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.
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Setting the scene for the weekend, join a panel of musicians and experts who will shine a light on some of the composers and music featuring across the three days.
JS BACH Suite No.1 in G BWV 1007 (20’) ADÈS Forgotten Dances (18’) MESSIAEN O Sacrum Convivium (4’) MONK Nightfall (10’) REICH Electric Counterpoint (15’)
A magnetic performer, prolific recording artist, and a curious and wide-ranging musical explorer, this is a chance to experience one of the most celebrated musicians working today in the intimate setting of the Crucible Playhouse.
Making a triumphant return to Sheffield, Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe presents a virtuosic tour of four centuries of music, including a transcription of Bach’s beloved first cello sonata, Steve Reich’s thrilling masterpiece Electric Counterpoint and a recent commission by the UK’s leading contemporary composer Thomas Adès, alongside two of the standout works from his celebrated album Lost & Found.
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“WOW! I thought I’d take a dutiful listen and couldn’t get my headphones off. Sean Shibe has made one of the best recordings of Electric Counterpoint ever!
”
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No.1 in F minor Op.2 Piano Sonata No.3 in C Op.2 Piano Sonata No.2 in A Op.2 Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’
On the threshold of a Beethoven bicentenary year, Ensemble 360’s pianist Tim Horton launches his latest marathon project. With his familiar commitment, rigour and virtuosic playing, he embarks on the monumental feat of a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle.
This thrilling afternoon launches a journey through Beethoven’s staggering achievements for piano, with works including his celebrated Appassionata sonata.
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“Tim Horton is an unsung hero of the UK classical world: a warm, appreciative presence on stage and a bright, assertive sound at the keyboard.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Telegraph ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Times ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ BBC Music Magazine
“Chopin by a pianist whose name is rapidly becoming synonymous with searching originality, rhetorical aptness and kinaesthetic authority… Kolesnikov, always eager for the deep dive, here resurfaces with rare pearls of perfect proportion and lustre from the long-picked-over beds of Chopin interpretation” Gramophone on Pavel Kolesnikov
CHOPIN Complete Nocturnes
Described by Bachtrack as “a poet of the piano”, Pavel Kolesnikov is one of the world’s most exciting young pianists. Lauded for his staggering ability to cast new light on familiar repertoire, he makes his Music in the Round debut with a sumptuous tour through the complete Chopin Nocturnes.
Among the most gorgeous music for piano ever written, these intimate dramas of powerful intensity cover a vast emotional spectrum, from the lyrical and dreamy to unparalleled passion. This epic musical journey, up close, promises to be an unforgettable highlight of the season.
Please note, there will be two intervals due to the length of this concert.
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TENNEY Saxony (25’) TASSIE O Suns – O Grass of Graves world premiere (10’) LAIDLOW Content (30’) ZUCCHI/LAIDLOW Interfaces Improvisation (15’)
Praised for his “urgently visceral” playing (Tempo), London-based Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi performs a programme of innovative works for saxophone and live electronics. James Tenney’s groundbreaking Saxony (1978) sees a shimmering wall of sound built from tape delay and saxophones of every size, while Benjamin Tassie’s new work, O Suns – O Grass of Graves, explores the fragile sound world of the saxophone’s delicately unstable multiphonics.
The second half showcases Zucchi’s recent collaborations with composer and creative technologist Robert Laidlow. Content translates the internet’s overwhelming abundance (memes, infinite-scroll feeds, push notifications) in a raucous concert work for saxophone and electronics, while Interfaces Improvisation sees Laidlow perform alongside Zucchi using his tactile new electronic instrument, a ‘stacco’, which uses live AI to melt timbres together and control live-processed sound.
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PURCELL Fantasia No.5 (4’) MACMILLAN For Sonny (5’) MACMILLAN Memento (4’) BRITTEN String Quartet No.3 (26’) ELGAR Piano Quintet (37’)
No stranger to Sheffield audiences, pianist Martin Roscoe was a frequent collaborator with the Lindsay String Quartet, founders of Music in the Round. Here he joins forces with another titanic quartet, the prolific Brodskys, who have been performing for over half a century to prizes and plaudits around the world.
Elgar’s Piano Quintet is an undisputed masterpiece: a tender yet muscular work of epic emotions. The emotional core of the piece begins with a ravishing viola melody, and its final movement magically conjures a stirring chorale before plunging to a thrilling and thundering conclusion.
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“In the mighty [Elgar] Piano Quintet the Brodskys generate a consistently stimulating rapport with the admirable Martin Roscoe… ….piercing heartache and awestruck wonder course through the ensuing Adagio centrepiece.
”
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in D Op.18 No.3 (25’) ADÈS Arcadiana (20’) BRAHMS String Quartet No.1 in C minor (35’)
Opus 13, the most recent winner of the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition, makes its Sheffield debut with a programme of bold and lyrical works.
Praised by the judges for “technically superb and emotionally compelling” performances, the Quartet follows in the footsteps of a glittering roster of past winners, including the internationally renowned Leonkoro Quartet, Quartet Van Kuijk and the Takacs Quartet.
