OBE founded Ex Cathedra in 1969 while an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, and has directed it for over half a century, building a reputation as one of the foremost scholar-conductors of his generation. He is especially celebrated for rediscovering and performing Latin American and Brazilian Baroque repertoire, preparing new editions of long-neglected scores alongside music by Charpentier, Lalande and Monteverdi, and has commissioned more than thirty new choral works.

Founded in 2010 by the Toledo-born conductor and musicologist Javier Ulises Illán, Nereydas is devoted to the rediscovery and historically informed performance of Spanish and European music of the Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical periods. Performing on period instruments, the ensemble draws on original manuscript research to bring long-forgotten scores back to the concert hall, with a particular focus on 18thcentury Spanish sacred and operatic repertoire.

Javier Ulises Illán, born in Toledo in 1981, trained as a violinist at the Musikene conservatory in San Sebastián before studying orchestral and opera conducting at the Lucerne University of Music under Howard Arman, with further guidance from Ton Koopman and Philippe Herreweghe.

Alongside Ex Cathedra, he guest-conducts the BBC Singers, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Hanover Band, and holds posts as Artistic Director of Early Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Appointed OBE in 2015 for services to choral music, Skidmore will retire as Ex Cathedra’s Artistic Director at the end of the 2026–27 season, becoming the ensemble’s Founder and Conductor Emeritus after fifty-seven years.

Its 2022 revival of Jommelli’s opera La Nitteti was ranked among Spain’s leading cultural events of the year, and its recordings – among them The Jommelli Album, Siface: L’amor castrato and The Royal Chapel of Madrid – have won the Teatro de Rojas Prize and, in 2024, the GEMA award for Best Baroque and Classical Music Ensemble. Nereydas appears regularly at the Museo del Prado, the Teatro Real and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, at Toledo’s El Greco Festival and at international festivals including Granada and Versailles, working with leading period-performance soloists such as sopranos María Espada and Núria Rial.

He founded Ensemble Nereydas in 2010, having already established the periodinstrument ensemble Sphera Antiqva in 2007, and serves as chief conductor of the Accademia Barocca Lucernensis and artistic director of instrumental and orchestral programmes at the Teatro Real, Madrid. His recording of the sacred music of Zelenka and Hasse for Dresden Cathedral received two Opus Klassik nominations. Illán appears widely as a guest conductor, with orchestras including the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, and made his debut with Costa Rica’s National Symphony Orchestra in 2026.

Photographs, left to right: The Sixteen © Firedog; Harry Christophers; Ex Cathedra Consort & Baroque Ensemble; Jeffrey Skidmore © Neil Pugh; Nereydas; Javier Ulises Illán.

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The musicians

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF SPAIN

VICENTE CUEVA

JOSÉ MARÍA GALLARDO DEL REY

Since its official debut on 28 February 2007, at a gala concert in Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música broadcast by RTVE, the Orquesta de Cámara de España (Chamber Orchestra of Spain) has established a distinctive presence on the international classical music scene. “Probably one of the best chamber orchestras in the world”, according to Nigel Kennedy, it was founded by the violinist Vicente Cueva with the support of leading figures from the worlds of music and the arts, and its artistic identity has been shaped from the outset by a commitment to excellence, versatility and a dynamic approach to chamber orchestral playing.

Vicente Cueva founded the Orquesta de Cámara de España in 2007, and remains its concertino-director. Higher studies in Barcelona with Agustín León Ara were followed by training in Vienna with Klara Flieder, and by further work with Samuel Marder and Thomas Kakuska.

Born in Seville in 1961 and a public performer since the age of eight, José María Gallardo del Rey has forged a singular voice among Spanish guitarists, fusing the classical tradition with the language of flamenco. In 1990 he advised Paco de Lucía on his celebrated Japanese premiere of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez – Paco de Lucía remarked that if he were a classical guitarist, he would wish to be Gallardo del Rey.

The orchestra brings together a new generation of outstanding musicians, all distinguished soloists in their own right and members of some of Spain’s most prestigious orchestras and ensembles. Its repertoire extends from the Baroque to the music of the present day, taking in the Classical, Romantic and Impressionist traditions alongside a particular commitment to the rich musical heritage of Spain, the performance and promotion of which has been central to its mission since its foundation. Collaborators have included Nigel Kennedy, Mischa Maisky, José Cura, Ainhoa Arteta and José María Gallardo del Rey.

