Anyone with a taste for music, literature and history will find all three woven delightfully together at a concert presented by the Oxford Chamber Music Festival as part of its traditional spring concert series. The recital takes place at 17th-century Asthall Manor, which in 1919 became home to the famous Mitford sisters. Jessica Mitford captured the flavour of family life at Asthall in her autobiography, Hons and Rebels, published in 1960, while elder sister Nancy used the house as the basis for Alconleigh in her novel The Pursuit of Love.

Asthall is best known these days for its On Form sculpture exhibition (June 17-July 15), but the OCMF concert offers a rare opportunity to see the historic ballroom, created by the Mitford family.

Oxford-born violinist and OCMF founder Priya Mitchell will be joined by other world-class artists, including Norwegian musicians Per Arne Glovingen and Steinar Haugerud on the bandoneon (a kind of concertina popular in South America) and bass respectively, and German cellist Nicolas Alstaedt, one of Radio 3’s current New Generation artists.

The programme is the usual eclectic mix audiences have come to expect from the festival, and features Bach’s Cello Suite No.1, Kodaly’s Duo for violin and cello, Piazzolla’s Oblivion and a selection of tango-inspired music. It promises to be a lively and stirring evening, and a tasty appetiser for the main Oxford Chamber Music Festival this autumn.

The festival began in 2000 when a small group of friends, led by Priya Mitchell, gathering for some informal music-making. It has now grown into a major national event. The recital at Asthall Manor is on Thursday, May 3, at 7.30pm. The grounds are open from 6pm so that audiences can enjoy a picnic in the beautiful grounds — so pray for fine weather! Tickets are available through the festival’s official website, http://ocmf.net/