Brading Roman Villa closes to regular visitors for the afternoon on 15 May and opens instead for a Fairest Isle Festival event that combines three things: a historian's talk on Roman life in Britain, a private tour of the mosaic floors and artefacts, and a baroque recital played in the middle of the museum's main hall. The combination is more coherent than it sounds, and the intimacy of the setting is difficult to replicate in a concert venue.
Pat Barber leads the history section, then violinists Kinga Ujszaszi and Kristiina Watt play Vivaldi, Telemann, and contemporaries in the gallery space itself, with the mosaics as backdrop. The Fairest Isle Festival has a strong track record of pairing unexpected venues with early music, and Brading Roman Villa is one of the best pairings in the programme: a site that predates the music by fifteen hundred years, generating an atmosphere that a purpose-built concert hall cannot buy.
Tickets from around £23, booking required through the festival. Afternoon start on 15 May. Part of a broader heritage and music programme across the festival weekend. Worth arriving early to see the mosaics before the music begins.
