PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Thursday 21 January 2027, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP, Pension Credit & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

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Home› What's on› PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

RAVEL Mother Goose Suite (18’)
GLINKA Trio Pathétique (16’)
RAVEL String Quartet (29’)
MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (35’) 

The musicians from Ensemble 360 come together for an evening of vivid musical storytelling. Ravel’s exquisite Mother Goose Suite and his luminous String Quartet frame Glinka’s dramatic ‘Trio Pathétique’, before the concert culminates in Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition. Presented in a spectacular chamber arrangement inspired by Ravel’s famous orchestration, this much-loved masterpiece brings a gallery of paintings thrillingly to life through music. 

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About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

RELAXED CONCERT: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Thursday 21 January 2027, 2.00pm

Tickets:
£5 / carers free

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Home› What's on› RELAXED CONCERT: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

RAVEL Mother Goose Suite (18’)
MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (35’) 

For this ‘Relaxed’ concert of Mussorgsky’s much-loved musical gallery and Ravel’s enchanting Mother Goose Suite, 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. 

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

SHEFFIELD FOLK

Flook

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 16 January 2027, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP, Pension Credit & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

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Home› What's on› SHEFFIELD FOLK

Superstar folk band Flook has an unmistakable sound: the soaring flutes and whistles of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen weave effortlessly above the rich rhythmic foundation of Ed Boyd’s guitar and John Joe Kelly’s driving bodhrán. Rooted in the traditions of England, Ireland and Scotland but constantly looking beyond them, their music moves from intimate lyricism to exhilarating energy with remarkable ease. 

Intricate, joyful and spontaneous, this is music of extraordinary warmth, imagination and irresistible rhythms from one of the most celebrated folk groups today, in the intimate in-the-round setting of the Crucible Playhouse. 

In partnership with Bright Phoebus.

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“An absolute powerhouse, a flute and whistle-led, eight-legged jig machine. Jigs, reels and waltzes whirl by. Each as glorious as the last, the musicianship as extraordinary, the mood never any less than euphoric”

FATEA Live Review

“Nothing short of transcendent… No other band sound like Flook and the new material has pushed them to new, exhilarating heights”

Songlines

ROMANTIC PIANO: BAROQUE REIMAGINED

Llŷr Williams

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 16 January 2027, 2.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP, Pension Credit & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

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Home› What's on› ROMANTIC PIANO: BAROQUE REIMAGINED

BACH-BUSONI Chaconne in D minor (15’)
BACH-BUSONI Chorale preludes (30’)
DUKAS Variations, interlude et finale sur un thème de Rameau (17’)
LISZT Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H (12’)
BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (26’) 

Welsh star pianist, Llŷr Williams, returns to Sheffield with a programme exploring the enduring influence of Baroque music from the 1700s on later generations of composers. Busoni reimagines Bach’s great organ works for the modern piano, Liszt transforms a Bach theme into dazzling virtuosity, and Dukas pays tribute to Rameau in one of the most colourful masterpieces of French piano music. Brahms’s monumental Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel is a work that unites intellectual brilliance with breathtaking power. 

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“He plays with a clarity and rigour that makes everything seem newly minted, yet it’s the ability to produce a deeply expressive singing tone in an infinite range of colours that is the most telling facet of his pianism. ”

The Guardian 

GOLDEN SOUNDS: ELGAR & VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Thursday 14 January 2027, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP, Pension Credit & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

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Home› What's on› GOLDEN SOUNDS: ELGAR & VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

BRAY Bluer than Midnight (11’)
ELGAR Violin Sonata (25’)
ELGAR Andante and Allegro (7’)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Piano Quintet in C minor (30’) 

Edward Elgar’s deeply personal Violin Sonata is one of the great masterpieces of English chamber music, full of warmth, lyricism and, in the composer’s words, “golden sounds”. Alongside it is his spirited ‘Andante and Allegro’ for oboe quartet and Charlotte Bray’s atmospheric Bluer than Midnight, before a magnificent Piano Quintet by Vaughan Williams brings the evening to a powerful close. Rich in melody and sweeping romanticism, we open the season with some of England’s finest chamber music. 

