Ensemble Hesperi
A Gift for your Garden
Baroque+ Day
Sat, 7 March 2026
National Centre for Early Music, York
12:00pm
£12 (£10 conc | £5 students)
Full Event Details
Join Ensemble Hesperi for a celebration of eighteenth-century horticultural gift-giving through the music of the Baroque composer Telemann and his friends. This programme presents a cornucopia of music by Telemann himself - a sonata from his Paris Quartets, a folky trio sonata, and a virtuosic solo fantasia – and two pieces by friends from whom he begged specimens for his Hamburg garden – Johann Gottlieb Graun and no other than Handel himself. Telemann’s love of plants in later life neared obsession, as he admitted to a friend: “I am insatiable where hyacinths and tulips are concerned, greedy for ranunculi, and especially for anemones”. In London, the Scottish composer James Oswald was no stranger to the mid-eighteenth-century floral craze, publishing two collections of “Airs for the Seasons”, and his airs depicting Telemann’s favourites frame the programme. “A Gift for your Garden” was released on BIS records in 2024, and was featured as album of the week on BBC Radio 3’s Essential Classics.
Venue Details & Map
Location
National Centre for Early Music, York
St Margarets Church, Walmgate, York YO1 9TL
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Previous performances
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- Sun, 2 July 2023
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- Sun, 22 October 2023
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- Wed, 26 June 2024
- St Magnus Cathedral
- 1:00pm
- £22 (£20 concessions)
- St Magnus International Festival
A Gift for your Garden
- Fri, 14 February 2025
- Bridport Arts Centre
- 11:30am
- Tickets: £16, £14 conc, £5 child, u12 free
- Concerts in the West
A Gift for your Garden
- Fri, 14 February 2025
- Ilminster Arts Centre
- 7:30pm
- £20 (concessions available)
- Concerts in the West
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- Sat, 15 February 2025
- The Dance House, Crewkerne
- 7:30pm
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- Concerts in the West
A Gift for your Garden
- Wed, 25 February 2026
- The Corn Exchange | Dorchester
- 7:30pm
- £20; full-time students £5
- Dorset Museum Music Society
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- Fri, 17 April 2026
- Champs Hill House, Pulborough
- 7:30pm
- £20
- Champs Hill House
A Gift for your Garden
- Sat, 2 May 2026
- Banstead Community Hall
- 7:30pm
- £20
- Banstead Arts Festival Society
A Gift for your Garden
- Sun, 3 May 2026
- St Michael the Archangel, Mere, Warminster
- 5:00pm
- £25
A Gift for your Garden
- Tue, 19 May 2026
- Leander Club, Henley-on-Thames
- 3:00pm
- £15 - £25
- Chiltern Arts Festival
A Gift for your Garden
- Sat, 23 May 2026
- Tithe Barn, Priory Garden
- 3:00pm
- £20 incl traditional cream tea
- Dunster Festival
A Gift for your Garden
- Sun, 7 June 2026
- All Saints Church, Farringdon
- 6:30pm
- £20 (conc. available)
- Music in Country Churches