Awarded the Luis Coleman Prize in 1994, he joined the Spanish National Orchestra as a first violin in 1999. Alongside the Chamber Orchestra of Spain, Cueva appears as guest soloist with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Katarina Gurska higher school of music in Madrid, where former pupils now hold posts in major orchestras and conservatoires. Recordings include Jorge Grundman’s sonatas for violin and piano with Daniel del Pino, nominated for Best Classical Album at the 2015 Independent Music Awards. The violin he plays is an Anselmo Bellosio of 1780.

He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, BMG and RTVE, as soloist and with his own chamber ensemble, La Maestranza, and has composed nearly two hundred works, including five guitar concertos and the Lorca Suite, drawn from Federico García Lorca’s folk songs. He has appeared as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic under conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, and recorded Pasión Española with Plácido Domingo. Gallardo del Rey served as Spain’s musical ambassador at international expositions from 1992 to 2022, holds the Andrés Segovia Chair at the University Courses of Music in Compostela, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos, Valencia, in 2022.

The musicians

JUDITH JÁUREGUI

MAHAN ESFAHANI

THE CONCERTS

Born in San Sebastián in 1985 to a Basque mother and Mexican father, Judith Jáuregui studied at the city’s conservatory with Cristina Navajas before continuing her training in Salamanca with Claudio Martínez Mehner and in Munich with Vadim Suchanov. She has since built a career as one of Spain’s most admired pianists, praised for the imagination and individuality of her interpretations across a repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Falla, Granados and Szymanowski.

Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, Mahan Esfahani studied musicology at Stanford before training as the last pupil of the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková in Prague. He later took Czech citizenship. In 2008 he became the first harpsichordist named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and in 2011 gave the first-ever solo harpsichord recital at the BBC Proms – milestones reflecting his mission to restore the instrument to the centre of concert life.

Private. All the performances are planned and administered by Martin Randall Travel, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the festival package.

He records for Hyperion, where his ongoing survey of Bach’s keyboard works continues with recent releases of The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Complete Keyboard Concertos with Britten Sinfonia, and for Deutsche Grammophon; his Gramophone Award-winning recording of C. P. E. Bach and his 2022 Wigmore Medal, awarded to him as its youngest-ever recipient, mark a career built equally on scholarship and flair.

Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls.

She has appeared with the Spanish National, Basque National and Bilbao Symphony orchestras, as well as the Prague Philharmonia and Britten Sinfonia, and performs regularly at the Auditorio Nacional and Palau de la Música Catalana, London’s Southbank Centre and festivals including La Roque-d’Anthéron, the Granada International Festival and San Sebastián’s Quincena Musical. She has also held an artist residency at Switzerland’s Murten Classics. Her recordings, for labels including Ars Produktion and Eudora, include an Opus Klassik-nominated Schumann album and Homeland, a 2024 recording of Grieg and Falla with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León that earned an International Classical Music Award nomination.

A champion of new music, he has commissioned some twenty works for the instrument, and combines an international touring schedule with a professorship in harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and regular broadcasting for BBC Radio 3.

Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want. Audience size. There will be up to 150 participants on the festival. Three of our venues cannot hold this number, so at these, the performance will be repeated.

Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs, airlines alter schedules: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.

Photographs, left to right: Chamber Orchestra of Spain; José María Gallardo del Rey Gallardo Del Rey; Judith Jáureguii © Michal Novak; Mahan Esfahani © Ben Ealovega. WWW.MARTINRANDALL.COM

The musicians

PETER PHILLIPS

THE TALLIS SCHOLARS

Peter Phillips founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973 while an undergraduate at St John’s College, Oxford, and has directed the group ever since, establishing Renaissance polyphony as a central part of today’s choral repertoire. He founded the ensemble’s own label, Gimell, in 1980, and also conducts the BBC Singers and choirs including the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

Founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips, then an Oxford undergraduate, The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other ensemble to establish the sacred vocal polyphony of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music.

