Festival Schedule
Welcome to the 2025 Festival!
General booking for the 2025 Peasmarsh Festival opens on Monday 7 April, with priority booking windows for Patrons and Friends of the Festival in March (find out more about becoming a Friend or Patron). In the meantime, details of our concert programmes are listed below.
We look forward to welcoming you to this very special season of concerts in June and to sharing our Festival with audiences old and new. We hope there will be something for everyone to enjoy.
1) Festival Opening
Thursday 26 June, 8pm
Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Julian Chan, Hélène Clément, John Myerscough, Grace Park, Shai Wosner, Lumas Winds
- Beethoven Serenade for string trio in D major, Op. 8
- Poulenc Sextet for piano and winds, FP 100
- Korngold Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
One of the things which makes Peasmarsh special are the opportunities for musicians to collaborate together, and this year’s opening concert is no exception. Beethoven’s delightful serenade for violin, viola and cello was composed in the 1790s, and like many of Beethoven’s works for strings, may well have been written for virtuoso violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. This is paired with two works from the early 20th Century – Poulenc’s powerful 1931 sextet for wind quintet and piano, and Korngold’s dramatically lyrical piano quintet, which was premiered in 1923.
2) Young Composers / Lumas Winds, Sam Glazer and Tara Franks
Friday 27 June, 12.30pm
We are thrilled that students from Peasmarsh, Beckley, Playden, Winchelsea, Icklesham and Rye primary schools will join us for this showcase of their compositions, which they will perform alongside the talented Lumas Winds. Lumas Winds will also perform selected movements from the wind quintet repertoire, introducing our youngest audience members to this fantastic music.
Tickets for this concert are free, however capacity is limited. One ticket for concert 2 will be offered to each participating child through their schools. A handful of tickets for concert 2 for festival supporters will be available from the box office.
Venue: St Mary’s Church, Rye
3) Orchestral Concert
Friday 27 June, 8pm
Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester and Steven Mackey (soloists)
Britten Sinfonia
- CPE Bach Cello concerto No. 3 in B flat major, H436
- Shostakovich Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a
- Steven Mackey Four Iconoclastic Episodes (2009)
- Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48Venue: St Mary’s Church, RyeThis year’s orchestral concert will again be given by the “always adventurous” Britten Sinfonia, and this carefully curated programme showcases over 250 years of music. Join us on a journey from CPE Bach’s perfectly formed 1751 cello concerto, to Steven Mackey’s 2009 work Four Iconoclastic Episodes for violin, electric guitar and orchestra, which was written for Steven and Anthony Marwood to perform together. On the way we take in Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony – an arrangement by Rudolf Barshai of his 8th string quartet, originally written in 1945 and dedicated “to the victims of fascism and war”. The programme concludes with Tchaikovsky’s iconic Serenade for Strings.
4) Saturday Morning Coffee Concert
Saturday 28 June, 11.30am
Julian Chan, John Myerscough, Grace Park, Shai Wosner, Lumas Winds
- Ligeti Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
- Janácek Pohádka (‘Fairy Tale’)
- Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for wind quintet were arranged by the composer from his works for solo piano, and humorously evoke the sound-world of folk music in his native Hungary. Over the past 75 years they have grown to be a popular mainstay of the wind quintet repertoire. The Eastern European flavour of this programme continues with music by Janácek before culminating in Mendelssohn’s rhapsodic second piano trio, which he wrote in 1845 and dedicated to Louis Spohr. Listen out for his quotation of the Lutheran chorale ‘Vor deinen Thron’ (Old Hundredth) in the finale.
5) Early Evening Concert
Saturday 28 June, 6pm
Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Julian Chan, Hélène Clément, Steven Mackey, Grace Park, Shai Wosner, Lumas Winds
- Ravel Ma Mère L’Oye for piano duo, M.60
- Steven Mackey The Ancestors: A ballet in eight tableaux (2025)
- Oliver Knussen Three Little Fantasies for wind quintet (1970/83)
- Fauré Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
Steven Mackey’s The Ancestors is the first in a series of three works commissioned by the Festival over the next three years, and this work for electric guitar and string quartet was premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 3 January this year. Steven’s new work is complemented by music for wind quintet by Oliver Knussen, and Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’ suite for piano duo. Rounding off the programme we have Fauré’s second piano quartet, whose slow movement was described by Aaron Copland as “truly classic…intensity on a background of calm”.
6) Late Night Beethoven
Saturday 28 June, 9.30pm
Anthony Marwood, Hélène Clément, Benjamin Hartnell-Booth, John Myerscough, Philip Nelson, Flo Plane, Rennie Sutherland
- Beethoven Septet in E flat major, Op. 20
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
Beethoven’s Septet is a true divertimento in the classical tradition, written for the unusual combination of clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass. Although Beethoven turned against the work in later years, wishing that it were less popular and railing “That damn work! I wish it could be burned!”, it’s easy to see why audiences have always warmed to this lively and colourful chamber masterpiece.
7) Coffee Concert
Sunday 29 June, 11.30am
Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Julian Chan, Hélène Clément, John Myerscough, Philip Nelson, Grace Park, Beth Stone
- Mozart Serenade in C, K. 648 [newly discovered]
- Bach/Mozart Adagio and Fugue for String Trio tbc
- Mozart Violin sonata No. 35 in A major, K. 526
- Weber Trio for flute, cello and piano in G minor, Op. 63
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
Sunday morning’s concert focuses on the music of Mozart, including his Serenade in C for two violins and bass which was recently discovered by researchers in the Municipal Music Library in Leipzig. Written in the 1760s when Mozart was in his early teens, this exuberant and playful work was premiered in Leipzig in September 2024. Counterbalancing the programme is Weber’s consummately romantic flute trio, whose third movement Andante appropriately takes its inspiration from Goethe’s 1802 poem The Shepherd’s Lament.
8) Meet The Composer
Sunday 29 June, 4.30pm
Steven Mackey, with Richard Lester
In this afternoon’s concert, we are thrilled that Steven will share some of his works with us, including his duet for guitar and cello Fusion Tune, to Illustrate his astonishing work across the decades.
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
9) Finale
Sunday 29 June, 7pm
Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Julian Chan, Hélène Clément, Benjamin Hartnell-Booth, John Myerscough, Philip Nelson, Grace Park, Flo Plane, Rennie Sutherland, Shai Wosner
- Strauss (arr. Hasenöhrl) Till Eulenspiegel Einmal Anders! Op.28
- Rebecca Clarke Morpheus
- Rudi Van Dijk Sonatina for solo piano (1951)
- Beethoven Sonata for cello and piano in D major, Op. 102 No. 2
- Dvořák Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65
Venue: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh
We round off the 2025 Festival with a musical cornucopia encompassing well-known chamber masterworks by Beethoven and Dvořák as well as pieces to discover for the first time. Composer Rebecca Clarke premiered her work Morpheus for viola and piano at the Carnegie Hall in 1918 under the alias ‘Anthony Trent’, leading to it receiving notably (but perhaps predictably) more enthusiastic reviews compared to other works in the programme presented under her own name. You may be familiar with the name of Rudi Martinus van Dijk, a celebrated Dutch/Canadian composer who lived and is buried here in Peasmarsh. We are delighted to include his sonatina for solo piano in tonight’s programme.