Music along the Rhine - Outstanding music, beautiful countryside and historic towns along Germany’s principal river
8
days
from
£3,640
8th May 2025
- Eight private concerts in beautiful and appropriate historic buildings.
- Musicians of the highest calibre: a constellation of soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Sophie Bevan are joined by the dynamic Consone Quartet and many more.
- Renowned larger ensembles such as Holland Baroque, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonic and Barocksolisten München all appear.
- Music from the Baroque to the late Romantic, much of it composed in the countries through which we pass, the greatest Germans well represented (Bach, Brahms, Schumann).
- Accommodation on a ship which cruises from Amsterdam to Basel.
- Daily talks by leading music expert Dr Katy Hamilton.
There is nothing to match the experience of floating through some of Europe’s loveliest landscapes on the deck of a comfortable river cruiser. There is also little to match the pleasure of a curated sequence of concerts in beautiful historic buildings. This event combines the two to produce an experience which is quite exceptional and unique.
Eight private concerts in beautiful and appropriate historic buildings
There have been twelve previous editions of Music along the Rhine, the first in 1997. Every one has been different, but all have been characterised by the highest quality of performance in venues which are chosen for their beauty or charm or for their music history connection. All are relatively small, leading to an informality and intimacy of musical communication which engenders a heightened artistic experience.
Music from the Baroque to Late Romantic
Many of the greatest composers of both the Baroque and Romantic eras are represented here in force, with Bach, Telemann and Handel contributing to lively programmes. Brahms is a running motif, including his phenomenal piano concertos, a symphony and violin sonatas, with Schumann a close second. Some core classics by Mozart and Beethoven round out the set, as well as lesser-known delights from all eras.
Musicians of the highest calibre
As with all Martin Randall Festivals, the musicians are among the finest in their fields. A constellation of soloists includes internationally renowned artists Isabelle Faust, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Sophie Bevan. Amarilis Dueñas (cello), Joseph Moog (piano) and Marie-Sophie Pollak (soprano) all appear with renowned larger ensembles: Holland Baroque, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonic and Barocksolisten München. The dynamic Consone string quartet also join, and Tabea Debus performs on the recorder with duo partner Alon Sariel on the lute.
Accommodation on a first-class river cruiser
Acting as both hotel and principal means of transport, MS Amadeus Cara sails from Amsterdam to Basel, enabling passengers to attend all the concerts and see some of the finest art and architecture in the region without having to change hotel or drive long distances. The experience differs significantly from conventional cruising in many ways: little regimentation, no obligatory seating plan, no on-board entertainment, minimal announcements – and absolutely no piped music!
Discover the place
The Rhine is one of the world’s great rivers; arguably no other has served such a prominent role in shaping the history and culture of a continent.
On the way from its source in the Swiss Alps to its extinction in the North Sea Basin, the Rhine traverses more than a thousand kilometres and passes through four countries.
For millennia the river has been a vital trading route, linking people across a broad stretch of Europe. At the same time it has always been a boundary, a border, demarcating cultures and nations and empires. It once constituted the Roman Empire’s northern frontier, and there is still much significant archaeology to be found along its banks.
We begin in the Rhine delta, and soon move into the charming scenery of the Lower Rhine. With pollarded willows and grazing cattle interspersed with building clusters of the once heavily industrialised Rhine-Ruhr valley, it is still the largest conurbation in Germany today, the river having once been the heart of Germany’s industrial revolution.
The river’s loveliness reaches a peak in the wine-producing region of the Middle Rhine which starts with a deep gorge, a stretch much evoked in German folklore, poetry and music. On towards the river’s source, we pass through a variety of landscapes and urban scenes. North of Basel, with France on one side, the river is flanked by wooded hills and pasture and is populated by several historic towns.
There is some time to explore a selection of the towns, palaces and gardens along its course, to see some great art and architecture, and to watch the countryside slide by as you travel along Germany’s most important river.
Brochure
Musicians
Programme
Thursday 8 May: Amsterdam
Join one of our festival flights or trains (see 'Practicalities') or make your own way to the ship.
Amsterdam is as distinctive as it is beautiful. It grew rapidly in the 16th and 17th centuries from a small and precarious sea port to become the greatest trading emporium in Europe. With its concentric canals and close-set brick merchant houses, soaring churches and picturesque alleys, the inner city has hardly changed since its heyday.
Board the ship, MS Amadeus Cara, from 4.00pm. Afternoon tea is available. An early dinner precedes the concert.
