It’s a bright sunny day here: the windows of our temporary upstairs office are open and we’re able to look out over Brunswick Square Gardens and enjoy the fresh air.

Adrian is editing a new score of Vivaldi RV288 (in preparation for a new programme for Music in Country Churches this July) and the Sibelius-generated sounds have been punctuated by bin lorries and the odd car horn. “It’s what Vivaldi had in mind…” says Adrian with a wry smile.

We are settling into life in Gloucester now. There is however an enormous backlog of administrative tasks to work through and it’s been hard to keep in touch with everyone who has written or donated to us recently. If you’re still awaiting a “proper” response from me, I really do apologise. I will get there soon.

We are massively grateful for the donations that have come in since Christmas: your support is helping our small team and our music to keep going.

This month we released Vivaldi 8 – our NEW version of The Four Seasons and other concertos. This entered the UK Classical Chart at Number 6 (we couldn’t quite pull off a ranking at Number 8) which was very gratifying.

I am still in the process of sending out CDs to everyone who may be anticipating one for Vivaldi 8. If you’re desperate for your next Vivaldi ‘fix’ and cannot wait a moment longer, please drop me a line and I will post without delay. We are very grateful to everyone who helped make this album possible.

We’re due to take delivery of our 8 Posters TODAY! These celebrate our 30th Anniversary and the new album. Donors to the Vivaldi 8 project will be receiving one soon – but we will also be selling them via the website here. They are A2 size and can be signed by Adrian if so desired! If you’d like one, do get in touch.

Our Wigmore Hall concert in January was well attended and had a great atmosphere. Thanks to so many of you for attending and saying hello.

We went into the recording studio in February to record the same programme, The Contest of Apollo & Pan, and the final works for Giro d’Italia (both due for release in 2026+). Adrian had the genius idea of adding in two horns to the Valentini concerto for the recording (as there were optional horn parts) which really lifted this piece of music – we think it may become the finale to the Apollo & Pan album.

In these sessions, we worked with Tabea Debus & Miriam Monaghan (recorders) and Ursula Monberg & Peter Moutoussis (horns); we were also joined by Elitsa Bogdanova on viola and Guy Button on violin – two players that we have not had the pleasure of working with much recently, but who are LS ‘old-hands’. 

There were some issues in the sessions with humidity – or lack of it. Dave our engineer spent much of his time filling buckets of water, and even members of the band could be seen mopping the floor to keep the instruments from drying out!

Robin Bigwood (keyboard) took some wonderful pictures from the sessions:

Speaking personally, I really enjoyed preparing for this project and rejoining the second violin section – this has been difficult to achieve in recent years but feels more feasible now the kids are that bit older. Casper turned 4 during the sessions and Jemima is 9 today! They enjoyed being down in Wells and playing with the other LS children that were also there for the half-term sessions. How time has flown…

Now that we’re back to the grind, Adrian is busy editing again, including the last music for April’s Wigmore concert – a concerto in 6 parts by Gasparini (Vivaldi’s boss at the Pieta) – and a fabulous suite by Telemann for a concert in Norfolk this summer. We are firming up programming plans for concerts in the autumn, including return visits to St Martin in the Fields, Vinehall, Liverpool and (hopefully) Southampton. We’re excited to be planning a new recording with mandolin star Raffaele La Ragione in October and have also just signed off the Master for Crossing Borders (due out this summer). There is another intriguing cover to look forward to there…

You can see the details of our next Wigmore Hall concerts below:
7:30pm, 29 April 2025 – La Rossa
Bononcini, Dall’Abaco, Torelli, Vivaldi & Zavateri
Tickets available now
7:30pm, 25 June 2025 – La Profezia d’Eliseo nell’assedio di Samaria
Attilio Ariosti (1666 – 1729) with text by Giovanni Battista Neri (1660 – 1726)
Tickets available now

We continue to welcome donations of all sizes to support our music and very much appreciate the emails and other communications we receive from our friends, fans and followers across the globe.

Thank you for your support – keep listening!!
Camilla (& Adrian)