TEN OF THE BEST | October

October offers a remarkably varied musical landscape, from celestial Baroque orchestral music and Handel opera to animal-inspired madrigals and Nordic improvisation. Here’s our pick of Early Music concerts around the UK in the month ahead, including a Scandinavian folk and jazz-inspired wildcard...

View hundreds of upcoming Early Music concerts in the UK by visiting the Continuo Connect What's On page.

AAM: 1765: Times of Transition
1 October | Barbican, London (also Cambridge, 30 September) 🎟️ BOOK NOW

Laurence Cummings and Academy of Ancient Music dive headlong into the 'sturm und drang' of the tempestuous 1760s, where no emotion was too powerful and young radical composers were on the rise. Featuring music by Telemann, Philidor, Haydn and Mozart, whose rarely-performed first symphony opens the evening.

Spiritato: The Planets
3 October | St Martin’s Church, Brighton 🎟️ BOOK NOW

Spiritato 'pre-imagines' Holst’s The Planets through 17th- and 18th-century music by Uccellini, Handel, Rameau and others. Its ingenious premise – finding peace, war, jollity, magic and mysticism in Baroque music – makes this Continuo Foundation-supported concert at Brighton Early Music Festival especially compelling.

The Sixteen: The Earth Resounds
7 October | St James’s, Spanish Place, London 🎟️ BOOK NOW

The Sixteen explores the rich polyphonic traditions of Renaissance Germany, Austria and the Low Countries. Few ensembles bring greater warmth, precision and expressive intensity to this resplendent repertoire.

Iestyn Davies and Oliver Wass: Sweeter than Roses
9 October | Marble Hall, Hatfield House 🎟️ BOOK NOW

Iestyn Davies and harpist Oliver Wass move from Purcell, Handel and Dowland-inspired music into Romantic and contemporary song. The intimate combination of countertenor and harp should be particularly beguiling in Hatfield House’s magnificent Marble Hall.

In Echo: The Salt Road
11 October, Little Missenden | 18 October, Brecon | 21 October, Birmingham 🚐 VIEW TOUR DETAILS

In Echo retraces Bach’s youthful journey to meet Buxtehude along the ancient Salt Road between Lüneburg and Lübeck in this Continuo Foundation-supported project. Music by Bach, Buxtehude, Schütz and Isaac, a world premiere by Silas Wollston and readings by travel writer Horatio Clare make this an unusually evocative meeting of music, history and landscape.

Chelys Consort and Fair Oriana: The Musical Menagerie
13 October | St Mary’s Church, Warwick 🎟️ BOOK NOW

A frog marries a mouse, a lapdog courts danger at Elizabeth I’s court and three ravens contemplate a grisly breakfast. Chelys Consort and Fair Oriana bring this curious collection of musical animals to life in works by Byrd, Gibbons, Ravenscroft, Playford and others.

The English Concert: Handel’s Scipione
16 October | St Martin-in-the-Fields, London 🎟️ BOOK NOW

Handel’s rarely performed 1726 opera returns to the neighbourhood in which it was first heard exactly 300 years ago. Harry Bicket directs The English Concert and a cast led by Kelsey Lauritano in this drama of military conquest, jealousy, honour and unruly passion.

London Haydn Quartet: Haydn and Mozart
17 October | New Town Church, Edinburgh 🎟️ BOOK NOW

One of the world's leading period-instrument string quartets, the London Haydn Quartet, brings two landmarks of the Classical string repertoire to Edinburgh's Georgian Concert Society: Haydn's joyful Quartet Op. 54 No. 5 and Mozart's sublime Quintet in D, with violist Daniel Cubero.

The Tallis Scholars: Byrd and Lassus
28 October | King’s College Chapel, Cambridge 🎟️ BOOK NOW

The Tallis Scholars bring their unmistakable clarity and purity to two towering Renaissance masters in one of the world’s most resonant sacred spaces. The marriage of performers, repertoire and setting makes this an obvious highlight.

Nardus Williams and Elizabeth Kenny: Shut the Gate Against My Thoughts
30 October | Smith Square Hall, London 🎪 FESTIVAL INFO

Soprano Nardus Williams and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny explore the many shades of melancholy in songs by Dowland, Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini and others. Two exceptionally communicative performers make this intimate recital one of the most alluring events in the London Festival of Baroque Music.

OCTOBER’S WILDCARD | Trio Mediæval and Arve Henriksen: Rímur
30 October | Smith Square Hall, London 🎟️ BOOK NOW

Medieval chant, Icelandic storytelling songs, Scandinavian folk traditions and contemporary improvisation meet the haunting trumpet of jazz musician Arve Henriksen. This reimagining of the sounds the Norse might have carried across unknown seas promises to be October’s most atmospheric musical adventure.

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