The 2022 Brecon Baroque Festival will return to the town next month, running over four days from October 21-24.

This year’s festival focuses on the second stage of the Walk with Bach series, looking at JS Bach’s early years as Thomaskantor (Cantor at St Thomas’ Church) in Leipzig.

Brecon Baroque and its guest artists explore this rich period of sacred and instrumental works with Lutheran Masses, cantatas and concertos by JS and JL Bach.

There will also be some secular spice thrown in this year with songs and madrigals from Monteverdi, Purcell, Britten and Janequin, as well as the bizarre with birdsong, battles and church bells.

The grand finale programme, The Italian Job, is high drama – from concerti and arias by Handel and Torelli, to thunder and terror with Vivaldi.

Rachel Podger directs the Festival with guest artists including the fabulous I Fagiolini directed by Robert Hollingworth, soprano soloists Rowan Pierce and Rebecca Lee, organist Josef Laming and the virtuoso period instrument group The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble.

As well as this, there is the regular collaboration with students from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) and the Royal Academy of Music, as well as Brecon’s local music group South Powys Youth Music.

In additional to the fabulous array of concerts in Brecon Cathedral and Theatr Brycheiniog, there will also be pre-concert talks, historic town walks around Brecon and, for the first time this year, pre-concert lunches and suppers in collaboration with The Hours Café & Bookshop located in the Grade II listed 16th century Tithe Barn, a mere 100 steps from to Brecon Cathedral.

Be sure to not miss out on the Festival Evensong given by the choir of Brecon Cathedral, directed by Stephen Power and featuring a consort of viols from the RWCMD. Music at this event will include works by Henry Purcell and Orlando Gibbons.

Visit breconbaroquefestival.com for more information.