Four-day festival celebrates art, history and music in Leamington

While the art gallery at the iconic building opens its First Class Watering Place exhibition - which explores the Pump Room’s 200-year history - the classical music festival, organised by Leamington Music, will begin on Friday with a concert by Ensemble 360 and the Okeanos Ensemble, who will perform music written in the decade around 1814, when the Pump Room opened, by Beethoven, Schubert, Hummel, Spohr and Rolla.

Polish National Day will be marked on Saturday by Polish pianist Marek Bracha and the Royal String Quartet, who will perform works by Chopin.

On Sunday, celebrations for Czech Music Year 2014 take hold with a day of Czech music: the Dvorak Society will perform two works by Vilem Tausky, including Coventry, written after he saw the Cathedral destroyed in the 1940 Blitz, while in the evening the Prague-based Guarneri will perform works by Smetana, Fiser and Dvorak.

The festival ends on bank holiday Monday with a packed day of concerts, including an organ recital, a further performance by the Okeanos Ensemble and more music by Czech artists.

For full details and tickets, call 776438 or visit www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk