A CELEBRATION OF THE HORN

Steven Stirling, Tony Halstead, Naomi Atherton & Guests

St Andrew's Church (Psalter Lane), Sheffield
Sunday 18 September 2022, 3.00pm

£20 
£14 Disabled / UC and PIP recipients
£5 Under 35s & Students 

Past Event
Home› What's on› A CELEBRATION OF THE HORN

We’re very sorry but this concert has been postponed due to Tony Halstead seriously injuring his hand. Box office staff will be contacting ticket holders over the next few days. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment caused. 

Programme includes music by ECKLEBE, BUSH, COOKE, FRICKER & TOURNEMIRE  

Our weekend of wind music concludes with a celebration of the horn, inspired by the musical library of Britain’s foremost 20th century horn player, Dennis Brain.  

Following their recent CD release ‘From the library of Dennis Brain’, this is an opportunity to hear live in concert some of the lost gems featured on the CD by Stephen Stirling and Tony Halstead, two stars of the horn world. They are joined by Ensemble 360’s Naomi Atherton and guests who bring the afternoon to a joyful conclusion with treasured works from the horn repertoire. 

Music in the Round is looking for horn players of approx. Grade 8 standard to join in with a performance of BERLIOZ Roman Carnival Overture as the finale to this horn celebration.
Places are strictly limited for the massed horn rendition. Interested? Please contact Ellen before 24 August at ellen@musicintheround.co.uk

 

MUSIC FOR PIANO AND WIND

Ensemble 360

Upper Chapel, Sheffield
Saturday 17 September 2022, 7.00pm

£20 
£14 Disabled / UC and PIP recipients
£5 Under 35s & Students 

Past Event
Home› What's on› MUSIC FOR PIANO AND WIND

BEETHOVEN National Airs for flute and piano Op.105 and Op.107 (selection) (c.15’)
FARRENC Sextet in C minor Op.40 (23’)
DANZI Wind Quintet in B flat Op.56 No.1 (14’)
BEETHOVEN Quintet for piano and wind in E flat Op.16 (25’)

A joyful showcase of Beethoven and more from the wind players of Ensemble 360. Beethoven’s Quintet for piano and wind is one of the great pieces in the wind repertoire, hugely enjoyable to both listen to and play. Writer of numerous wind quintets, Danzi’s knowledge of the instruments shines through in his melodic writing.  

Inspired by Beethoven’s Quintet, Louise Farrenc’s Sextet adds the flute and is set in the style of a chamber concerto for piano and wind. A brilliant 19th century composer, she is now starting to achieve the recognition her outstanding music deserves. 

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, National Airs for flute and piano Op.105 & Op.107

The Scottish publisher and folksong collector George Thomson (1751–1851) – a friend of Robert Burns and Walter Scott – first approached Beethoven for some arrangements of Scottish songs as early as 1803, and eventually 25 of them (Beethoven’s Op. 108, for which the composer was well remunerated) were published by Thomson in 1818. Two years earlier, Thomson had written asking for some instrumental variations ‘in an agreeable style, not too difficult’. When he formally commissioned them in June 1818, Thomson also requested ad lib. flute parts, explaining that ‘we have a large number of flautists but alas, our violinists are few’, reminding Beethoven that the music should be ‘in a familiar, easy and slightly brilliant style.’

Thomson received the variations from Beethoven on 28 December 1818, and the National Airs with variations for the piano-forte and an accompaniment for the flute were published in July 1819, in a handsome edition that included a portrait of Beethoven on the title page. As musicologist and museum archivist Pamela Willetts has observed, they were not a commercial success. In 1820, Thomson wrote to Beethoven, grumbling that ‘the variations were not selling and that his outlay was a complete loss.’

© Nigel Simeone

FARRENC Louise, Sextet in C minor Op.40

Allegro
Andante sostenuto
Allegro vivace

The composer of three symphonies and an impressive body of chamber music as well as an extensive catalogue of works for piano (her own instrument), Louise Farrenc has thankfully been rediscovered after a century of neglect. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont, she came from an artistic family and was encouraged to develop her gifts as a pianist and composer. She studied the piano with Moscheles and Hummel, and her composition teacher was Anton Reicha. In 1821 she married the flautist Aristide Farrenc who subsequently established a publishing business. After a successful career as a travelling virtuoso, Louise Farrenc was appointed professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire in 1842, a post she held for thirty years. The Sextet for piano and wind quintet was written in 1851–2, immediately after the successful premiere of her Nonet for strings and wind (in which Joseph Joachim was one of the performers).

The first movement – the longest of the three – opens with a dramatic theme, decorated by elaborate piano writing, while the second theme is more lyrical. Broadly-conceived, this movement ends in grand style. The main theme of the slow movement is introduced by the wind alone before the being taken up by the piano, then by the whole ensemble with several short wind solos. The finale begins with an urgent and uneasy theme on the piano which gives way to a delicate second idea. But dramatic intensity is maintained throughout the movement, right up to the turbulent ending.

