The Grand Tour: Venice and the Mediterranean, Milton Court

Over the past season, the superlative Academy of Ancient Music have been exploring the sort of pieces eighteenth century tourists might have heard on their Grand Tour. This May, they reach Venice, where the Christian west met the Ottoman east, and conjure up the colour and vivacity of a Venetian marketplace.
A pair of very special guests will join the AAM. Richard Tognetti is a virtuoso violinist, renowned worldwide for his directorship of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and his dynamic, versatile playing. And Joseph Tawadros is a master of the oud, the Arabian lute rarely heard in most Western music.
Together, they will play a mixture of Antonio Vivaldi's most famous concertos – including the evergreen Four Seasons – and Tawadros’ own contemporary compositions, which fuse baroque structure with themes from his Egyptian heritage. Recent collaborations in their native Australia have met with rave reviews, and this is their first time playing together in the UK.
Tognetti has re-orchestrated Vivaldi to include Tawadros' instrument, transforming the baroque warhorses into something startlingly rhythmic, energetic and new. You might have heard Vivaldi a hundred times, but it's unlikely you've ever heard him sound like this.