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About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

SHEFFIELD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2027

Ensemble 360 & Errollyn Wallen

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
14-22 May 2027
Tickets go on sale at 10.00am on 10 November
Home› What's on› SHEFFIELD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2027

Guest curated by Errollyn Wallen CBE, Master of the King’s Music.

More details to be announced soon.

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About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

Errollyn Wallen

Errollyn Wallen CBE is a multi award-winning Belize-born British composer named as one of the world’s top twenty most performed living classical composers. Her prolific output includes over twenty operas and a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber and vocal works, which are performed and broadcast throughout the world. She has composed for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games 2012, for the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, a specially commissioned song for COP 26 and a re-imagining of Jerusalem for the Last Night of the Proms 2020. Errollyn Wallen’s book Becoming a Composer was published by Faber in 2023. Her recordings have travelled 7.84 million kilometers in space, completing 186 orbits around the Earth on NASA’s STS-115 mission. In August 2024 Errollyn Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music. Read more.

SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNEA LOCKWOOD – PIANO GARDEN

Xenia Pestova Bennett

Woodseats Community Garden, Sheffield
Saturday 25 April 2026, 11.00am
Free event
Piano Garden, photo by Chris Ware
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNEA LOCKWOOD – PIANO GARDEN

ANNEA LOCKWOOD Piano Garden 

Annea Lockwood’s iconic ‘Piano Transplants’, begun in the late-1960s, saw the composer drown, bury and – most famously – set fire to otherwise discarded pianos. This special event will see long-time Lockwood collaborator Xenia Pestova Bennett perform ‘Piano Garden’ (1969-70). Half-interred and left in the earth forever, ‘Piano Garden’ opens the instrument to the unpredictable, ongoing ‘preparations’ created by plants, curious animals and weather. 

The piano burial will take place at Woodseats Community Garden, Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB and will include a short performance from Xenia.

No need to book, just turn up on the day.

In partnership with University of Sheffield Concerts

About the Artists

Xenia Pestova Bennett

Described as “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (Tempo), pianist and composer Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned an international reputation as a leading proponent of uncompromising music. Her work spans a wide range of sound worlds, styles and genres from classical to contemporary art music, free improvisation, experimental electronica and avant-pop.

Since receiving the unanimous First Prize at the Xavier Montsalvatge International Piano Competition in Girona, Spain and prizes at the Messiaen International Piano Competition in Paris and the KeriKeri Piano Competition of New Zealand, Xenia has performed in over 20 countries – at large festivals, for live broadcast, in major concert halls, and countless weird and wonderful venues and spaces. She has commissioned and recorded dozens of new works, collaborating with major innovators in contemporary music and exploring classical music boundaries with electronics, toy pianos, synthesizers and the magical and mysterious Magnetic Resonator Piano.

In All Aglow, Xenia combines her virtuosity and artistry as a concert pianist with the nostalgic sound worlds of analogue synthesizers. This exquisite solo project explores resonance to portray the effects of bioluminescence in coastal sea waters (a range of glowing behaviours exhibited by marine life and bacteria). The sound of the piano is modified with bells and objects gently placed to vibrate on the strings, while synthesizers and pre-recorded electronics create a mysterious visual and aural flavour, adding elements of sonic time-travel and blurring stylistic boundaries. Read more.

IZZY GIZMO schools’ concert

Ensemble 360

Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
16-20 October 2026, 10.45am / 1.30pm

Booking for schools’ concerts is through the Music in the Round office. Please contact Fis by email at fisayo@musicintheround.co.uk or call 0114 281 4660 for more details.

Home› What's on› IZZY GIZMO schools’ concert

RISSMANN Izzy Gizmo (60’)  

Music in the Round invites your class to take part in a brilliant music project, culminating in a live concert at the Crucible Theatre this October.

