Festival Launch

Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet no. 2 in G minor, op. 45
Louise Farrenc: Nonet, op. 38

Relaxed Concert: Carnival

Saint-Saëns: Morceau de concert for horn and piano
Saint-Saëns: Bassoon Sonata
Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals

For this ‘Relaxed’ concert featuring ‘The Carnival of the Animals’, doors will be left open, lights raised, a break-out space provided, and there will be less emphasis on the audience being quiet during the performance. People with an Autism Spectrum, sensory or communication disorder or learning disability, those with age-related impairments and parents/carers with babies are all especially welcome.

Saint-Saëns. The Renaissance Man

Saint-Saëns:
Morceau de concert for horn and piano
Bassoon Sonata
Les odeurs de Paris
L’assassinat du duc de guise
The Carnival of the Animals

Camille Saint-Saëns’ most celebrated work, ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ is a work unlike any other, transporting the listener into a musical menagerie that includes a swan, a tortoise, lions and a plunge into a truly magical aquarium. It is presented here alongside rarely performed pieces including ‘Les odeurs de Paris’, a musical riot, with the addition of trumpets and children’s toys to convey the many smells of Paris. Early French film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise is one of the very first to feature an original film score. Written by Saint-Saëns, the music will be performed live alongside a screening of the film in a celebration of the beloved French composer.

French Gems

Maurice Ravel: Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
Camille Saint-Saëns: Oboe Sonata in D major, op. 166
Thomas Adès: Alchymia for clarinet quintet
Interval
André Messager: Solo de Concours for solo clarinet
César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

French Gems

Maurice Ravel: Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
Camille Saint-Saëns: Oboe Sonata in D major, op. 166
Thomas Adès: Alchymia for clarinet quintet
Interval
André Messager: Solo de Concours for solo clarinet
César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

Friday Night in Paris
Roderick Williams and Ensemble 360

Musical national treasure Roderick Williams, soloist at King Charles III’s Coronation and Singer-in-Residence with Music in the Round, returns to the Crucible Playhouse with Ensemble 360 for a magical tour through the City of Light.

Fauré’s first Piano Quintet was a labour of love that he nurtured over many years, and the song cycles and works for violin he wrote alongside it echo through this exquisitely constructed piece.

Poulenc’s kaleidoscopic sextet encompasses jazz, ragtime, pastiche of Mozart and a tribute to Ravel, whose ‘Madagascan’ songs they follow, in this programme luxuriating in the many sounds of fin de siècle Paris.

Culminating in Fauré’s intricate song-cycle, crafted from the poems of Paul Verlaine, this concert reunites Ensemble 360, with Music in the Round’s singer-in-residence Roderick Williams for the first time since 2017.

Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quintet no. 1 in D minor, op. 89
Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Interval
Francis Poulenc: Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano in C major
Gabriel Fauré: La Bonne Chanson for Baritone, String Quintet and Piano

Ensemble 360 and Steven Isserlis in Festival Finale

George Onslow: Nonet, op. 77
Gabriel Fauré: Elegie, op. 24
Interval
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: String Sextet in D minor, op.70, Souvenir de Florence

A grand work for a grand finale: captivating charm and wit from George Onslow’s Nonet. Nicknamed the ‘French Beethoven’, this is a chance to hear one of his finest and largest-scale chamber works whose five movements move through an expressive array of moods from turbulence to a jubilant conclusion.

Steven Isserlis then joins pianist Tim Horton for a heartfelt lament by Gabriel Fauré, before we sign off with Tchaikovsky’s celebratory musical postcard, Souvenir de Florence. This hugely popular string sextet by the great Russian composer features both Steven Isserlis and Ensemble 360’s cellist Gemma Rosefield, and promises to be a fitting farewell to the Festival in our anniversary year.

Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581
Interval
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, op. 44

George Onslow: Nonet, op. 77
Interval
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in E flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
Huw Watkins: Broken Consort

Josef Suk: Piano Quartet in A minor, op. 1
Joaquín Turina: Scéne Andalouse for Piano Sextet, op.7
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581

Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34
Francis Poulenc: Violin Sonata
Frank Bridge: Two Pieces, Caprice and Lament
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor, op. 10

Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34
Francis Poulenc: Violin Sonata
Frank Bridge: 2 pieces for cello and piano: Spring Song and Scherzo
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor, op. 10

Frédéric François Chopin: Introduction et polonaise brillante
Igor Stravinsky: 3 pieces for solo clarinet
Manuel De Falla: Suite Populaire Espagnole
Simon Rowland-Jones: Taking Time, for clarinet, cello and piano
Maurice Ravel: Quartet in F Major

Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet no. 25 in C major, op. 20, no. 2, Hob.III:32
Robert Schumann: Märchenerzählungen, op. 132
Pablo Sarasate: Navarra, op. 33
Johannes Brahms: String Quintet no. 2 in G major, op. 111

20 Years of Ensemble 360: Festival Launch

Huw Watkins: Broken Consort
Aileen Sweeney: Commission from Royal Philharmonic Society 2024 (World Premiere)
Interval
Franz Schubert: Octet in F major, D. 803

Maurice Ravel, arr. Farrington: Mother Goose Suite
Louise Farrenc: Sextet for Piano and Winds in C Minor, Op. 40
Interval
Maurice Duruflé: Prélude, récitatif et variations for Flute, Viola and Piano, op. 3
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, op. 44

Edmund Meisel, arr. George Morton: Battleship Potemkin

Dmitry Shostakovich: Two Pieces for String Octet, op. 11
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in E flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
Francis Poulenc: Oboe Sonata
Interval
Arnold Schönberg, arr. Eduard Steuermann: Verklärte Nacht, op. 4

Oliver Knussen: Cantata for Oboe and String Trio
Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor
Interval
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Quintet for piano and strings in C minor
Benjamin Britten: Britten Sinfonietta, Op. 1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartet no. 1 in D major, K. 285
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quintet for Piano and Wind in E flat major, op. 16
Interval
Edward Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, op. 84

With Dafydd Jones, tenor

Arnold Bax: Clarinet Sonata
Ralph Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
Interval
Frank Bridge: Phantasy for Piano Quartet, H.94
Arthur Bliss: Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet

Gideon Klein: Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello
Leo Smit: Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano
Interval
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata no. 3 in A major, op. 69
Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio no. 4 in B flat, op. 11, Gassenhauer
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in A minor, op. 132

Chris Addison's Incomplete Guide to Chamber Music
Programme includes excerpts from:
Arcangelo Corelli: Trio Sonata da Camera in D Major, op.2, no.1
Barbara Strozzi, arr. Birchall: Che si può fare, op.8
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude from Cello Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Bach Flute Concerto in D minor Wq.22
Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet no. 62 in C major, op. 76, no. 3, Hob.III:77, Emperor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano in E flat major, K. 498, Kegelstatt
Ludwig van Beethoven: Serenade op. 25
Frédéric François Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor, op. posth.
Claude Debussy: Syrinx
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor, op. 10
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth: Piano Trio in D Minor
Dmitry Shostakovich: String Quartet no. 8 in C minor, op. 110
Arnold Schönberg: Suite, op. 25
Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint for solo clarinet and tape
Anna Meredith: Tuggemo

With Claire Booth (soprano)

Judith Weir: King Harold's Saga
Harrison Birtwistle: Cortege for 14 musicians
Interval
Johannes Brahms: Serenade no. 1 in D major, op. 11

Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Quintet, op.34
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370
Interval
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Piano Quintet, op. 15

Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata no. 5 in F major, op. 24, Spring
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet no. 4 in C minor, op 18, no. 4
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven: Septet in E flat major, op. 20

Maurice Ravel, arr. Strivens: Shéhérazade
Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, op. 67

Claude Debussy: Danses Sacrée et Profane
Maurice Ravel, arr. Strivens: Shéhérazade
Interval
Claude Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, L. 137
Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, op. 67

Richard Strauss: String Sextet from Capriccio, op. 85
Ellen Sargen: New Work
Jean Sibelius: En Saga, op. 9, reconstructed for chamber ensemble
Interval
Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll for chamber orchestra
Richard Strauss, arr. Ledger: Four Last Songs