Saturday 16 May 2026 7.00pm

Lion Ballroom, off Broad Street, Leominster HR6 8BT

Bochmann String Trio
Michael Bochmann (violin)
Carol Hubel-Allen (viola)
Nicola Tait Baxter (cello)

The highly acclaimed Bochmann String Trio play an exciting early composition by Beethoven; a folk-inspired work by the Hungarian composer Kodály; and Mozart’s sublime Divertimento for String Trio K563.

Michael Bochmann – ‘ … treated us to an endless flow of golden melody.’ Daily Telegraph

Carol Hubel-Allen – ‘ … her playing is always a delight.’ The Sanctuary Studio and Gallery, Newnham on Severn

Nicola Tait Baxter – ‘… performed in an intoxicating and beautiful way.’ The Bremervorde Regional Art and Music Festival, Lower Saxony, Germany

The Bochmann String Trio, favourites at the Lion Ballroom, open their programme with an early work by Beethoven, one of great youthful energy in which there are glimpses of what was to come from this great genius. Kodály’s compositions are infused with the folk music of his homeland of Hungary and this is reflected in his serenade-like Intermezzo which follows. In the second half there is just one work: Mozart’s expansive six-movement Divertimento K563, a work of ever-changing beauty.

Beethoven	String Trio in D major Op 9 No 2
Kodály	Intermezzo for String Trio
Mozart	Divertimento for String Trio in E flat major K563

Tickets : £20 (students half-price) from
online at www.courtyard.org.uk

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Saturday 18 July 2026 at 7.30pm

The Great Barn, Hellens Manor, Much Marcle, HR8 2LY

The celebrated French pianist PASCAL ROGÉ comes to Hellens

The celebrated French pianist Pascal Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe, often collaborating with the most famous conductors. As a prolific recording artist, he has won countless prestigious awards. He is especially renowned for his performances of the music of his homeland, exemplifying as he does the finest in French pianism. In such repertoire, which provides the music for Pascal’s entire recital at Hellens, his playing is noted for its wonderful elegance and very real beauty.

‘he produces beautiful sounds and has that kind of poetry peculiar to the French at their most sensitive ’ Naxos

The recital opens with three charming, engaging miniatures by Francis Poulenc, full of lyricism and wit. The suite of five pieces which make up Ravel’s Miroirs follows the Poulenc. The musical impressions, which abound in local colour, cover the flickering of moths at night; sorrowful birds in a forest; the dangers of a ship on the ocean; a dawn song; and the sonority of the tolling of bells. The first half ends with the pictorial imagery of Debussy’s Estampes: the ‘engravings’ are of pagodas, an evening in Granada and raindrops in a garden. Book I of Debussy’s Preludes, comprising twelve self-contained evocative and atmospheric pieces, fills the second half: the subjects here include both a whispering and a terrifying wind; a melancholy winter landscape with footsteps in the snow; the legend of a submerged cathedral; and, most famously, ‘the girl with the flaxen hair’.

Poulenc	Trois Novelettes
Miroirs	Miroirs
Debussy	Estampes
Debussy	Preludes Book 1

Tickets £22 (students in full-time education and carers free) from Hellens at www.hellensmanor.com and shortly at The Courtyard, Hereford on 01432 340555