By popular request, Izzy Gizmo is back! Perfect for 3–7 year-olds, this delightful concert for Early Years settings is based on the best-selling children’s book ‘Izzy Gizmo’ by Pip Jones, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie. 

The book tells the enchanting story of an intrepid young inventor who puts her talents to work to rescue a crow that can’t fly. This family concert brings Izzy’s mechanical marvels and infectious creative spirit to life. 

Original music by Paul Rissmann features instruments including strings, woodwind, horn and piano, and you might even spot the musicians playing pots, pans, whistles and household items!  

Together with story-telling and visuals from the book, this concert is a great introduction to live music for children. 

Our EY and KS1 practitioners will support you to embed singing and music-making in classroom learning throughout the project, with training, resources, and in-school support newly developed around the Izzy Gizmo book. The project introduces young children to classical music in a fun and educational setting, including a concert featuring strings, woodwind and horn, presented together with story-telling and projected illustrations.

Performed by the wonderfully dynamic and hugely engaging musicians from Ensemble 360, this concert is a great introduction to live music for early years and KS1 children. It’s full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in.

Friday 16 October 10.45am SOLD OUT
Friday 16 1.30pm Limited availability
Monday 19 October 10.45am Selling fast
Monday 19 October 1.30pm Good availability
Tuesday 20 October, 10.45am SOLD OUT
Tuesday 20 October, 1.30pm Limited availability 

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

NORTHERN LIGHTS: NORWEGIAN FOLK

Engegård Quartet

Firth Hall - University of Sheffield, Sheffield
Sunday 29 November 2026, 2.00pm

Tickets:
£23
 £14 UC, PIP & DLA
 £5 Students & Under 35s

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Home› What's on› NORTHERN LIGHTS: NORWEGIAN FOLK

Formed under the midnight sun in the Lofoten Islands, Norway’s leading string quartet brings the rugged soul of the country to the stage. 

From the vast plains of Finnmark to the fjords of Kvæfjord, this programme features the Quartet’s own arrangements of traditional joiks – one of the oldest song traditions in Europe – alongside haunting psalms and spirited bridal marches.

A fresh take on repertoire that is 400 years in the making, this concert explores the roots of much of the weekend’s music in an evocative, moving and joyful finale.

Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026

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About the Artists

Engegård Quartet

Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway’s most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming. Read more here.

NORTHERN LIGHTS: ENGEGÅRD QUARTET

Engegård Quartet

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 28 November 2026, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
 £14 UC, PIP & DLA
 £5 Students & Under 35s

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Home› What's on› NORTHERN LIGHTS: ENGEGÅRD QUARTET

MOZART String Quartet No.15 in D minor K.421 (33’)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No.11 Op.95, ‘Serioso’ (20’)
GRIEG String Quartet (33’)

Norway’s multi-award-winning Engegård Quartet brings its customary boldness, energy and freshness to Sheffield. It is a quartet with a deep affinity with Mozart and Beethoven and a profound commitment to Norwegian music. 

Fresh from releasing a highly praised complete recorded cycle of Mozart’s string quartets, this concert brings together key strands of their musical life.

Beethoven’s Serioso retains its power to move as it veers violently between brutish power and yearning lyricism before tumbling to its thrilling conclusion. Grieg’s only completed string quartet is joyously inspired by the unique sound of the hardanger fiddle, evoking singing, dancing and quarrels in a distinctly Norwegian musical language.

Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026 

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MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus, String Quartet in D minor K421

Allegro
Andante
Menuetto
Allagretto ma non troppo

The warmth of the friendship between Mozart and Haydn is wonderfully demonstated by the set of Mozart string quartets published by Artaria in the Autumn of 1785: ‘Six Quartets for two violins, viola and violoncello, composed and dedicated to Signor Joseph Haydn, Master of Music for the Prince of Esterhazy, by his friend W.A. Mozart.’ This was very unusual for the time: composers almost always dedicated works to aristocratic supporters, not to fellow musicians. The first edition includes a long epistle addressed ‘To my dear friend Haydn’, where Mozart writes: ‘A father who had resolved to send his children out into the world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best friend. Here they are then, O great man and dearest friend.’ Mozart goes on to say that they are ‘the fruit of a long and laborious study,’ and that Haydn expressed his ‘satisfaction with them … May it therefore please you to receive them kindly and to be their father, guide and friend! … W.A. Mozart, 1 September 1785.’ The Quartet K421 is the only one of the ‘Haydn’ Quartets in a minor key, and D minor is a key that Mozart used for some of his most serious works, such as the Piano Concerto K466 and the Requiem. The opening theme is marked by a downward leap of an octave that dominates the first movement. While the Andate is more consoling, the Minuet is one of the most anguished Mozart ever wrote. The finale – a set of variations – is begins wisfully, but becomes increasingly austere and agitated.

Nigel Simeone 2013

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, String Quartet in F minor Op.95 Serioso

Allegro con brio
Allegretto ma non troppo, attacca subito
Allegro assai vivace ma serioso. Più allegro
Larghetto espressivo. Allegretto agitato. Allegro

‘The Quartet is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public.’ Thus wrote Beethoven to Sir George Smart in October 1816. The kind of public concerts he had in mind – mixed programmes of vocal and instrumental music – would indeed make an odd setting for a work of such concentrated intensity. Composed in 1810 and revised for publication in 1815, Beethoven dedicated it to his friend, Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovetz, a talented amateur cellist who worked as Hungarian Court Secretary in Vienna.

One of Beethoven’s shortest and most tautly argued quartets, it was the composer himself who called it Quartetto serioso on the autograph manuscript. The Beethoven expert William Kinderman sums up its character as ‘dark, introspective, and vehement’, and it’s no surprise that Beethoven takes a similarly pithy approach to form: a much-shortened recapitulation in the first movement, a slow movement that eschews lyricism in favour of a chromatic fugal section, and a prickly Scherzo (more of an anti-Scherzo really, since it is not only completely lacking in any kind of humour, but is even marked ‘serioso’). The finale sustains this tension and agitation until the last moment – then something extraordinary happens: the music takes a sudden turn to F major, and there’s a dash to the finish. The American composer Randall Thompson commented that ‘no bottle of champagne was ever uncorked at a better time.’

© Nigel Simeone

GRIEG Edvard, String Quartet

Like Sibelius, Grieg tried the string quartet several times, but left only one mature, completed essay in the form. He began writing the Quartet in G minor in the summer of 1877, and worked on it through the winter in a composing retreat in Lofthus, in the Hardanger district of Norway. “I have recently finished a string quartet which I still haven’t heard,” the composer wrote to a friend in the summer of 1878. “It is in G minor and not planned to be meat for small minds! It aims at breadth, vigor, flight of imagination, and, above all, fullness of tone for the instruments for which it is written.”

An astonishingly rich sonority is indeed an obvious characteristic of this piece. All four parts have an extraordinary amount of double-stopping, creating a full-bodied sound that is orchestral but also often folkloric, like the Hardanger fiddle music that Grieg knew and loved so well.

The main theme of the work, however, comes from Grieg’s own song “Spillemaend” (Minstrels, or Fiddlers). The poem that Grieg set in 1876 as the first of six Ibsen songs (Op. 25) is about the Hulder, a water spirit who offers minstrels great musical gifts in exchange for their happiness, and the choice of this song here suggests an allusive and elusive personal program. The theme from the song is boldly stated at the outset and recurs often throughout the first movement. Motives from it appear in the middle movements, and the motto theme returns again in the leaping finale.

