The Music of Jane Austen

“What felicity it is to hear a tune again which has made one happy!” It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen loved music, in fact, she owned a library of more than 600 different songs and piano pieces. Today, Sophie Rosa, Ian Buckle and Olivier Award-winning actor Juliet Stevenson (Emma; Truly, Madly Deeply) invite you to a musical evening at home with the Austens. Hear the melodies that enlivened Jane’s world: the dances she enjoyed, the sonatas that delighted Regency society and the pieces that she played at home herself. And savour her own thoughts and feelings, with readings from her candid and gloriously witty correspondence with her beloved sister Cassandra.

Like Austen’s own novels, the atmosphere is friendly but the unspoken emotions embrace whole worlds. Expect both sense and sensibility as music by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Cramer (some familiar, some rediscovered) is interwoven with the words and private confessions of this most beloved – and brilliant – of English novelists. As Austen herself put it, “Accomplishments, such as they are, should be cultivated, not as the means of distinguishing oneself, but as the means of making oneself agreeable.” That is our only wish tonight, and we would be delighted to have your company. May we request the pleasure..?