[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Great_Romantics.jpg” caption=”The Great Romantics Festival runs from Thursday, Oct. 4 to Saturday, Oct. 6. “]The 13th International Great Romantics Festival features an impressive line-up of artists and speakers from several countries to celebrate the Romantic Era in music.

This Era is so rich in great music and musicians that it is impossible for a single festival to do it full justice, even one that has been running for 13 years. The great advantage is that the festival will never run out of repertoire. This year, the festival continues its tradition of presenting familiar works alongside those which are esoteric and rarely heard in the concert hall.

The subtitle of the festival, Highways and Byways, tells it all. Brahms, Beethoven and Chopin are familiar figures who tread the Romantic Highway on an almost daily basis, and they are quite rightly featured here. But the Byways are just as absorbing. How often does one get the chance to hear music by the 19th century cellist David Popper, the songs of Clara Schumann or Walter Gieseking's piano transcriptions of songs by Richard Strauss?

The festival is proud to continue its association with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, which will present a concert containing three works of enduring significance: Brahms's Haydn Variations, Dvorak's Symphony no. 8 in G major and Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor with soloist Valerie Tryon.

The concert will be conducted by Berlin-based maestro Horst Foerster, who regularly occupies the podium of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He will be making his fifth appearance at the Great Romantics Festival.

The festival is also pleased to announce that its special partnership with the Hilton Head International Piano Competition will continue. This year's first prize winner, the young American pianist Eric Zuber, will perform a demanding programme of works by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Tchaikovsky.

Chamber music, lieder and organ recitals take up much of the rest of the festival. Of special interest will be the Saturday afternoon Piano Gala, in which six concert pianists will pay homage to Chopin, performing some of the Polish master's best-known works, including Scherzos, Ballades, Polonaises and Nocturnes.

“The Piano Gala has become an annual event and always attracts a large audience,” said Alan Walker, festival organizer and professor emeritus in the School of the Arts.

The festival concludes with a candlelight banquet in the Webster Room of Hamilton's Convention Centre.

Jointly promoted by the City of Hamilton, McMaster University and the American Liszt Society, the festival runs from Thursday, Oct. 4 to Saturday, Oct. 6.