A prolific writer on music, he contributed a column to The Spectator for three decades, has published The Musical Times since 1995, and is the author of English Sacred Music 1549–1649 and What We Really Do: The Tallis Scholars, plus a first novel, The Blue French. He founded the London International A Cappella Choir Competition in 2014, and his services to music have been recognised with the French honour Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and fellowships at Merton and St John’s Colleges, Oxford.

Singing with two voices to a part, the ten members of the group bring a purity and precision to composers such as Josquin, Palestrina and Victoria. This has also opened the way to music by living composers, among them Arvo Pärt and Nico Muhly, whose major choral work No Resting Place the group has recently recorded for the Linn label. Recordings on Gimell, the label Phillips founded in 1980, have earned a string of accolades, including the 1987 Gramophone Record of the Year – the first early-music recording ever to receive it – and induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. Having given more than 2,500 concerts in over 40 countries, including a landmark performance in the Sistine Chapel, the group marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2023 and continues to tour internationally under Phillips’s direction, most recently with a programme inspired by the choir of the Sistine Chapel itself.

Photographs, left to right: Peter Phillips © Hugo Glendinning; The Tallis Scholars © Hugo Glendinning.

ACCOMMODATION

Hotel accommodation for five or six nights is included in the price of the festival and there are six hotels to choose from. The hotel is the sole determinant of the different prices for the festival package. There is also the option of arriving at your hotel a day before the festival begins (15 October). Location. Five of the hotels are in the historic core of Toledo and within walking distance of all but two of the concert venues. The sixth, the Parador, overlooks the city from across the Tagus. Participants staying here have use of a shuttle to move to and from the centre. Luggage. Traffic restrictions apply to coaches, so there is a possibility that you will have to carry your own luggage from a nearby set-down point to the hotel. Suitcases with wheels are advised. Rooms vary. As is inevitable in historic buildings, rooms vary in size and outlook. Toledo has a densely packed, medieval layout, and most hotel rooms do not therefore have good views. External rooms often look out directly onto another building across a narrow street. Historic buildings are often designed to face inwards with rooms overlooking central patios and courtyards rather than outwards onto the street.

CARLOS V (3*) The only 3-star hotel among our selection. Standard rooms are more basic than at other hotels, but the hotel is comfortable and well located in the the Old Town, between the Alcázar and the cathedral, and very close to the nearest coach pickup point.

Walk to coach: the coach stops outside the Alcázar, c. 150m from the hotel. www.carlosv.com/en

There is a breakfast room, lounge, and a bar/restaurant located on the roof terrace, which has wonderful views of the city. All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, Wifi and minibars; almost all have baths with shower attachments, a few have showers only. Room types available: Standard: Rooms are modern, some with bold, colourful décor and others more minimalist. They are equipped with a queen-size bed or twin beds, and are available for single occupancy only due to their small size. Size: c. 13–16 m². Esencia: Occupying a converted 18thcentury palace adjacent to the main building, these rooms have a more historic character and a simple, rustic décor that highlights the building’s architectural features. They are comparable to rooms at some of the 4-star hotels. They all have double beds and cannot be configured as twins. The size and layout are variable due to the historic nature of the building: c. 15–25m 2 .

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ACCOMMODATION

SAN JUAN DE LOS REYES (4*)

PINTOR EL GRECO (4*)

A small 4-star hotel (35 rooms) located on the western edge of the Old Town, near the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes and the synagogues of the Jewish Quarter. The building is a former flour mill dating from the early 1900s and retains its handsome façade.

An appealing 4-star hotel (55 rooms) in the Jewish Quarter, and very close to El Greco’s house and museum.

Rooms mostly have twin beds that can be joined together, and décor is modern, with light, neutral tones. Public areas are more traditional. There is a bar, a good restaurant and a small terrace. All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, minibars and Wifi; almost all have baths with shower attachments, a few have showers only.

Bedrooms either follow a traditional, Castilian style or have more contemporary décor – both feature exposed brickwork and tiled floors. There is a bar and restaurant.

The hotels on this page are both located on the same road at the foot of the Old Town, meaning most venues are reached by walking uphill (though distances are not long). They are our only hotels in the Old Town that can be directly accessed by coach.

