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The University of Southampton
MusicPart of Humanities

An evening of Harpsichord at Mottisfont

Published: 13 July 2016
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The University of Southampton, in association with both The National Trust and The Lennox Berkeley Society will present an evening of harpsichord music on October 15th 2016 at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire. The performance will include the world premiere of a piece of music by noted British composer Sir Lennox Berkeley, in a long overdue performance of his Suite For The Harpsichord from 1930.

Mottisfont Abbey has a long established connection to the harpsichord as one of the previous owners, Maud Russell kept two beautiful and historic instruments at Mottisfont; two poignant reminders of her youngest son, Raymond Russell. Raymond spent much of his teenage life at Mottisfont before embarking on a fascinating and multi-faceted career of collecting and research that saw him make ground-breaking discoveries and form one of the world’s foremost collections of historic keyboard instruments. His tragic early death occurred before he managed to complete the donation of this now world-renowned keyboard collection to the University of Edinburgh. A task which Maud completed in memory of him in 1968. People like Raymond Russell were essential in reminding the world about the harpsichord and supporting the revival of the instrument.

The Mottisfont concert will feature performances several of Berkeley’s pieces and also other British compositions from across the ages - as performed by harpsichordist Christopher D. Lewis. A pre-concert talk by Kate Hawnt will tell the little known tale of the life of Raymond Russell, the man behind The Russell Collection.

Booking details will be available in the near future from the Mottisfont website.

Notes for editors

The Lennox Berkeley Society exists to increase public awareness of Sir Lennox Berkeley and his music, to advance the knowledge of his life and works, and to encourage and support live performances, and recordings, of his works.

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