Felix Meritis’ oval concert hall was the main music hall in Amsterdam until late into the 19th century and enjoyed a great international reputation. Many famous musicians performed there, including Robert and Clara Schumann, Saint-Saëns and Brahms. The small hall of the Concertgebouw is a replica of this concert hall, where our concert takes place.
Concert, 8.30pm:
Amsterdam, Felix Meritis Konzertsaal
Baroque virtuosity in Amsterdam
Holland Baroque, Judith & Tineke Steenbrink Artistic Directors
Amarilis Dueñas cello
Superb cellist Amarilis Dueñas joins Holland Baroque for this concert of virtuoso instrumental music of the 18th-century – the period of the hall – from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Amsterdam was a major centre of music publishing and a hub for cross-pollination among composers. Locatelli lived here, Handel visited several times, and here the works of Corelli and Vivaldi were printed and spread throughout Europe.
There is also a selection of Netherlandish popular music, defined by Etienne Roger’s Old and new Dutch peasant songs and country dances 1701–1714, and improvisations and compositions by Dueñas and Judith Steenbrink.
Overnight Amsterdam.
Friday 9 May: Schloss Lembeck
Leave the Netherlands and enter Germany shortly after daybreak, sailing along the Lower Rhine throughout the rest of the morning. There is a lecture and lunch, but otherwise free time until early afternoon.
Moor at Wesel and drive to Schloss Lembeck near Dorsten, a delightful moated Wasserschloss (‘water castle’) situated in a park. It dates from the 17th century and retains its historic character. Our concert takes place in a small hall hung with ancestral portraits. Due to the size of the hall, the concert is repeated.
Recital, 3.15pm or 4.45pm:
Schloss Lembeck, Festsaal
Sounds familiar
Tabea Debus recorder
Alon Sariel lute
Tabea Debus and Alon Sariel delve into works that emerged from three of the most prominent musical families of the German Baroque period. The lute and recorder were especially popular in this era, and ideal for music-making in the home. JS Bach’s lute works were probably intended for the famous Dresden lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss. The Partita BWV 1006 is a lute transcription of the popular E major Violin Partita. Weiss and his lutenist brother Johann Sigismund were also gifted composers. On a blind taste you might mistake the Sonata and Fantasia played here for Bach.
Two generations earlier, the virtuoso violinist Heinrich Biber composed his poignant Rosary sonatas for Salzburg Cathedral. Moving forward to the mid-18th century, the Harp Sonata by JS Bach’s second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, mingles galant elegance with his own brand of waywardness.
Return to the ship in the evening and sail overnight from Wesel to Cologne.
Saturday 10 May: Cologne, Bonn
Cologne was one of the largest and most flourishing cities in northern Europe under the Romans and during the Middle Ages, and again in the 19th century. The enormous and perfectly proportioned Gothic cathedral dominates a historic centre which possesses several major Romanesque churches and world-class museums and galleries. There is a free morning for exploration – many of the most important sights are within walking distance of the mooring.
Lunch is provided on the ship as usual, while sailing from Cologne to Bonn, with a talk on the music during the journey.
Famously disparaged as a village by the diplomatic corps when it was capital, Bonn had in fact been a significant centre of culture while seat of the Elector Archbishops of Cologne in the early modern period. In the 18th century a second-rate tenor inclined to drink, named Johann van Beethoven, was employed at the archiepiscopal court. His son was a better musician. This evening’s recital takes place in the Kammermusiksaal, a handsome modern chamber music hall attached to the Beethoven family home within walking distance of the mooring.
Recital, 8.15pm:
Bonn, Beethoven Haus, Kammermusiksaal
Brahms & Schumann sonatas
Isabelle Faust violin
Alexander Melnikov piano
Aged 57, Johannes Brahms was contemplating early retirement. Happily for us, his encounter with the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld made him think again. Inspired by the liquid beauty of Mühlfeld’s playing he created four autumnal masterpieces for clarinet, including the two sonatas, Op. 120. Brahms published these in alternative versions for viola. With few adjustments, they also work beautifully on the violin. Schumann’s restless, impassioned late D minor Violin Sonata, with its distant echoes of Bach, makes a natural fit with the Brahms, while atmospheric miniatures by Webern and Kurtág add a dash of 20th-century astringency.
Overnight in Bonn.
Sunday 11 May: The Rheingau
Most of the morning is spent sailing through the Middle Rhine, the most dramatically picturesque stretch of the river. See vine-clad hills with castles on many of the peaks, and charming little towns and villages at the water’s edge. There is a talk on board before mooring at Rüdesheim after lunch.
Schloss Johannisberg is a fine classical mansion built in the early 18th century, refurbished by the Prince Metternich, Austrian Chancellor, in the early 19th century and again 1945–64 after wartime destruction.