All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, minibars and Wifi; almost all have baths with shower attachments, a few have showers only. The hotel occupies several contiguous 17th-century houses. Most rooms overlook internal patios rather than the street. Room types available:

Room type available: Deluxe: equipped with a double bed or twin beds. Size: c. 20 –24 m². This hotel is also the venue for most of the morning talks. Walk to coach: the coach drops off outside the hotel.

Standard: Room sizes vary. Superior: Bigger than standard, though sizes also vary. Nespresso machines and bathrobes included. Walk to coach: the coach drops off outside the hotel. www.hotelpintorelgreco.com/en

www.hotelsanjuandelosreyes.com/en

Illustration: Toledo, lithograph c. 1840.

ACCOMMODATION

“

Excellent quality of performances and performers in high quality, historic venues.

Illustration: Toledo, Jenaro P é rez Villaamil.

ÁUREA (4*)

PARADOR DE TOLEDO (4*)

Opened in 2023, this 4-star hotel in a series of refurbished medieval houses is the newest opening in Toledo’s labyrinthine Old Town. It is located just 50 metres from the cathedral, right in the heart of the city.

Our only hotel situated outside the historic centre, the Parador is dramatically sited on a hill, with fine views of the old town across the Tagus. Bedrooms (78 in total) are spacious and elegant, decorated in traditional style.

While the hotel retains some original architectural features, its 66 rooms are modern and comfortable, if a little small. They are decorated in warm, neutral tones. There is no bar or restaurant, but there are plenty of good dining opportunities nearby. There is a small spa with a steam bath and vitality pool, and a well-equipped gym.

Public areas include a bar, restaurant and terrace, all with superb views. The outdoor swimming pool is closed in October.

All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, minibars, bathrobes, tea/coffee facilities and Wifi; some have baths with shower attachments, some have showers only.

Participants staying here have the use of a shuttle bus to move to and from the centre. There may still be walks of up to a few minutes to get from the closest dropoff point to the venues.

Junior Suite: Size: c. 34 m². These rooms also have panoramic views, and an additional seating area, plus a whirlpool bath. A minibus or coach transfer is provided to join all festival events, and a shuttle runs at intervals during free time. https://paradores.es/en/parador-detoledo

All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, minibars, tea/coffee facilities and Wifi; most rooms have baths with shower attachments, some have showers only.

Room types available: Deluxe: Size: c. 15–17 m². Compact but comfortable and well equipped, with double bed or twin beds. Most overlook adjacent buildings. Premium: Size: c. 20 m². Premium rooms offer similar facilities to the Deluxe rooms, but are slightly more spacious. Walk to coach: the coach stops outside the Alcázar, c. 500m on foot from the hotel.

If staying here, dinner is included every night, with all but one dinner in the hotel restaurant. Room types available: Standard: Size: c. 24 m². Rooms look over the garden or swimming pool, with some partial views over the old town. Superior: Size: c. 28 m². Almost identical to the standard rooms, but slightly larger and with panoramic views over the city.

www.eurostarshotels.co.uk/aureatoledo.html WWW.MARTINRANDALL.COM

Illustration: Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, after a drawing by Joseph Pennell in ‘Castilian Days’ 1903.

ACCOMMODATION

EUGENIA DE MONTIJO (5*) An attractive and comfortable hotel installed in a Renaissance palace just 200 metres from the cathedral, part of the Marriott Autograph Collection and the only five-star hotel in the city. The 40 bedrooms are elegantly decorated and furnished in neutral colour schemes. Most overlook an internal atrium rather than the street. Rooms are spacious with high ceilings. The stylish public areas include a restaurant, a lounge, bar service, and a recently opened spa with a sauna and small indoor pool. All rooms have air-conditioning, safes, minibars, tea/coffee facilities and Wifi; almost all have showers only. Room types available: Standard (Elegance): Size: c. 22–30 m²; with king-size or twin beds. Superior (Chantilly): Size: c. 35 m²; more spacious with an additional seating area. Bathrobes included; king-size bed. Junior Suite: Size: c. 53 m²; large room with spacious seating area. Separate bath and shower; king-size bed. Suite: Size: c. 69 m². Bedroom with kingsize bed and a large adjoining living room with comfortable seating.

Illustration: Toledo, cathedral, lithograph c. 1850.

