This year's first flush of festivals continues with the opening of Leamington's contribution, which has grown from a long weekend of events spread over the Bank Holiday to what is now a generous week-and-a-bit of themed offerings (Romantic music the thread for 2005).
The main venue for a packed programme of concerts is the town's Royal Pump Rooms, playing host to an illustrious range of international artists.
Leon McCawley was the brilliant yet modest pianist in last year's memorable CBSO performances of Stravinsky's Petrushka (including at the Royal Albert Hall Proms), and he appears in Leamington tomorrow night with violinist Matthew Trusler and cellist Tom Carroll in a programme of Schubert, Schumann and Tchaikovsky (7.30pm), and on Saturday with a tempting lunchtime solo recital menu of Chopin, Schumann and Rachmaninov (the splendid Variations on a Theme of Corelli, 12 noon).
Saturday also brings the renowned Borodin Quartet to Leamington.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the Quartet still has a founder-member in cellist Valentin Berlinsky, and its programme here brings several Russian delights, including Tchaikovsky's String Quartet no.2 and the gorgeous Second Quartet by Borodin, written as a wedding-present for his wife and chock-full of wonderful melodies which were later to gain wider fame in Kismet (7.30pm).
Other string quartets visiting Leamington this week include the St Petersburg Quartet and the Wihan Quartet presenting joint concerts on Sunday (7.30pm) and Monday (7.30pm), the latter including the wonderful Mendelssohn Octet, and The Lindsays, stopping off here on their retirement tour to present an evening of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Beethoven on Wednesday (7.30pm).
The many fans of the young Birmingham Conservatoire piano graduate David Quigley will want to know that this immensely talented Ulsterman comes to Leamington on Wednesday lunchtime with a programme of Schubert, Chopin, Brahms and Ravel (12 noon). Details of these and all other Leamington Festival events are available on 01926 496277.
Bromsgrove's 45th annual Festival meanwhile enters its second week, with one of its highlights a recital on Wednesday from the young pianist Ayako Uehara, who in 2002 became the first Japanese artist and first woman to win the immensely prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Her programme at the atmospheric New Guesten Hall in the Avoncroft Museum of Buildings is a generous one: the complete set of Chopin Preludes, his C-sharp minor Nocturne, and Mussorgsky's mighty Pictures at an Exhibition (7.45pm, details on 01527 821542).
Moving away from the festival scene, Wednesday evening also brings the highly regarded contemporary music group Psappha from its north-west of England base to the Barber Institute at Birmingham University.
The acclaimed and much respected soprano Jane Manning joins Psappha for a performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Miss Donnithorne's Maggot, and the programme also includes The Axe Manual by Sir Peter's contemporary and studentcolleague at Manchester Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and Piers Hellawell's Truth or Consequences (7.30pm, details on 0121 414 7333).
Tomorrow night the Adrian Boult Hall at Birmingham Conservatoire hosts this year's Sylvia Cleaver Chamber Music prize, when student groups present 20-minute programmes in competition for the award, given with sponsorship by Birmingham Chamber Music Society (7pm, details on 0121 236 5622).
Also tomorrow, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group presents another in its brilliantly-attended The Series events at the CBSO Centre in Berkley Street (7.30pm).
Here we have no fewer than three world premieres: Howard Skempton's Ben Somewhen, based on the drawings of Ben Hartley, and two collaborations between Judith Weir and the evocative Indian storyteller Vayu Naidu, Manimekalai and Psyche.
All three are the latest in BCMG's remarkable sequence of "Sound Investment" commissions, with the programme completed with works by Stravinsky (the elder statesman here) and Skempton again (his Clarinet Quintet). Details on 0121 767 4050.
CORRECTION: Unfortunately, the complexity of BCMG's current activities defeated us in our notes to yesterday's interview with Howard Skempton.
The John Cage pieces are being played on this weekend's rural tour, but not tomorrow night: Martyn Brabbins conducted a rural tour earlier this month, but these performances are without conductor.
Most important, the performance at the Lion Ballroom, Leominster, on Saturday is at 7pm, not 7.30pm. This performance is almost full, so if you do not already have free tickets call 01568 611232 before travelling. The concert at Edgton Village Hall on Sunday is already full.