© Nigel Simeone

DANZI Franz, Wind Quintet in B flat Op.56 No.1

Allegretto
Andante con moto
Menuetto allegretto
Allegretto

Danzi was brought up in Mannheim, where he joined the orchestra run by the Elector Karl Theodor while still a teenager, as a cellist. His father was principal cellist in the orchestra (which moved, with Karl Theodor, to Munich) and he was praised by Mozart for his playing in the first performance of Idomeneo in 1781. In 1784, he was succeeded by his son, who later became an assistant Kapellmeister in Munich, before taking on the role of Kapellmeister in Stuttgart and later Karlsruhe. Though Danzi was a fine cellist, his fame as a composer rests largely on his nine woodwind quintets – works which show a consistent understanding of idiomatic wind writing.

The Quintet in B flat was one of a set of three first published in 1821, with a dedication to Anton Reicha – Danzi’s most important predecessor as a composer of wind quintets. After an amiable and well-crafted first movement in B flat major, Danzi reveals a more pensive side to his nature in the short Andante con moto, in D minor, its main thematic material being heard first on the oboe, then the bassoon. The Minuet is sturdy, while in the Trio section Danzi creates a witty dialogue between all five instruments. The last movement is a jaunty rondo.

© Nigel Simeone

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, Quintet for wind and piano in E flat Op.16

Grave. Allegro ma non troppo
Andante cantabile
Rondo. Allegro ma non troppo

Beethoven completed his Quintet for Piano and Wind in 1797, five years after his arrival in Vienna, taking Mozart’s quintet for the same instrumental combination as his model. It’s probably no coincidence that one of Beethoven’s closest friends – Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz – owned the autograph manuscript of Mozart’s work at the time. Yet despite some obvious parallels in terms of structure and even some of the thematic material, the Beethoven Quintet sounds very individual. As the Canadian musicologist Cliff Eisen has written: ‘Beethoven [remained] true to his own voice, some obvious modellings of his quintet on Mozart’s notwithstanding: their keys and unusual scoring are identical, and both begin with elaborate slow introductions. At 416 bars, however, the first movement of Beethoven’s quintet far exceeds Mozart’s in scale: as in so many of his chamber and solo works, Beethoven aspires to the symphonic, something that is alien to Mozart’s greater intimacy and concision.’

© 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. 

 

HARMONIEMUSIK

Ensemble 360 & Guests

Channing Hall, Sheffield
Friday 16 September 2022, 7.00pm

£15 
£10 Disabled / UC and PIP recipients
£5 Under 35s & Students 

Past Event
Home› What's on› HARMONIEMUSIK

BEETHOVEN Sextet in E flat Op.71 (18’) 
BEETHOVEN Octet in E flat Op.103 (23’) 
MOZART ‘Harmoniemusik‘ from The Marriage of Figaro (18’) 

Music for wind instruments (Harmoniemusik) was regularly composed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Beethoven’s Sextet and Octet are two of the finest examples of this genre. The Sextet was reviewed at its premiere as “distinguished by fine melodies and a wealth of new and surprising ideas”, and the Octet is just as lyrical. 

 This concert features guest appearances from participants in Music in the Round’s Wind Development programme, Bridging the Gap: Tamara Sullivan (oboe), Ola Akindipe (clarinet) Ben Garalnick (horn) and Florence Plane (bassoon). 

 

A bar will be serving beer, wine and soft drinks from 6.30pm. 

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, Sextet in E flat Op.71

Adagio. Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto. Quasi Allegretto
Rondo. Allegro

When Beethoven sent the score of his Sextet to the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel in 1809, he was modest about it: ‘The Sextet is from my early days and, moreover, it was written in a single night. There is really no other way to say that it written by a composer who produced some better works.’

Scored for pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns, it was composed in 1796 (the high opus number is misleading). The Sextet is an elegantly crafted piece in which the young Beethoven also explores some unusual sonorities, not least the rich lower registers of all six instruments in the Adagio where the bassoon presents the main theme. The vigorous Minuet and Trio is launched by the sound of hunting horns, while the Rondo is a spirited movement, bringing this little-known work to a cheerful close.

© Nigel Simeone

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, Octet in E flat Op.103

Allegro
Andante
Minuet
Presto

The high opus number of Beethoven’s Octet for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns is misleading since it is one of the composer’s earliest pieces from his Vienna years: he started it while still in Bonn – and finished it in 1793, shortly after his arrival in the Austrian capital. It was reworked two years later as the String Quintet Op.4. Woodwind chamber music was all the rage in the late eighteenth century, nowhere more so than in Vienna, and it was usually written for performance outdoors. Like Haydn, Mozart and many others, the young Beethoven fulfilled the late eighteenth-century taste for Harmoniemusik (music for wind band) with cheerful, relatively undemanding works, of which his most substantial was this Octet.

Beethoven’s Octet was completed just when he started to take lessons from Haydn – and the wisdom and subtlety gained from those can be heard in his string quintet transcription (despite Beethoven’s far-fetched claim that he ‘learned nothing’ from his sessions with Haydn). But the Octet in its original version is one of Beethoven’s freshest early works. He clearly had good players in mind – the orchestras in Bonn and Vienna at the time evidently had wind sections with a taste for virtuosity, as can be heard especially in the delightful finale of this four-movement work. The first movement is engaging and straightforward, while the lyrical Andante has particularly prominent parts for oboe and bassoon. The Minuet is interesting: it’s already a long way from the courtly dance of its title, and an early example of what Beethoven would soon develop into the scherzos familiar from his symphonies.

© Nigel Simeone

MOZART Amadeus, ‘Harmoniemusik’ from Le nozze di Figaro for wind octet

Harmoniemusik – music for wind ensemble – was something that delighted Mozart, both as a composer (producing what are perhaps the finest serenades for woodwind ever written) and as someone who was willingly entertained by the arrangements that were often made of favourite numbers from operas of the day. Mozart himself alludes to this in a delightful way with the musical entertainment during the banquet in Act Two of Don Giovanni when a wind band plays tunes from operas by Soler, Sarti and also the aria ‘Non più andrai’ from Mozart’s own Nozze di Figaro.

Contemporary wind arrangements of Mozart’s music proliferated, including extracts from Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, while a selection of Harmonie arrangements from Die Zauberflöte was advertised in the Wiener Zeitung in January 1792. All provide delightful music for entertainment and sometimes include interesting clues about performance practice (giving an oboist, for example, an ornamented vocal line that included decorations as performed by singers but not included in the printed score of the opera itself). The identity of early arrangers is sometimes hard to determine, though the oboist Johann Wendt was particularly important as chief arranger for the Harmonie established by Emperor Joseph II in 1782. The best Harmonie arrangements, by Wendt and others, remain a charming way to experience operatic music in a new guise.

© 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. 

 

BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTETS

Ensemble 360

Upper Chapel, Sheffield
Saturday 10 September 2022, 7.00pm

£20
£14 Disabled / UC and PIP recipients
£5 Under 35s & Students

Past Event
String players of Ensemble 360
Home› What's on› BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTETS

BEETHOVEN 
String Quartet Op.18 No.3 (25’)
String Quartet Op.95 Serioso (21’)
String Quartet Op.59 No.1 (41’) 

A chance to hear quartets from Beethoven’s early and middle periods, both marked by wit and invention, formal control and deft construction. The monumental first ‘Rasumovsky’ quartet follows, an intense work that marked a sea-change in Beethoven’s writing and is passionate, defiant and deeply moving.  

(Rescheduled from 5 February 2022.)

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, String Quartet in D Op.18 No.3

Allegro
Andante con moto
Allegro
Presto

The Quartet Op.18 No.3 is a landmark in Beethoven’s career: it’s his first string quartet. He began it in the Autumn of 1798, finishing it early the following year, and eventually placed it as the third of the Op.18 set. As a preparation, Beethoven immersed himself in quartets by other composers, especially Mozart and his teacher Haydn – he copied out two of Mozart’s Haydn quartets just as he was beginning work on his Op.18.

The first movement opens with an arching theme (characterised by a leap of a minor seventh between the first two notes). The slow movement, in B flat major, begins with a luxuriant presentation of the main theme, but the texture soon becomes more spare and fragmented, with numerous dramatic contrasts. The Scherzo-like third movement has a minor key Trio section, while the final Presto is notable for its unquenchable energy. Composer Robert Simpson wrote that this music ‘flies at once into the sky, alighting when and where it wishes’ – from the stormy development section to the unexpectedly quiet ending.

© Nigel Simeone

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

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, String Quartet in F Op.59 No.1 Razumovsky

Allegro
Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando
Adagio molto e mesto – attacca
Thème Russe. Allegro

The first of Beethoven’s three quartets written for Prince Razumovsky was composed in 1806 and performed the next year. Like the ‘Eroica’ Symphony (1804–5) it shows Beethoven expanding the possibilities of the form to produce something on an epic scale while retaining the essential intimacy of a string quartet. The first movement is introduced by a cello theme which musicologist Lewis Lockwood describes as ‘opening up a musical space of seemingly unbounded lyricism and breadth.’ The Scherzo, in B flat major, is an unusual movement: while it has no distinct Trio section, it is also Beethoven’s longest Scherzo to date, even though Beethoven removed a large repeat while revising the work. The slow movement has the unusual marking mesto – ‘mournful’ – and is cast in the tragic key of F minor. It ends on a trill that leads seamlessly into the finale. This is based on a Russian theme – a charming and appropriate choice since Razumovsky was the Russian Ambassador to Vienna at the time.

© 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. 

 

BEETHOVEN 250: COME AND PLAY

Ensemble 360 & Hallam Sinfonia

Cadman Room - Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Sunday 20 March 2022, 2.00pm

£5 per participant

Public performance at 5.00pm (FREE, with donations kindly received on the door)

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Home› What's on› BEETHOVEN 250: COME AND PLAY

Come and play along with members of Ensemble 360 and one of Sheffield’s leading orchestras, Hallam Sinfonia! Spend an afternoon with these amazing, friendly musicians, playing through the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (da-da-da-DUUUUMMM). 

We have parts for all abilities of playing, whether you scraped through Grade I or were a concert soloist at the age of 12. As long as you have some experience of playing with others as part of a large group, you are really welcome! Our parts are specially arranged by Andrew J. Smith (BBC Ten Pieces) so you can select the part you feel most comfortable playing. We’ve even got parts for non-orchestral brass, saxophone and guitar. All you need is a working instrument and piles of enthusiasm – just come along and give it a go! 

The afternoon will culminate in an informal performance for an audience of friends and family. 

Please note that anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the event. 

Fancy a chat before signing up? Email Ellen Sargen with any questions at ellen@musicintheround.co.uk. 

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is one of the BBC Ten Pieces Visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces for a comprehensive set of resources to explore!  

www.hallamsinfonia.org.uk 

Download the concert programme notes

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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. 

 

Hallam Sinfonia

Set up as a chamber orchestra over 40 years ago, the Hallam Sinfonia’s repertoire nowadays extends from the baroque to the 21st century, including large-scale romantic works, and from the mainstream classics to film music and children’s concerts. They also enjoy collaborations: they have a partnership with Hallam Choral Society, with whom they work at least once a year, and have performed with other groups in the city.

Find out more. 

COME & SING

Robert Webb & Shruthi Rajasekar

Samuel Worth Chapel, Sheffield
Sunday 15 May 2022, 10.00am

£5 plus Eventbrite booking fee

Past Event
Home› What's on› COME & SING

Singers of all ages and abilities come together for music-making and an informal performance.

Sing with us in the peaceful setting of Samuel Worth Chapel as we explore two pieces of beautiful music that meld histories together through time.

We’ll workshop English composer Tippett’s arrangement of Willis’ Steal Away and American composer Shruthi Rajasekar’s Jayjaykar! before an informal performance to friends and family at the end of the event (1pm-1.30pm).

Sheffield Chamber Choir’s Robert Webb will lead us in performing this beautiful music which together references choral traditions from both England and India while providing perspectives from two very different places and points in history. Shruthi Rajasekar will also be zapping in from the US during the day and has recorded insights about her music especially for you. We’ll be sharing this with you during the break. 

Either learn by ear or from provided notation. This event is for both beginners and experienced singers alike (although some experience of singing in a choir will be helpful).

Recordings of both pieces can be found here: https://linktr.ee/mitr_participation and if you’d like a chat before signing up, please email ellen@musicintheround.co.uk

by RayMesh Photography

 

About the Artists

Robert Webb

Robert is a Sheffield based free-lance musician: Conductor, accompanist, arranger, composer and teacher. He is Director of Music and Organist at St Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, and conducts the Sheffield Chamber Choir, Bel Canto Choir, South Yorkshire, and the Sheffield Sterndale Singers. He is also a visiting tutor at Hill House School, Doncaster, where he teaches piano, singing and musical theory, and also has a private teaching practice based in Sheffield.

Read more…

Shruthi Rajasekar

Shruthi Rajasekar (b. 1996) is an Indian-American composer and vocalist exploring identity, community, and joy. Chosen by The Guardian as a composer “who will enrich your life” in a list spanning centuries, Shruthi creates intersectional music that draws from her unique background in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical idioms. 

Read more…

SOUNDS OF NOW WORKSHOP

Sheffield CoMA

Site Gallery, Sheffield
Thursday 19 May 2022, 4.30pm / 5.30pm

FREE, please book through box office

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW WORKSHOP

*Please note the new start time for this event*

You are welcome to attend from 4.30pm to observe the process of this workshop, or to join the group at 5.30pm to watch the partcipants’ performances of Sarah Hennies’ Growing Block and Joanna Bailie’s Hildegardestraße Bundesallee.

Led by Sheffield CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) in partnership with Sheffield Music School, this workshop features new works for mixed ensemble. Edward Henderson of Bastard Assignments also joins the session to reflect on the branches of experimental practice that have informed both CoMA and his group, ahead of their Sounds of Now concert the same evening.

OBSERVE: COMPOSITION WORKSHOP

Helen Grime, Ensemble 360 & students from The University of Sheffield

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Wednesday 18 May 2022, 11.00am

FREE, please book through box office

Past Event
Home› What's on› OBSERVE: COMPOSITION WORKSHOP

Join us for the final hour of a morning in which composition students from The University of Sheffield work on their latest compositions with Ensemble 360 as they are coached by Helen Grime.

*Please note the change to the previously advertised venue for this event and the new time. This workshop will now be held in the Crucible Studio Theatre, as originally advertised.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.*

About the Artists

Helen Grime

Born in 1981, Helen studied oboe with John Anderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as all the major composition prizes at the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. Grime was a Legal and General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music from 2007 to 2009. She became a lecturer in composition at the Department of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, in January 2010.
Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most established performers including London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center. Conductors who have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Pierre Boulez, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Sir Mark Elder. Her work Night Songs was commissioned by the BBC Proms in 2012 and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen.  Read more…
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. 

 

FESTIVAL LAUNCH

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Friday 13 May 2022, 7.15pm

Tickets: £20
£14 Disabled & Unemployed
£5 Students & Under 35s

Save £s when you book for 5 or more concerts*

Past Event
Home› What's on› FESTIVAL LAUNCH

JANÁČEK Concertino (17’)
MARTINŮ Three Madrigals (16′)
MEREDITH Tripotage Miniatures (15’)
DVOŘÁK Piano Quintet No.2 (40′)

Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No.2 provides a joyous opening to our first live festival in two years. Before this, the world-class musicians of Ensemble 360 have some fun with Anna Meredith’s Tripotage Miniatures, best translated as ‘jiggery-pokery’, plus Martinů’s Three Madrigals for violin and viola, full of playful repartee, and Janáček’s Concertino, featuring movements he compared to a ‘grumpy hedgehog’, a ‘fidgety squirrel’ and ‘a scene from a fairy-tale’. 

Welcome drinks
Celebrate the start of the Festival with us and enjoy a post-concert complimentary glass of wine or soft drink (served to all ticket-holders).

This evening is generously supported by Kate Dugdale.

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival runs 13–21 May 2022

Download a Festival brochure

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JANÁČEK Leoš, Concertino

For piano, two violins, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon

Moderato
Più mosso
Con moto
Allegro

Janáček started his Concertino after hearing the pianist Jan Heřman playing his song-cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared in November 1924. The composer told Heřman that he’d played it ‘magnificently, like no one else’, and he soon set to work on a piece for him. The first sketches are dated ‘Prague, 1 January 1925, by the Vltava’ and ‘11 January 1925, on the train from Prague’, but this piece recalls not the nation’s capital where it was conceived, but the Moravian countryside where Janáček grew up and where, in fact, the work was finished: the manuscript is dated on the title page ‘Hukvaldy, 29 April 1925’. Though not stated on the score, the Concertino is programmatic. Janáček wrote to Heřman that ‘it arose from the youthful mood of the sextet Mládí’ and in a letter to Kamila Stösslová he told her that he had composed ‘a piano concerto – Spring. There’s a cricket, midges, a roebuck, a torrent – yes, and a man!’ In a later description from 1927, the theme of spring remained, but Janáček assigned a specific animal character to each of the first three movements: a hedgehog for the first, a squirrel for the second, and various nocturnal animals for the third. According to a note on the autograph manuscript, the fourth movement represents a rushing torrent. The result is one of Janáček’s most enchanting and untroubled chamber works, notable for some typically inventive scoring as well as its great charm. Much to Jan Heřman’s understandable irritation, he didn’t give the first performance of the Concertino that Janáček dedicated to him. In a letter of 1 July 1925, Janáček agreed to let the young pianist Ilona Štěpanová-Kurzová give the première, which she did on 16 February 1926, at a concert of the Club of Moravian Composers in Brno.

Nigel Simeone © 2011

MARTINŮ Bohuslav, Three Madrigals

Poco allegro
Poco andante
Allegro

It was hearing a performance of Mozart’s Duo in B flat played by Josef and Lillian Fuchs (brother and sister) that inspired Martinů to compose his Three Madrigals in February–March 1947, with the subtitle ‘Duo No. 1’ on the autograph manuscript. Martinů wrote to his friend Miloš Šafránek on 16 May 1947: ‘I have written Three Madrigals for violin and viola … for J. Fuchs and Lillian (his sister) who is a great and unique viola player. I heard them at a concert and was amazed by their artistic quality, so I wrote the Duo for them, and it seems to be good. They are both excited and will put it in their Carnegie recital.’ This was given on 22 December 1947 and in the next day’s New York Times, the venerated critic Virgil Thomson gave a warm welcome to the new work: ‘a delight for musical fantasy, for ingenious figuration [and] for Renaissance-style evocation.’ Josef and Lillian Fuchs performed the Madrigals on many more occasions and when their recording of the work was issued in 1950, it was coupled, appropriately, with the Mozart Duo in B flat.

© Nigel Simeone

MEREDITH Anna, Tripotages Miniatures

I              Lanolin                                 E flat Clarinet & Horn
II             40 Watt                                Piccolo & Double Bass
III           Moth                                      Alto Flute, Oboe & Horn
IV           Buzzard                                 Cor Anglais & Viola
V             Scrying                                  B flat Clarinet, Viola & Double Bass
VI           Majolica                                Tutti (Flute, Oboe, B flat Clarinet, Horn, Viola & Double Bass)
Tripotage Miniatures are a collection of 3 duets, 2 trios and a tutti movement for mixed sextet. Each miniature is around 1-3 minutes long.
The miniatures are exploring different kinds of opacity, glitch, fuzz, shade and grime – imagining underhand dealings that place a sort of filmy surface on top of the material. (My favourite translation of Tripotage from the French is Jiggery Pokery.)
Sometimes this filter seems to drain colour – turning the material almost sepia, sometimes it makes ideas a bit murkier – harder to grasp, slippery and falling through the fingers, sometimes it causes moments to stutter and distort and sometimes it’s about capturing a fleeting feeling of distance, of something out of reach.
There are tiny thematic links between the movements but they could also be played individually – it’s about capturing a moment – even if it’s a slightly shady and disquieting one.
© Anna Meredith

DVOŘÁK Antonín, Piano Quintet No.2 in A Op.81

Allegro, ma non tanto
Dumka. Andante con moto – Vivace – Andante con moto
Scherzo. Furiant – Molto vivace
Finale. Allegro 

Dvořák composed his great A major Piano Quintet in 1887 (a much earlier quintet from 1872 is in the same key) and it was described by Otakar Šourek as one of ‘the most delightful and successful works’ in the whole chamber music repertoire. From the spacious cello theme that opens the quintet, Dvořák shows the seemingly effortless spontaneity of a composer at the height of his powers. The second theme turns the mood more wistful, and the music oscillates between melancholy and warmth, culminating in a jubilant climax. The second movement is a Dumka, with slow outer sections based on a melancholy tune, and a quick central section derived from the same musical idea. The Scherzo – described by Dvořák as a Furiant – begins with one of his most enchanting quick melodies and this is followed by two more: an undulating tune and another of folk-like simplicity, before the opening idea returns. The central Trio provides an oasis – a tune in long notes over which Dvořák introduces fragments of the main theme. The opening melody of the Finale dominates much of what follows. Near the close, a brief fugal section leads to a moment of tranquillity before the final dash to the end.  

Nigel Simeone © 2014 

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. 

 

IZZY GIZMO family concert

Ensemble 360 & Aga Serugo-Lugo

SADACCA, Sheffield
Saturday 14 May 2022, 11.00am / 2.00pm

Tickets: £5

Past Event
Home› What's on› IZZY GIZMO family concert

PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE FOR THIS EVENT IS: SADACCA, 48 WICKER, SHEFFIELD S3 8JB

Music and narration performed by Ensemble 360 and Aga Serugo-Lugo

Best-selling children’s book ‘Izzy Gizmo’, by Pip Jones and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, 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. It’s full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in.

For 3 – 7 year-olds

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival runs 13–21 May 2022

 

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. 

 

Aga Serugo-Lugo

As a clarinettist, saxophonist and singer, Aga has had the opportunity to explore many different styles including: classical, jazz, soul, soul and funk. Aga also has a keen interest in theatre, especially music theatre, writing and producing his own musical ‘Celebrity’. Professionally, his style of choice has been jazz, which Aga has played across London with an eclectic mix of groups; this accompanies his private tuition and workshop leading. Improvisation and composition play a major part in his music making and workshops. Aga has done much work with Sing-up, the national singing strategy, allowing him to work with a variety of age groups and diverse levels of ability.

ART & MUSIC ROUNDTABLE

Helen Grime, Tim Horton & Guests

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 14 May 2022, 4.30pm

£5
Students and Under 35s FREE

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Festival Curator Helen Grime and Ensemble 360 pianist Tim Horton are joined by guests from the worlds of visual art and music to discuss the connections and themes linking these art forms, and the ways they are woven through Helen’s work and this Festival.

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival runs 13–21 May 2022

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About the Artists

Helen Grime

Born in 1981, Helen studied oboe with John Anderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as all the major composition prizes at the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. Grime was a Legal and General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music from 2007 to 2009. She became a lecturer in composition at the Department of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, in January 2010.
Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most established performers including London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center. Conductors who have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Pierre Boulez, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Sir Mark Elder. Her work Night Songs was commissioned by the BBC Proms in 2012 and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen.  Read more…

Tim Horton

Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists, equally at home in solo and chamber repertoire. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

Tim gave his debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall in 2016, and appears there frequently as both soloist and collaborative artist. He is regularly invited to play at distinguished festivals and series across the UK and abroad, including Music in the Round for whom he has presented a number of solo piano cycles, alongside his work with Ensemble 360.  During 2026 Tim presents the fifth and sixth instalments of his Chopin Cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall and embarks on a new Beethoven cycle for Music in the Round at the Crucible. Alongside his solo work Tim maintains a busy performing schedule with Ensemble 360 and the Leonore Piano Trio, and is a founding member of both groups. He is regularly broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Read more. 

ART & MUSIC

Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Saturday 14 May 2022, 7.15pm

Tickets: £20
£14 Disabled & Unemployed
£5 Students & Under 35s

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Past Event
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WATKINS ‘Resurrection of the Soldiers’ from Four Spencer Pieces (6’)
GRIME Aviary Sketches (after Joseph Cornell) (12′)
CAGE Nocturne for violin and piano (5′)
DEBUSSY Preludes Nos. 2 & 4 from Book 2 (7′)
GRIME Whistler Miniatures (12’)
JS BACH Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV900 (4’)
CHOPIN Nocturne Op.15 Nos.1 & 2 (9’)
CHOPIN Nocturne Op.48 No.1 (6’)
CHOPIN Nocturne Op.55 No.2 (6’)
JS BACH Prelude & Fugue in F BWV880 (5’)

Music inspired by giants of painting fills the opening half of this concert. Starting with Huw Watkins’ contemplative and architectural vision of Stanley Spencer’s memorial altarpiece, the programme explores works inspired by Richter and Cornell among others. It concludes with Helen Grime’s subtle, jagged and, at times, peaceful piano trio – a musical evocation of three chalk and pastel works by Whistler. 

After the interval, the programme focuses on works for solo piano that have inspired visual artists. Chopin’s four nightscapes gave birth to Whistler’s languid, darkly beautiful paintings of the same name. These are bookended by two preludes and fugues by JS Bach that set Paul Klee’s creative mind ablaze, inspiring a number of the artist’s colourful abstract works.

Projections of artworks will provide a backdrop to this concert.

This concert is dedicated to Dr Margaret Staniforth, a great supporter of The Lindsays and Music in the Round for many years.

Please note the change to the previously advertised programme for this concert.
We apologise for any disappointment this may cause.

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival runs 13–21 May 2022

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WATKINS Huw, ‘Resurrection of the Soldiers’ from Four Spencer Pieces

This sequence for solo piano actually comprises six pieces, since the four titled movements inspired by paintings of Sir Stanley Spencer are enclosed between a Prelude and Postlude in which serenely descending harmonies settle on repeated notes, tolling like a distant bell. And repeated notes prove a recurrent feature of the Spencer Pieces proper.
The distant, tolling bell of the Prelude returns at the still opening of the longest movement ‘The Resurrection of Soldiers’, with convergent high and low sonorities suggesting a passing echo of ‘Le gibet’ from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. In due course the music passes over into a convolved fugue, but so subtly that it is difficult tell exactly where the transition occurs – or where it passes back again into the preludial music.
Not least striking about the Four Spencer Pieces, is how Watkins, even at his most aggressively chromatic, contrives to keep his textures clean of the dispiriting greyness of so much ‘advanced’ piano writing. The Maidenhead Music Society commissioned the work in 2001 and Watkins gave the premiere in the parish church at Cookham, the Thames-side village Spencer lived in for so long and transfigured in his paintings.
© Bayan Northcott, 2012

GRIME Helen, Aviary Sketches (after Joseph Cornell)

I – UNTITLED (HABITAT)
II – AVIARY (PARROT MUSIC BOX)
III – DESERTED PERCH
IV – FORGOTTON GAME
V – TOWARD THE BLUE PENINSULA (AFTER EMILY DICKINSON)

Cast in five movements, each takes its starting point and character from the works, listed above, by Joseph Cornell. What interests me about his assemblage boxes is his ability to create miniature worlds. They are immediate and alluring but also rich in associations.

Each movement treats the ensemble in a different way, exploring the range of possibilities inherent in the combination. In the first movement, two are pitched against one but the groupings are continually shifting. There is a reference to Ravel’s Oiseaux Tristes in the melody that is spun through it and also in the rapid figuration throughout.

Marked ‘mechanical’, the second movement features a pizzicato cello line in ever changing patterns set against repeated gestures in violin and viola. Gradually everyone plays the pizzicato line with the repeated gestures skittered between violin and viola, this material eventually taking centre stage. The pizzicato becomes the repeated material before shortening at each statement until we are left with just one note.

In the third movement, a solo viola line is punctuated by flurried bursts of activity in the violin and cello. Eventually everyone comes together in a unison line before the viola comes to the fore again.

In FORGOTTEN GAME, an exchange of quiet, ephemeral harmonics is interrupted by fast, violent outbursts. The juxtaposition becomes more rapid and tense before its release.

The final movement opens with a chorale and is interspersed with fleeting, intertwined passages. The two things become one leading to an impassioned climax. A very quiet, slow coda reflects on what has come before.

© 2015 Helen Grime

CAGE John, Nocturne for violin and piano

In this piece, Cage tries to soften the distinctions inherent between the two instruments used. Overall, the piece has an atmospheric character, like many other compositions from this period. It should be played with sustained resonances, and ‘sempre rubato’, giving the work a quirkily Romantic feel. The piano part employs mostly chordal arpeggios and tone clusters, the violin part mostly sustained tones.

From JohnCage.org

GRIME Helen, Whistler Miniatures

Three Whistler Miniatures falls into three movements, contrasted in mood and tempo:

I: The Little Note in Yellow and Gold (Tranquillo)
II: Lapis Lazuli (Presto)
III: The Violet Note (Lontano, molto flessibile)

The titles refer to three chalk and pastel miniatures, which are displayed in the Veronese Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Although the music does not relate directly to the pictures, I was taken by the subtly graduated palate and intimate atmosphere suggested by each of them.

Throughout the piece the violin and cello form a sort of unit, which is set against the contrasting nature of the piano.

The first movement opens with a very quiet and gentle piano melody. Gradually the violin and cello become part of the texture, but moving at a slower pace. The violin and cello form an overlapping two-part melody, very high in register and ethereal in quality whilst the piano moves at a quicker pace with a more detailed and elaborate version of the string material creating a delicate, layered effect. This leads to a faster section, the two string instruments have overlapping material with more agitated outbursts from the piano. This builds to an impassioned and somewhat flamboyant piano solo, featuring falling gestures and is interspersed with an intensified and quicker version of the previous string material until the end of the movement.

The second movement is lively and virtuosic for all three players. A running continuous line is passed back and forth between the cello and violin, eventually being taken by the piano before a more melodic section. Lyrical lines are contrasted with the more jagged material of the opening, the three instruments coming together in rhythmic unison before an extended and complete melody is heard in the violin and cello. Each melodic entry is lower in register and dynamic, seeming to die away before the final presto section takes over until the movement’s close.

Beginning with a distant high piano melody and set against muted strings ‘quasi lullaby’, the third movement alludes to the textures and material of the opening of the piece. A more agitated florid section leads to a heightened rendition of the piano melody for high cello surrounded by filigree passagework in the piano and violin. The violin takes over before the final section, which combines the piano writing from the opening of the first movement, but here it is much darker in nature.

© Helen Grime

BACH Johann Sebastian, Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV900

This prelude and fugue forms part of a quintet of works in a succession of keys C-D-E-F-G. It is unknown whether Bach wrote them for teaching or as part of a larger project similar to The Well Tempered Clavier but there is no manuscript with possible answers. The two-part work starts with a prelude filled with fugue elements. In just eighteen bars, Bach manages to squeeze in three sections, each closing with a string of fast notes. The fugue itself is less complex than you might expect from Bach, which may explain the term ‘fughetta’ – as the diminutive does not apply to the length of the piece. The theme builds up tension with surprising pauses, which are later filled in spiritedly by the counter theme. In its final entrance, the main theme itself is also ornamented, as the introduction to a powerful ending.

CHOPIN Frédéric, Nocturne Op.15 Nos.1 & 2

Chopin’s fourth nocturne is in simple ternary form (A–B–A). The first section, in F major, features a very simple melody over a descending triplet pattern in the left hand. The middle section in F minor, in great contrast to the outer themes, is fast and dramatic (Con fuoco) using a challenging double note texture in the right hand. After a return to the serene A theme, the ending does not contain a coda, but rather two simple arpeggios. Some critics have remarked that this nocturne has little to do with night, as if sunlight is “leaking” from the piece’s seams. Chopin’s fifth nocturne is marked Larghetto, featuring an intricate, elaborately ornamental melody over an even quaver bass. The second section, labelled doppio movimento (double speed), resembles a scherzo with dotted quaver-semi quaver melody, semiquavers in a lower voice in the right hand, and large jumps in the bass. The final section is a shortened version of the first (14 bars rather than 24) with characteristic cadenzas and elaboration, finishing with an arpeggio on F♯ major, falling at first, then dying away. Many consider this nocturne to be the best of the opus, stating that its musical maturity matches some of his later nocturnes.

CHOPIN Frédéric, Nocturne Op.48 No.1

Chopin’s Nocturne in C minor is among the finest of all his explorations of this form. More overtly dramatic than most of his other nocturnes, it begins with a solemn, halting melody in the right hand, supported by chords that have some of the characteristics of a funeral march. The result, though, is more lyrical and more plangent (reminding us of Chopin’s fondness for bel canto opera) than the austere tread of his most famous funeral march (in the B flat minor Sonata). The central section is a richly harmonized chorale in C major, that is – in due course –infiltrated and disturbed by a quicker, more chromatic figure in a triplet rhythm that eventually provokes an explosive climax – complete with Lisztian octaves – before the music turns back to the minor key, and the material from the opening. Here Chopin does something unexpected. The uneasy triplet rhythms that had disrupted the chorale are now transformed into a restless, agitated accompaniment for the melody, and it is only in the last two bars that the nervousness finally subsides.

 

This Nocturne was the first of a pair dedicated to a favourite Chopin pupil – Laure Duperré, the beautiful daughter of an admiral – and was first published in 1841 by Schlesinger in Paris. The following year, it was reviewed in the Revue et Gazette musicale by Maurice Bourges. Writing in the form of a letter to an unnamed Baroness, Bourges offers a description of the work’s design that was quite novel for the time outside the pages of composition treatises (Schumann was one of the few who had attempted something similar in the general musical press): ‘Here in a few words is an outline of the thirteenth nocturne. A first period, in C minor, is distinguished by the character of the melody that dominates it; the second, in C major, begins pianissimo; it belongs to the complex form that has been very aptly called melodic harmony; then it ends with a restatement of the first theme, accompanied this time by pulsating chords that give the general rhythm a new warmth.’

Nigel Simeone 2010

CHOPIN Frédéric, Nocturne Op.55 No.2

The second nocturne in E flat major features a 12/8 time signature, triplet quavers in the bass, and a lento sostenuto tempo marking. The left hand features sweeping legato arpeggios from the bass to the tenor, while the right hand often plays a contrapuntal duet and a soaring single melody. There is a considerable amount of ornamentation in the right hand. The characteristic chromatic ornaments often subdivide the beats in a syncopated fashion in contrast with the steady triplets in the left hand. It differs in form from the other nocturnes in that it has no contrasting second section, the melody flowing onward from beginning to end in a uniform manner. The monotony of the unrelieved sentimentality does not fail to make itself felt. One is seized by an ever-increasing longing to get out of this oppressive atmosphere, to feel the fresh breezes and warm sunshine.

BACH Johann Sebastian, Prelude & Fugue in F BWV880

Composing 48 keyboard pieces in all 24 keys was the sort of challenge Bach enjoyed. In each of the two parts of The Well-Tempered Clavier he brought together the musical couple prelude and fugue 24 times; twelve in minor keys and twelve in major. In the preludes, he gave free rein to his imagination, and demonstrated mathematical tours de force in the fugues. In contrast to the iron discipline Bach had to apply to his church compositions, here he could abandon himself without worrying about deadlines. This Prelude and Fugue in F is from the first part of the work and dates from 1722, although it contains some music that was written in the preceding five years. Bach described the target group for this collection of pieces as follows: “For both the education of the industrious musical youngster and the enjoyment of those well-versed in this material”.

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.