Beethoven, Elgar & Schumann:
A Luxury Oxford Music Retreat
Join the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, musicologist Richard Wigmore and pianist Simon Callaghan for a two-day classical music retreat in the heart of Oxford!
Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 April 2026
Learn MoreIn April the Fitzwilliam String Quartet are delighted to be teaming up again with musicologist Richard Wigmore and pianist Simon Callaghan, whom some of you may have heard in Hay-on-Wye, for two days in Oxford devoted to piano and chamber music by Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Elgar. Prefaced by Amy Beach’s Romantic single-movement quartet, the first concert includes Schumann’s piano dance suite Carnaval and the first, and most lyrical, of Beethoven’s late string quartets.
Lateness is the theme of the second concert, which pairs Elgar’s Piano Quintet, written at the end of World War One, with Beethoven’s mighty A minor Quartet, built around its central ‘Sacred Song of Thanksgiving’. Elgar, who revered late Beethoven, would have approved of the pairing!
Interactive study sessions, with non-technical discussion and instant demonstration and comments from the musicians, will be complemented by biographical and cultural background information.
Both study sessions and the Thursday evening concert will take place in the New Space, a recently built performance venue in New College. The Friday evening concert will be in the 14th-century New College Chapel, one of the city’s most beautiful buildings.
Accommodation, and the first of the two dinners (also attended by the musicians) will be in the attractive, four-star Cotswold Lodge Hotel on Banbury Road, an easy fifteen-minute walk to New College, partly through The Parks. For those who prefer not to walk there is an excellent bus service to central Oxford. The hotel can also arrange taxis.
The plan for the two days, in outline, is as follows:
THURSDAY 9 APRIL
2.30 Arrival at the Cotswold Lodge Hotel, 66A Banbury Rd, Oxford OX2 6JP (01865 512121). www.cotswoldlodgehotel.co.uk
The hotel has a car park.
3.00 Walk to New College
3.30-5.30 Study session in The New Space, with break
6.00 Concert in The New Space
Amy Beach String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89
Schumann Carnaval, Op. 9
Beethoven String Quartet in E flat, Op. 127
8.15 Dinner in the Cotswold Lodge (3 courses, with choices for each course)
FRIDAY 10 APRIL
10.30-12.30 Study session in The New Space, with break.
Free afternoon to explore Oxford
6.00 Public Concert in New College Chapel
Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84
Beethoven String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
8.00 Dinner in a pre-booked central Oxford restaurant
First Night Recital
Thursday 9 April, 2026
6.00pm
Second Night Recital
Friday 10 April, 2026
6.00pm
The cost, including 2 nights’ accommodation, breakfast, the 2 dinners (excluding wine), 2 concerts and the study sessions, is £605 per person for 2 people sharing a double or twin room, and £710 per person for single occupancy. We can also quote for attendance on a day basis, please email for more information.
Email: r.wigmore@btinternet.com
Richard Wigmore
Richard Wigmore is a well-known writer, broadcaster and lecturer specialising in chamber music, opera and Lieder. He writes regularly for Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, gives pre-concert talks at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and other venues, and has taught classes at Birkbeck College, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall. He appears frequently on Radio 3’s Record Review, where he has presented over 60 Building a Library features. He runs music study events in the UK and lectures regularly in Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere, often on Martin Randall cultural tours.
Simon Callaghan
Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. A favourite performer at the internationally-renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in Germany, Callaghan’s recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a “cleverly curated recital full of discoveries” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “technically brilliant”. Callaghan has developed a wide following and appears on a regular basis in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe.
"The Fitzwilliam String Quartet, in my opinion, is, and has been for many years, Britain’s premier string quartet ensemble…….a flagship British ensemble that should be the pride of that nation"
Jerry Dubins
Fanfare Magazine