In many ways, Grieg’s bold rethinking of the venerable medium clearly inspired Claude Debussy in his own String Quartet, composed 10 years later and also in G minor. Harmony, rhythm, and sheer sound are all more important than the intimate polyphonic interplay that characterized the classical string quartet. The Romanze movement, with its increasingly abrupt mood swings between sunny lyricism and darkly agitated passion, takes its point of departure from late Beethoven, while the scherzo-like Intermezzo is the most folkloric in its rough dancing energy and spirited play with meter.

John Henken

About the Artists

Engegård Quartet

Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway’s most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming. Read more here.

NORTHERN LIGHTS: SIBELIUS & GRIEG

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 28 November 2026, 2.00pm

Tickets:
£23
 £14 UC, PIP & DLA
 £5 Students & Under 35s

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Home› What's on› NORTHERN LIGHTS: SIBELIUS & GRIEG

GRIEG Andante con moto (10’)
GRIEG Cello Sonata (28’)
SIBELIUS Andante Festivo (5’)
SIBELIUS String Quartet in D minor, ’Voces intimae’ Op.56 (28’)

Masterpieces and miniatures for strings and piano by two giants of Nordic classicism.

Grieg’s Cello Sonata is a passionate, expressive, dancing work, full of sweeping melodies and stirring tension. Sibelius’s taut String Quartet broods and bristles with soulful intensity and culminates in a fiery finale. 

Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026 

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GRIEG Edvard, Andante con moto

Grieg’s mature chamber music comprises five major works: three sonatas for violin and piano, a cello sonata and a string quartet. The quartet was composed in 1878 and after finishing it Grieg turned to writing a piano trio. Only the slow movement, marked Andante con moto, was finished, the last page of the manuscript dated 17 June 1878. It was written in Grieg’s composing hut built in the dramatic surroundings of the remote countryside inland from Bergen. This movement, in the key of C minor, has a mood that is profoundly melancholic though there is consolation to be found in the second theme (a transformation of the first theme), which is in E flat major. After Grieg’s death, the movement was found by his friend Julius Röntgen who told Grieg’s widow that it was ‘a beautiful piece. What solemnity it conveys! He can’t get enough of that single theme, which even in the major mode retains its mournful character. … The piece stands very well by itself and does not give the impression of being a fragment as it constitutes a perfect entity in itself.’ Despite Röntgen’s well-placed enthusiasm, it took until 1978 for the Andante con moto to appear in print, published as part of the complete edition of Grieg’s works.

GRIEG Edvard, Cello Sonata

1. Allegro agitato
2. Andante molto tranquillo
3. Allegro molto e marcato

Grieg’s great fame as a composer rests largely on the Piano Concerto, a handful of piano pieces, the Holberg Suite and movements from his incidental music for Peer Gynt. One work from the same period as the Piano Concerto was to provide an important source for the Cello Sonata: the incidental music for the play Sigurd Jorsalfar from 1872. The Cello Sonata was started in late 1882 and the first draft was finished in April 1883. Grieg dated the manuscript of his slightly revised version of the work 18 August 1883. It is one of a handful of major chamber works, along with three violin sonatas, one complete surviving string quartet and one left incomplete. The first movement of the Cello Sonata is in sonata form (something of a rarity for Grieg) and opens with a passionate and agitated theme which eventually gives way to a calmer second theme introduced by gentle chords on the piano. The movement ends with an animated coda based on the opening idea (with added hints of the opening phrase from the Piano Concerto). The expressive slow movement is based largely on the recycled ‘Homage March’ from Grieg’s Sigurd Jorsalfar incidental music (aptly enough, since in the original orchestral version this passage is scored for four cellos). The finale opens with a cadenza for the cello before launching into an extended Norwegian dance which occasionally threatens to become bombastic but which ends impressively. The work was dedicated by Grieg to his brother John, an accomplished cellist, and on 1 October 1883, Grieg sent him the first printed copy. The first two performances were given by two of Europe’s preeminent cellists of the time. The premiere was given by Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden on 22 October 1883; a few days later (on 27 October) Julius Klengel gave the work in Leipzig. Grieg was the pianist on both occasions.