Recital, 4.15pm
Schloss Johannisberg
Lieder
Sophie Bevan soprano
Ryan Wigglesworth piano
Marriage is the theme linking the Strauss and Schumann songs that bookend Sophie Bevan’s programme. Richard Strauss presented his four songs Op. 27, including the rapt Morgen, as a gift to Pauline De Ahna on their wedding day in 1894. Writing to his fiancée Clara Wieck in May 1840, Robert Schumann euphorically described his Liederkreis on poems by Eichendorff as ‘my most romantic music ever, with much of you in it, dearest Clara’. They would marry in September that year. Between these well-loved songs Sophie Bevan and Ryan Wigglesworth perform a group of melodically appealing songs by the little-known Austrian Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868–1941), whose style lies somewhere between Brahms and Strauss.
Sail overnight to Speyer.
Monday 12 May: Speyer, Baden-Baden
Moor at dawn in Speyer. Separated from the river by wooded parkland, the little city is dominated by the largest Romanesque cathedral in Germany, burial place of the Salian emperors. There is some free time here.
The interior of the Church of the Holy Trinity retains its early 18th-century appearance in its entirety with three tiers of galleries and an abundance of carved woodwork.
Concert, 11.00am:
Speyer, Church of the Holy Trinity
‘Und meine Seele spricht’ (‘And my soul speaks’)
Barocksolisten München
Dorothea Seel artistic director
Marie-Sophie Pollak soprano
Music by the two Baroque giants Bach and Handel, born within a few weeks and 150 miles of each other, form the backbone of this concert by the Barocksolisten München. Highlights include arias from Handel’s Brockes Passion – now entering the mainstream after years of neglect – and a selection of Bach arias, including the exquisite opening lullaby from Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh. A rousing, French-style Overture by Bach’s friend Telemann opens the programme, while a concerto and aria by the hugely successful opera composer Johann Adolf Hasse are beguiling examples of the newly fashionable galant style.
Lunch on the ship and sail to Rastatt, the next mooring point. There is a talk on the music during the journey.
An early dinner precedes the drive to Baden-Baden. One of the most prestigious spa towns in Europe, in the 19th century the rich, powerful and talented gathered here, including leading composers. Brahms stayed for several summers; his apartment is a museum.
Concert, 8.30pm:
Baden-Baden, Kurhaus
Brahms Piano Concertos
Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra
Heiko Mathias Förster conductor
Joseph Moog piano
Beloved staples of the Romantic repertoire, Brahms’s two piano concertos both have a symphonic weight and amplitude. Yet otherwise they could hardly be more different. Conceived in the wake of Robert Schumann’s final breakdown, the First Concerto mingles volcanic youthful despair with otherworldly balm. A quarter of a century later, Brahms told a friend that he had composed ‘a very small piano concerto, with a tiny wisp of a scherzo’. No one did heavy irony like Brahms. That ‘very small’ concerto, with its mix of leonine strength and lyrical charm, turned out to be the most monumental piano concerto anyone had composed up to that time.
Sail overnight to Breisach.
Tuesday 13 May: Breisach
A talk on the music takes place during morning sailing, before mooring at Breisach just before lunch. There is time to explore this attractive town which is built on a hill rising from the water’s edge. There is a fine Gothic church at its summit.
In the afternoon drive to Sankt Peter im Schwarzwald, where our concert takes place.
A Benedictine Abbey until 1806 and a seminary until 2006, the buildings of the Abbey of St Peter comprise one of the most complete and well preserved examples of a late-Baroque (architecture) and Rococo (most of the decoration) abbey complex in Catholic Germany. The Fürstensaal (Hall of Princes) was used for receptions and festivities relating to the temporal role of the abbey.
Concert, 4.15pm:
St Peter im Schwarzwald, Fürstensaal
Mozart for Kenner and Liebhaber
Consone Quartet
Kristian Bezuidenhout harpsichord
Mozart was especially pleased with the quintet and concerto performed here, both dating from his early 1780s’ heyday as composer-performer in Vienna. K415, played in Mozart’s own reduction for string quartet, is the grandest of a group of three concertos designed to appeal both to Kenner – connoisseurs – and Liebhaber – ordinary music lovers.
The concerto’s first movement also reveals Mozart’s recent immersion in the music of Handel and Bach. After a concert in which he played his fabulously inventive piano and wind quintet – heard here in an arrangement for keyboard and strings – Mozart waxed lyrical to his father in Salzburg: ‘I consider it the best work I have ever composed’. An exaggeration? Perhaps, but not by much.
Dinner on the ship. Overnight in Breisach.
