It is hard to believe that this will be the eleventh year in which I have had the enormous pleasure - and challenge - of putting together the programme for the Bath Mozartfest, now acknowledged as one of the outstanding music festivals in the United Kingdom. Backed by the A M Purnell Charitable Trust, we can once again offer a real feast of wonderful music performed by some of the finest musicians in the world, with programmes which include, as well as many of the great masterworks, some lesser-known pieces which thoroughly deserve a hearing.

Among our many distinguished visitors gracing our 'Fest' include the acclaimed London Philharmonic Orchestra, with the virtuoso violinist Thomas Zehetmair, who will perform and direct the concert. I am delighted to welcome for the first time the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, three much-honoured American musicians who have for over two decades combined international careers as soloists in their own right with an equally busy schedule as chamber musicians. This is their 'Brahms' year, and they bring us one of his finest chamber works as well as equally magnificent works by Mozart and Mendelssohn. On the previous evening, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will be performing a concert reflecting public taste in Paris in the 1770s and including a symphony by one of music’s forgotten figures - the Chevalier de St-Georges, known in his lifetime as 'the black Mozart', a virtuoso violinist who wrote a number of violin concertos, a couple of symphonies and several operas. Well worth a listen.

Other highlights include a recital by pianist Stephen Kovacevich, one of the formost intepreters of the classical repertoire, a sparkling evening of songs and duets brought to us by my two favourite Dames - Felicity Lott and Ann Murray - and a wonderful recital by one of the world’s top cellists, Steven Isserlis. I well remember his first visit to the Mozartfest in 2000, when he held us spellbound with his performances of three of Bach’s solo cello suites, and I am greatly looking forward to hearing the other three this year. Last, but by no means least, how better to bring the festival to a close than with Haydn’s mighty oratorio The Creation, inspired by Handel although very different from his style; and in every way a worthy culmination to nine days of musical splendour. Enjoy!

Amelia Freedman MBE, Artistic Director