© Nigel Simeone

SIBELIUS Jean, Andante Festivo

Sibelius originally wrote the Andante festivo for string quartet in 1922. The first performance was given on 28 December 1922 in Jyväskylä at the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Säynätsalo sawmill (though Sibelius had originally been asked to write a cantata). He lived for another 35 years, but only a handful of major works followed this stirring pièce d’occasion, and the 1938 arrangement of the Andante festivo for string orchestra and timpani was virtually his farewell to composition.

© Nigel Simeone 2015

SIBELIUS Jean, String Quartet Op.56 ‘Voces Intimae’

Andante–Allegro molto moderato 
Vivace 
Adagio di molto 
Allegretto (ma pesante) 
Allegro 
 

In February and March 1909, Sibelius came to London to conduct concerts of his own music and it was during this stay that he composed most of the Voces intimae (Intimate Voices) quartet. He first stayed at the Langham Hotel (across the road from Queen’s Hall) but asked his friend Rosa Newmarch to find cheaper lodgings where he could also work in silence. She found quiet rooms for him in Kensington and having installed him, ‘left the composer to settle down (as I hoped) to write his string quartet, Voces initimae.’ Word travelled in the neighbourhood that a composer was staying, emboldening one elderly lady to play Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata repeatedly, as a sign of solidarity. Newmarch intervened, there was no more Beethoven, and Sibelius was able to make good progress on the quartet in Kensington. 

 

According to his diary, he began the second movement on 16 February, and sketched the third on 25 February. Work continued throughout March (at the end of which he left London) and the quartet was finished in Berlin on 15 April. The first performance took place a year later, on 25 April 1910, in Helsinki. 

 

Voces intimae is a characteristically bold exploration of musical form: there are five movements (including two scherzos), with a highly expressive slow movement at the centre. There has been speculation about the title and the likeliest explanation is that it has some connection with the fear of death which Sibelius confided to his diary in London. It was clearly a personal reference that will probably remain a mystery, but it is entirely apt for a work that embodies such an intense musical dialogue between the four instruments.  

© Nigel Simeone

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

NORTHERN LIGHTS: MUSIC FROM ICELAND

Phaedra Ensemble

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Friday 27 November 2026, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
 £14 UC, PIP & DLA
 £5 Students & Under 35s

Book Tickets
Home› What's on› NORTHERN LIGHTS: MUSIC FROM ICELAND

THORVALDSDÓTTIR Spectra (11’)
GUÐNADÓTTIR Point of Departure (8’)
ARNALDS This Place is a Shelter (4’)
SIGURÐSSON Nabraska (11’)
THORVALDSDÓTTIR Reminiscence (7’)
BJÖRK (arr. Tassie) Unravel (4’)
BJÖRK (arr. Tassie) Jóga (5’)
ARNALDS Beth’s Theme (from the soundtrack to Broadchurch) (5’)
BJANASON Stillshot (11’)
JOHANNSSON Passacaglia (6’)

Phaedra Ensemble launches our Northern Lights weekend with a dazzling portrait of contemporary Icelandic music ranging from celebrated glacial works by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir and Oscar-winning Hildur Guðnadóttir, to new arrangements of the ever-inventive Björk and Ólafur Arnalds’ haunting original music for Broadchurch.

Evoking distant plains, shimmering permafrost landscapes, the flickering of flames and the chill of the tundra: this is music from the land of fire and ice.

Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026

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About the Artists

Phaedra Ensemble

Phaedra Ensemble is a London-based collective of like-minded performers, pushing the boundaries of contemporary chamber music in bold and creative ways. Known for their innovative performances, this group of musicians curates cutting-edge new music alongside modern classics from the last 100 years. Creative collaboration is central to their approach, and over the last decade, they’ve partnered with exceptional artists from across the spectrum. Read more.

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