Walk to coach: the coach stops outside the Hotel Pintor El Greco, c. 500m on foot from the hotel. www.marriott.com/en-gb/hotels/ madft-eugenia-de-montijo-autographcollection

Extra dinners You can opt to join the extra dinners in Toledo on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 October. This ensures that you eat in the company of other festival participants on all evenings. Details and the option to book these will be sent nearer to departure.

“

Without exception, every concert was excellent and the artists well chosen.

OPTIONAL WALKS & VISITS

EXPERT SPEAKERS

Toledo possesses one of Spain’s richest artistic and historical legacies. To complement the music, there will be a choice of walks and visits exploring the city’s art, architecture, gastronomy and history, all carefully timed to fit around the concerts and meals. Whether revisiting El Greco’s masterpieces, discovering Toledo’s layered architectural heritage or sampling some of its enduring culinary traditions, these optional excursions are intended to deepen the experience of the festival and of the city itself. These will be led by the following experts. Dr Xavier Bray Art historian specialising in Spanish art and sculpture and Director of the Wallace Collection, London. Formerly Chief Curator of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Assistant Curator of 17th- and 18thcentury European paintings at the National Gallery. His exhibitions include Murillo & Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship and Goya: The Portraits. He completed his PhD at Trinity College, Dublin.

Gijs van Hensbergen Art historian and author specialising in Spain. His books include The Sagrada Familia, Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica, and he has published in The Burlington Magazine. He read languages at Utrecht University and Art History at the Courtauld. He has worked in Spain as an exhibitions organiser and critic, and is a Fellow of the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE. Giles Tremlett Award-winning journalist and historian. Former Madrid correspondent for the Economist and the Guardian, he has lived in Spain for over 25 years. His books include Ghosts of Spain, Isabella of Castile: Europe’s First Great Queen, winner of the 2018 Elizabeth Longford Prize, and The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War. His latest book is the biography El Generalísimo: Franco.

If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.

FITNESS FOR THE FESTIVAL Toledo is best explored on foot and the city’s steep, cobbled streets are an essential part of its character. There are several uphill and downhill walks each day, with uneven surfaces, steps and little opportunity to avoid them. Taxis are not always readily available and sometimes cannot get close enough to the hotel or the concert venue to justify their use, and coach travel is impossible in the Old Town. A good level of mobility, balance and stamina is therefore required. The pace is unhurried and there will be regular opportunities to pause, but participants should be comfortable walking for up to half an hour at a time over challenging historic terrain. Five of the six hotels are located within the centre of Toledo, and the sixth overlooks the city from a nearby hill (this group is transferred into the centre of Toledo by minibus). Five of the seven concerts take place within the city centre and are reached by foot for those staying in the city centre hotels. Two concert venues are reached by coach by all participants. We are very happy to talk you through each day’s schedule, as it differs from festival to festival, to identify if it may be necessary to opt out at any point. Please also refer to the general Fitness Guidelines on our website for more information. 23

Travel options

TRAVEL OPTIONS

Illustration: Toledo, the Tagus and Bridge of St Martin, wood engraving c. 1870.

Arriving a day early

Illustration right: View of Toledo, El Greco (c1599-1600).

Arriving on the first day of the festival

OPTION 1: City

OPTION 3: Gatwick

15 October: London City to Madrid (BA3272) departing at 09.50 and arriving at 13.10.

16 October: London Gatwick to Madrid (UX1014) departing at 10.00 and arriving at 13.30.

21 October: Madrid to London City (BA3273) departing at 13.55 and arriving at 15.15.

21 October: Madrid to London Gatwick (UX1015) departing at 15.00 and arriving at 16.25.

OPTION 2: Heathrow

These f lights are operated by Air Europa.

15 October: London Heathrow to Madrid (BA7055) departing at 10.50 and arriving at 14.15.

OPTION 4: Heathrow

21 October: Madrid to London Heathrow (BA7056) departing at 13.25 and arriving at 14.55. Options 1, 2 & 4 are operated by Iberia/ BA, and Option 3 is operated by Air Europa.

16 October: London Heathrow to Madrid (BA7055) departing at 10.50 and arriving at 14.15. 21 October: Madrid to London Heathrow (BA7056) departing at 13.25 and arriving at 14.55.