Beethoven’s first string quartet is a bright, lyrical and humorous work, undercut by a deeply affecting slow movement. Indebted to Beethoven’s later work, Brahms’s String Quartet No.1 is a bold, passionate piece, from its striking opening bars to its rapturous conclusion.
Arcadiana, the first string quartet by Thomas Adès, “one of the most accomplished and complete musicians of his generation” (The New York Times) also features, portraying an evocation of paradise with references to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, the painter Poussin and Greek mythology.
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“Arcadiana, Adès’s first string quartet, remains one of his most engaging pieces, the brilliance offset by tenderness, even the odd, quickly-brushed-away tear of sentimentality.”
SAARIAHO Six Japanese Gardens (selected movements) (10’) Ancient Chinese ritual music (6’) VON BINGEN O vis eternitatis (8’) YANG YONG River Song (5’) Improvisation (10’) ISANG YUN Sori (10’) Fumeux Fume 12th century Troubadour song (5’) HOSOKAWA Small Chant (5’)
From the intimate to the divine: an intriguing musical exploration of Chinese music and philosophy alongside European classical traditions. Moving between eastern and western instruments, these innovative musicians explore how ancient divination practices have inspired music, ritual and performance for over 1,000 years.
Praised for their “highly imaginative” (I Care If You Listen) and “powerfully theatrical performance” (Tempo) with an “intoxicating […] mood of poetry, restraint and elegance”, (The Stage) Tangram specialise in cross-cultural productions and are Associate Artists at LSO St Luke’s.
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IRELAND Summer Schemes; Down by the Salley Gardens; We’ll to the woods no more; Sea Fever; The Vagabond; Youth’s Spring Tribute CLARKE Down by the Salley Gardens; The Cloths of Heaven; The Seal Man BOYLE A Song of Enchantment; The Joy of Earth TIMBLE Green Rain; My grief on the sea WOOD I’d roam the world over with you GURNEY Down by the Salley Gardens HEAD Tewkesbury Road F WALEY-COHEN The Moon, the Moss & the Mushrooms (Music in the Round co-commission) VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Songs of Travel
Music in the Round’s Singer-in-Residence Roderick Williams returns with a programme of heartrendingly beautiful English song, including Vaughan Williams’ glorious cycle Songs of Travel.
This musical voyage around our island home, performed by Roderick and pianist Christopher Glynn, two of the most charming and gifted musicians the country has produced, also includes a cosmically titled new commission from Freya Waley-Cohen inspired by the Exmoor landscape and its fairy-tale folklore.
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“Williams proved the ideal guide to this repertoire, his phrasing, dramatic physicality and illuminating way with the text bringing fresh insights to old favourites… aided and abetted throughout by Christopher Glynn’s poised and poetic piano playing.”
The Guardian
“Roderick Williams is a national treasure. Acutely responsive to the sound and meaning of words, his approach to the English Romantic song repertoire is revelatory.”
HONEGGER Intrada (5’) HINDEMITH Concerto for Trumpet & Bassoon [string reduction] (17)’ BERNSTEIN Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (10’) HAYDN Trumpet Concerto [string reduction] (15’) COPLAND Quiet City [string reduction] (10’) BEACH Romance (6’) GERSHWIN (arr. Morton) Promenade – Walking the Dog (3’) GERSHWIN (arr. Morton) Three Preludes (8’)
Winner of the Young Artist Category in the 2026 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Awards, star trumpeter Matilda Lloyd joins Ensemble 360 for a sparkling celebration of American music, alongside some dazzling trumpet classics. Described by BBC Music Magazine as a “trumpeter extraordinaire,” and celebrated for her impeccable sound, crystalline phrasing, and exquisite control, Matilda Lloyd holds audiences spellbound through virtuosity and expressive power. This brassy concert celebrates the brilliant sounds of the trumpet and its central place in American chamber music drawing on diverse traditions stretching back to Haydn.
Copland’s Quiet City is a portrait of the American night: a solitary walker and a bridge in fog. Beach’s Romance captures the elegance of the Boston salon, while Gershwin’s Three Preludes and whimsical Promenade encapsulate the moment jazz and European music collided, and a continent found its unique musical voice.
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R SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro (8’) D HOWARD Unravelled (Music in the Round co-commission) (13’) N BOULANGER 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano (7’) SAINT-SAËNS Romance Op.36 (4’) DEBUSSY (arr. Beamish) La mer (30’)
This lustrous evening brings together exquisite sound paintings for piano, strings and horn, showcasing the range and reach of our resident Ensemble 360.
From the mellifluous warmth of Schumann, through the delicate, dappled colours of Dani Howard’s new piano trio (co-commissioned by Music in the Round with Presteigne Festival) and culminating in Debussy’s impressionistic seascape masterpiece, skillfully arranged for piano and strings by Sally Beamish, this is a concert that shimmers with colour.
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