Holywell Music Room - Sun, Aug 17

On our first Oxford trip several years ago, we'd attended several  Oxford Coffee Concerts.  They are on most Sundays at 11:15am at the historic Holywell Music Room that is about an 8 minute walk from our flat.  Coffee/tea is served upon presenting your ticket at the Kings Arms pub or the Vaults and Garden Cafe at St Mary's, thus the name of the concert series.

The Holywell is the oldest concert hall in Europe, built in 1742, and famed for it's excellent acoustic.  Handel is among the many famous composers and musicians who have appeared there.  As you can see by the pictures it's a small intimate venue (seats 200) with only 4 tiered seating benches on each side although the rear seating areas are about 10 rows up. 

We'd discovered that all the musicians for these concerts are excellent - having won many international competitions, perform professionally and generally have made several recordings.  Today's concert was actually a group we'd enjoyed previously - the Carducci String Quartet  (2 violins, a viola and a cello).  They played 1)  String Quartet No 4, Op 83 by Dmitri Shastakovich and 2) String Quarter in E minor, Op 59 No 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven.  We had excellent seats (open seating except for a few series reservations) on the left side, 2nd row, 8/9 seats from the stage.  As noted above, the acoustics are fabulous and we love being so close to the performers. 

Afterwards we hurried back to Campion Hall for lunch with the fathers and the 15 members of the English Language School who are completing a month-long course and are also residing in the hall.  It was such a beautiful sunny day that we took our after lunch coffee/tea out into the Campion garden.  Thus the picture below.