THE NO-FLIGHTS OPTION If you are not joining our flight options, you are welcome to join our coach transfers if your travel arrangements coincide with any of these options.

PRE- AND POST-FESTIVAL TOURS Pre-festival tour participants fly out with their tour group and return to the UK on festival flight option 2 on 21 October. Post-festival tour participants have a choice of which flight option they fly out on (as there is a choice of arriving a day early or on Day 1) and fly back with their tour group. For combining arrangements, please see the individual tour details on pages 26–27. We charge for flights, if you are taking them, as part of your pre- or postfestival tour booking. You therefore pay the ‘no-flights’ price for the festival.

Please note that no flight schedules have currently been published for October 2027 – these are the most likely times based on similar dates in 2026.

MAKING A BOOKING

Participation in our festivals is a very different experience from conventional group travel.

1. Booking option. We recommend that you contact us first, or visit our website, to make a booking option which we will hold for 72 hours. To confirm it, please send the deposit within this period – 15% of your total booking price. Alternatively, make a definite booking straight away via our website. 2. Definite booking. Full payment is required if you are booking within 12 weeks of the date the festival begins. 3. Our confirmation. Upon receipt of the deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this, your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in our Booking Conditions. Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.

No repetitive or redundant announcements, no herding by elevated umbrella, no unnecessary roll calls, little hanging around. We work on the assumption that you are adults, and our staff cultivate the virtue of unobtrusiveness. Though there will be up to 150 participants, you will often find yourself in smaller groups – the audience is divided between six hotels, and into different restaurants for some of the dinners. For those who are not averse to group activities there are extra meals, walks and visits to sign up to. You choose the level of participation that suits you. We provide sufficient information to enable you to navigate the festival events without needing to be led. However, festival staff are also stationed around the events to direct you if needed.

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POST-FESTIVAL TOUR

LISBON THE AGE OF DISCOVERY AND BAROQUE SPLENDOUR 21–27 October 2027 (mn 531) 7 days Speaker: Dr Steven Brindle

One of Europe’s great historic capitals, spectacularly sited where the Tagus meets the Atlantic, and rich in the legacy of two Golden Ages – Discovery and Baroque. Explore medieval Lisbon’s hilltop castle and cathedral, the tiled backstreets of the Alfama, and the Manueline masterpieces of Belém. Further highlights include the palaces of Fronteira, Queluz and Ajuda, and the peerless collections of the Gulbenkian Foundation.

ITINERARY If combining with Music in Toledo, transfer to Madrid airport by coach on the final day of the festival, then fly (Air Europa) to Lisbon, arriving in time for the afternoon walk. Day 1. Fly c. 11.15am, London Heathrow to Lisbon. Short introductory walk. Day 2: Medieval Lisbon, Bairro Alto. Visit the Moorish citadel of Castelo de São Jorge, taken from the Moors in 1147, with superb views. Downhill to the cathedral and its magnificent treasury. Afternoon in the Bairro Alto: São Roque and the earthquake-ruined Convento do Carmo. Day 3: Azulejos, Alfama and Baroque art. The National Tile Museum, an outstanding azulejo collection in a magnificent historic convent. Then São Vicente and the Alfama on foot. The Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, Portugal’s premier decorative art collection. Day 4: Fronteira, Queluz. Morning at the palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira, still 26

PRACTICALITIES occupied by the builder’s descendants, with superb decoration and extraordinary garden tile-work. Afternoon at Queluz, the crown’s 18th-century summer residence and one of the most beautiful palaces in Europe, with exquisite Rococo interiors. Day 5: Ajuda. Morning at the Palácio da Ajuda, a great Neoclassical palace of the 1790s, with the new Royal Treasures gallery: unmatched insight into the Portuguese crown. Free afternoon. Day 6: Belém. King Manuel I built two lateGothic ‘Manueline’ masterpieces here: the Torre de Belém and the Jerónimos Monastery. Nearby, the Coach Museum: the world’s finest gilded Baroque and Rococo coaches. Day 7. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation: magnificent collections of antiquities, Old Master paintings and decorative art in a superb Modern Movement gallery. Afternoon flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.45pm. CONTACT US: +44 (0)20 8742 3355

