The twelfth annual Bath Bachfest will take place on Thursday 16, Friday 17 and Saturday 18 February 2023 in the beautiful Roman and Georgian city.

The final performance of this brief musical interlude will be held in Bath’s glorious Abbey on Saturday 18 February at 7.30pm and is, appropriately, another all-Bach concert.  The renowned period-instrument orchestra The English Concert, will be directed by the fine harspichordist and conductor Francesco Corti.  Featuring three of Bach’s famous and much-loved Brandenburg concertos it is certain to be a crowd pleasing finale.

Full details: www.bathbachfest.org.uk.

Tickets £16 to £45, Booking via website or Bath Box Office: 01225 463362  www.bathboxoffice.org.uk

About the Bath Bach Festival

Celebrating the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his Baroque contemporaries this delightful 3-day, 5-concert, midwinter festival offers classical music lovers respite from the darkest days and is guaranteed to raise spirits.

The much-acclaimed international pianist Angela Hewitt will open the festival with an all-Bach progamme, including preludes and fugues from The Well Tempered Clavier, at St Mary Bathwick, Bath on Thursday 17 February at 7.30pm.

Friday offers a one-hour, lunchtime 1pm concert from a group making their Bath debut.  Onyx Brass is on a mission to show that a brass ensemble can be a serious and high quality medium for chamber music.  Their programme is adventurous, too, ranging across the centuries and Europe from Monteverdi to Couperin and Rameau and Handel and Purcell.  Bath’s beautiful Guildhall is the venue.

Friday evening’s concert will transport its audience to Venice for music from its most famous musical son, Antonio Vivaldi.  La Serenissima’s programme features fascinating double concerti from a range of instruments including violins, flutes, oboes and recorders.

Another Bachfest ‘first’ comes from the acclaimed viol consort, Fretwork, in Saturday morning’s 11am full length ‘coffee concert’ once again in St Mary’s Church, Bathwick.  With music from Purcell, Handel and Rameau, plus Bach of course, Fretwork will be joined by the Welsh soprano, Ruby Hughes, who has been much praised for her sensitive interpretation of music from the Baroque period.