Wednesday 14 May: Basel
The ship sails to Basel, and moors after a morning talk.
Straddling the Rhine at the uppermost point for shipping, the Swiss city abuts the borders of France and Germany. It retains much of its centuries-old streetscape and architecture, including a fine medieval cathedral, and the Kunstmuseum is Switzerland’s finest gallery of historic art. There is some free time to explore the city.
Don Bosco is a modern, almost industrial concert hall of whites and muted greys, converted from the former Roman Catholic Don Bosco Church and completed in 2020. Paul Sacher, the namesake of the main hall, was founder-conductor of the Basel Chamber Orchestra in 1926 and immensely wealthy. He commissioned works from many well-known composers, including Stravinsky, Bartók, and Richard Strauss, who features on our programme today.
Concert, 4.00pm:
Basel, Don Bosco, Paul Sacher Saal
Grand finale
Basel Chamber Orchestra
Marc Minkowski conductor
Influenced by his horn-playing father, who loathed ‘modern’ music, Wagner especially, the teenaged Richard Strauss revered Mozart above all other composers. In 1881, aged 17, he paid overt homage to his idol in his one-movement E major Serenade, modelled closely (and why not?) on Mozart’s Gran Partita for 13 wind instruments, K361.
Two years later Hans Richter conducted the triumphant Viennese première of Brahms’s Third Symphony, dubbing it the composer’s Eroica. Yet the music’s heroic aspirations are shadowed with Brahmsian musings and questionings, not least in the elegiac third movement which so moved Clara Schumann. The symphony’s unforgettable plunging opening echoes the ‘Rhenish’ Symphony of Robert Schumann, who had enthusiastically championed the 20-year-old Brahms after he visited the Schumanns in Düsseldorf.
Drinks reception and final dinner on board, overnight Basel.
Thursday 15 May: Basel
Coach transfers depart between 9.30am and 12.00 noon. See 'Practicalities' for the flight and train options available for returning to London.
Expert speaker
Dr Katy Hamilton
Writer and broadcaster, she has provided talks for, amongst others, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and the Oxford Lieder Festival. A frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3, Katy’s specialism is the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and she is the editor of Brahms in the Home and Concert Hall (2014) and Brahms in Context (2019). Katy has taught at the Royal College of Music, City Lit, and the Universities of Nottingham and Middlesex.
Practicalities
The price includes:
– Eight private concerts in historic and appropriate buildings.
– Daily talks on the music.
– Accommodation on a first-class river cruiser for 7 nights.
– All meals, from dinner on the first day to breakfast on the last, with wine, and interval drinks.
– Coach travel between airport and ship or hotel, and to concert venues when not reached on foot.
– All tips, taxes and admission charges.
– A detailed programme booklet.
– The assistance of an experienced team of festival staff.
Haydn deck – lowest
Two sharing: £3,890 per person
Single occupancy: £4,460
Strauss deck – middle
Two sharing: £4,760 per person
Single occupancy: £5,660
Mozart deck – top
Two sharing: £5,340 per person
Single occupancy: £6,290
Suites – Mozart deck
Two sharing: £6,190 per person
Not available for single occupancy.
Please note that each outbound option is tied to a particular inbound option – we are unable to amend your return transport to include the outbound and inbound travel from two different options. At the time of publication, flight and train schedules had not yet been published for May 2025 so these times are indicative and subject to change.
Option 1 – flights both ways (LCY)
8 May: London City to Amsterdam (BA 8489) departing at 10.50 and arriving at 12.55. This is followed by free time for independent exploration before dinner and the evening concert.
15 May: Zurich to London City (BA 8766) departing at 14.55 and arriving at 15.30. There is time for some independent exploration of Basel before departing for London.
Option 2 – Flights both ways (LHR)
8 May: London Heathrow to Amsterdam (BA 434) departing at 11.45 and arriving at 14.05. This is followed by free time for independent exploration before dinner and the evening concert.
15 May: Basel to London Heathrow (BA 753) departing at 12.20 and arriving at 13.00.
Option 3 – Train out, flight back (LCY)
8 May: London St Pancras to Amsterdam (Eurostar) departing at 11.04 and arriving at 16.15.
15 May: Zurich to London City (BA 8766) departing at 14.55 and arriving at 15.30. There is time for some independent exploration of Basel before departing for London.
Option 4 – Train out, flight back (LHR)
8 May: London St Pancras to Amsterdam (Eurostar) departing at 11.04 and arriving at 16.15.
15 May: Basel to London Heathrow (BA 753) departing at 12.20 and arriving at 13.00.
Option 5 – Rail only
8 May: London St Pancras to Amsterdam (Eurostar) departing at 11.04 and arriving at 16.15.
15 May: Basel to London St Pancras, via Paris (one change), departing at 10.34 and arriving at 17.30.
Supplement for Option 5 (train both ways): £150 per person.