Included: travel by private coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips for waiters, drivers and guides; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager. There is a small additional cost for combining with Music in Toledo to cover the flight to Lisbon. Accommodation. Pousada de Lisboa (pousadas.pt): 5-star hotel on Lisbon’s grandest square. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use. How strenuous? This is a busy itinerary with a lot of walking and standing in museums. Lisbon is a hilly city and a large amount of uphill and downhill walking is inevitable. Moving around by coach in the city centre is often not practical. Terrain can be uneven and steep. A good level of fitness is essential. Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Post-festival tour

ART IN MADRID THE GREAT GALLERIES 21–25 October 2027 (mn 527) 5 days Speaker: Dr Marta Cacho Casal

A private, out-of-hours visit to the Prado, ahead of the crowds. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Reina Sofía complete Madrid’s trio of world-ranking galleries. Two collections most visitors never reach, both rich in Goya, Zurbarán and El Greco. The Galería de las Colecciones Reales, opened only in 2023, unites five centuries of Spain’s royal treasures for the first time.

Illustration: Madrid, San Francisco El Grande, 20th-century watercolour.

ITINERARY

PRACTICALITIES

If combining with Music in Toledo, transfer to and Netherlandish schools. Continue to the Madrid by coach on the final day of the festival. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, housed in the 18th-century Palacio de Villahermosa, one Day 1: Fly at c. 9.15am from London Heathrow of the world’s largest private art collections to Madrid (Iberia). The Archaeological until its purchase by the Spanish state in 1993. Museum is good on ancient Iberian civilisation The Neoclassical Palacio de Liria is home to and Roman Spain. Settle into the hotel before one of Spain’s most remarkable private art dinner. collections. Day 2: Morning visit to the Royal Collections Day 4: Morning visits to the Royal Academy of Gallery, a major new museum in Madrid Fine Arts and the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, with works by El Greco, Caravaggio, Goya, with works by Goya, Zurbarán, Ribera, Titian and Bosch. Then visit the church of San Murillo, and El Greco. The afternoon is free Antonio de la Florida, with fine Goya frescoes with time to catch temporary exhibitions or a (currently undergoing restoration work, due to visit to the 18th-century Royal Palace. be completed before our tour, though delays are possible). In the afternoon we make our first Day 5: Walk via Herzog & de Meuron’s visit to the Prado Museum, which is among the CaixaForum to the Centro de Arte Reina world’s greatest art galleries, concentrating on Sofía, one of the greatest modern art the Spanish school. museums and home to Picasso’s Guernica, plus works by Miró, Dalí and Tàpies. Fly to Day 3: Return to the Prado for a private outLondon Heathrow, arriving c. 6.15pm. of-hours visit, this time to focus on the Italian

Included: private coach for transfers and excursions; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and 3 dinners with wine or beer, soft drinks, water, coffee or tea; all admissions; all tips for waiters and drivers; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

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Accommodation: NH Collection Palacio de Tepa, Madrid (nh-collection.com): a small and excellently located 5-star hotel. Rooms are comfortable and décor is contemporary. Single rooms are doubles for sole use. How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking and standing in museums (which can be more tiring than moving around). A good level of fitness is essential. You will be on your feet for lengthy stretches of time. Group size: between 10 and 22 participants. The festival can also be combined with our pre-festival Gastronomic Madrid tour (12–16 October 2027). Details available at a later stage.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL LTD 10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com From North America: Tel: 1-888-422-9935 (toll-free) northamerica@martinrandall.co.uk

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL… is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural travel and one of the most respected tour operators in the world. MRT aims to produce the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, architecture, archaeology, history, music and gastronomy, and are spread across Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Japan and the Americas.

Martin Randall Australasia 5 Moorak Street Taringa QLD 4068 Australia

For 2027 we have planned around 200 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10 –20 participants), six music festivals of our own devising such as Music in Toledo, and several short history and music breaks.

Tel (in Australia): 1300 013 976 (toll-free) From New Zealand: 0800 001 632 anz@martinrandall.com

For nearly 40 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and improvement, setting the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards. To see our full range of cultural tours and events, please visit www.martinrandall.com

ATOL 3622 | ABTOT 5468 | AITO 5085