Peasmarsh Festival

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Gilmore, Emily Nebel, Sally Pendlebury

Strauss Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 6, TrV 115
Haydn String Quartet Op. 50 No. 5 ‘The Dream’
Brahms Horn Trio in E flat major, Op. 40

Dedicated to, and premiered by, Hanuš Wihan (with whose wife Dora Strauss was in love, exchanging romantic letters over many years) Strauss’s Sonata – completed when the composer was 19 years old – was well received and quickly became a central part of the cello repertoire. Haydn’s Dream Quartet, one of the Prussian Quartets cheekily sold to publishers in both Austria and England, is followed by Brahms’ melancholic Horn Trio performed here, as the composer intended, on natural horn, despite the prominence of the valve horn by this point in the 19th Century.

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Yoanna Prodanova, Christoph Slenczka, Amarins Wierdsma

Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor
Schubert String Trio Movement in B flat major D.471
Abrahamsen 6 Pieces for Violin, Horn and Piano
Schubert Impromptu in G flat major Op.90

Celebrating Vienna’s rich musical heritage, the concert begins with Mahler’s unfinished Piano Quartet. Composed when he was just 16 years old, although not performed until 1960, it is the only surviving chamber work from this period of his youth. Also unfinished, Schubert’s lyrical String Trio Movement is followed by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen’s 1984 commission for Danish Radio, based on six of his Studies for Piano. The programme draws to a close with Schubert’s profound and hymn-like Impromptu for solo piano.
VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Gilmore, Emily Nebel, Sally Pendlebury

Strauss Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 6, TrV 115
Haydn String Quartet Op. 50 No. 5 ‘The Dream’
Brahms Horn Trio in E flat major, Op. 40

Dedicated to, and premiered by, Hanuš Wihan (with whose wife Dora Strauss was in love, exchanging romantic letters over many years) Strauss’s Sonata – completed when the composer was 19 years old – was well received and quickly became a central part of the cello repertoire. Haydn’s Dream Quartet, one of the Prussian Quartets cheekily sold to publishers in both Austria and England, is followed by Brahms’ melancholic Horn Trio performed here, as the composer intended, on natural horn, despite the prominence of the valve horn by this point in the 19th Century.

Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Benjamin Gilmore, Graham Mitchell, Emily Nebel, Sally Pendlebury

Turina The Bullfighter’s Prayer, Op. 34
Debussy Selection of preludes from Book 2 and Poisson d’or (from Images)
Puccini Crisantemi
Rossini Duo for Cello and Double Bass in D major

A programme celebrating the beauty, pathos, passion and wit of Latin musical culture. Turina’s Bullfighter’s Prayer was originally written for a quartet of mandolin-like folk instruments. Commissioned for a soiree with virtuoso double bassist Domenico Dragonetti, Rossini’s Duo is a witty, sensitive and virtuosic demonstration of how entertaining these two instruments can be. Puccini’s elegy, Crisantemi, was composed in one night, upon hearing of the death of his friend the Duke of Savoy, and is rarely heard in its original version for string quartet.

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Gilmore, Graham Mitchell, Emily Nebel, Barbican String Quartet

R Strauss Sextet from ‘Capriccio’, Op. 85
Ligeti String Quartet No. 1
R Schumann Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Dvo?ák String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77

Like his opera, Capriccio, of 1942, the final programme in the Peasmarsh festival opens with Strauss’s rich, Romantic Sextet. Inspired by Bartók’s third and fourth quartets, Ligeti’s quartet – titled Métamorphoses nocturnes – was composed under the restrictions of Communist Hungary, before Ligeti emigrated to Austria and was able to explore his passion for the avant-garde. Proclaimed by Clara Schumann to be ‘brilliant, fresh and compassionate’ and just the sort of work that she liked, Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro of 1848 is performed in this concert on horn and piano (Schumann also produced alternative parts for cello and violin). The festival draws to a close with Dvo?ák’s second String Quintet, with double bass instead of 2nd viola; a composition for which Dvo?ák won 5 ducats in a competition.

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Gilmore, Graham Mitchell, Emily Nebel, Barbican String Quartet

R Strauss Sextet from ‘Capriccio’, Op. 85
Ligeti String Quartet No. 1
R Schumann Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Dvo?ák String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77

Like his opera, Capriccio, of 1942, the final programme in the Peasmarsh festival opens with Strauss’s rich, Romantic Sextet. Inspired by Bartók’s third and fourth quartets, Ligeti’s quartet – titled Métamorphoses nocturnes – was composed under the restrictions of Communist Hungary, before Ligeti emigrated to Austria and was able to explore his passion for the avant-garde. Proclaimed by Clara Schumann to be ‘brilliant, fresh and compassionate’ and just the sort of work that she liked, Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro of 1848 is performed in this concert on horn and piano (Schumann also produced alternative parts for cello and violin). The festival draws to a close with Dvo?ák’s second String Quintet, with double bass instead of 2nd viola; a composition for which Dvo?ák won 5 ducats in a competition.

Private Fundraiser for Peasmarsh Festival.

Richard Lester (cello)
Tim Horton (piano)

Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 6 in A major, op. 30, no. 1
Brahms Cello Sonata no. 2 in F major op. 99