Connecting flights
It may be possible to arrange connecting flights with British Airways from Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Belfast.
Making own arrangements
You can choose not to take any of our flight/rail options and to make your own arrangements for joining and leaving the ship. You are welcome to join our coach transfers if your travel arrangements coincide with any of the options above.
Price reduction for ‘no flights/trains’: £250 per person.
The ship
Launched in 2022, the MS Amadeus Cara is one of the most comfortable river cruisers in Europe. The multinational crew is dedicated to the highest standards of service.
With a floor area of 16m2 (Haydn deck) or 17.5m2 (Strauss and Mozart decks) the cabins are reasonably spacious by the standards of river cruisers. All have windows to the outside and are equipped with the facilities one would expect of a first-class hotel such as adjustable air-conditioning, telephone, TV and safe. Bathrooms have showers only. Special attention has been paid to noise insulation.
In layout and furnishings the cabins are identical, the significant differences being the size of windows and height above water level (higher cabins enjoy better views and fewer stairs).
Cabins on the top decks (Mozart and Strauss) are the most desirable, with floor-to-ceiling windows which slide open, and minibars. There are ten suites (Mozart) measuring 26.4m2 with a corner sofa area and small balcony. Cabins on the lowest (Haydn) deck have smaller windows which do not open. There are no single cabins as such but we are allocating some twin-bed cabins for single occupancy.
The public areas include the lounge and bar, a library area and a restaurant which can seat everyone at a single sitting. The sun deck has a tented area for shade.
Prices
Haydn deck – lowest
Two sharing: £3,890 per person
Single occupancy: £4,460
Strauss deck – middle
Two sharing: £4,760 per person
Single occupancy: £5,660
Mozart deck – top
Two sharing: £5,340 per person
Single occupancy: £6,290
Suites – Mozart deck
Two sharing: £6,190 per person
Not available for single occupancy
No flights/trains: if you choose not to take one of the included transport options below, there is a price reduction of £250 per person.
Train travel: if you choose to take Option 5 (train both ways, see below), there is a supplement of £150 per person.
Quite a lot of walking is necessary to reach some concert venues and to get around the towns we visit. Most of the concert venues do not have a lift. You need to be averagely fit, sure-footed and able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty. We ask that you take these simple fitness tests before booking.
If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.
Duration. The duration of most of the concerts is between one and two hours; all concerts longer than 75 minutes have an interval.
Seating. Seats are not numbered – you sit where you want, or where space is left. There are pews in some churches but most seating is shaped or upholstered chairs.
Private. All eight concerts have been set up by Martin Randall Travel exclusively for those who buy the complete package which includes accommodation, dinners, talks etc. as well as access to the concerts.
Audience size. There will be up to 140 participants on the festival. One of our venues cannot hold this number, so at this the performance will be repeated.
Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls.
Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs, airlines alter schedules: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.
Floods and droughts. We cannot rule out changes to the programme arising from exceptionally high or low water levels on the Rhine, either of which may bring river traffic to a halt. These might necessitate more travel by coach or the loss of a concert, though we would always try to minimise the impact on the itinerary.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
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Dates & prices
2025
Date
Speaker
Price
0
Date:
8th - 15th May 2025
Speaker:
Dr Katy Hamilton
Price:
£3,640 ex flights
(Based on two sharing)Testimonials
“The quality of the performances was excellent as always with the musicians chosen being of the highest calibre... The venues were exciting for me as I had not visited any previously and loved the beauty and history of these places – I was quite entranced with the lovely Schloss Raesfeld and after the beautiful lieder performance, lost myself within its grounds while the second concert was on. The programme booklet as always, is a totally complete guide to the entire concert tour with incredible information on each of the performances including details of the lyrics and their translations that then become wonderful reference literature for me into the future. I have kept every one from your numerous music festivals that I have enjoyed over the years.
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“'Katy Hamilton was outstanding. Her lectures were of exceptional quality and the depth of her musical knowledge of the subject matter was superb.'
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“Superb. Introduced me to some new music and composers. Daily talk by Katy was outstanding – friendly and amusing as well as informative.
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“This was our first music festival (fifth overall MRT tour) We were delighted and the variety and quality of the music was terrific.
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“Every aspect of this tour was excellent. I tried very hard to find something to complain about but could not! Some of the music was new to me and very interesting. All venues were remarkable. The tour was once again perfect.
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