SOUNDS OF NOW: LULLABY

Manasamitra

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth
Wednesday 1 May 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:
£8 – £10

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: LULLABY

SUPRIYA NAGARAJAN vocals
DUNCAN CHAPMAN field recordings & electronics
LUCY NOLAN harp

Lullaby is an entrancing evening of music in which the hypnotic purity of Indian music meets contemporary electronica and live instrumental improvisation.

Inspired by traditional Indian lullabies, this is an entrancing evening of music in which the hypnotic purity of Indian music meets contemporary electronica and live instrumental improvisation.

Timeless night-time sounds from around the world – chirping cicadas, the call of the night jar, the soft fall of rain – have been captured and located within the rhythmic pattern and soothing cadence of a lullaby to create an immersive experience that both soothes and stimulates. The space is yours to do as you please – sit, stand, lie down, slump into cushions and drift off, or remain alert and engaged throughout.

Devised by Supriya Nagarajan, a composer and southern Indian singer of the Carnatic tradition, who formed Manasamitra with musicians based in the north of England, including the electro-acoustic composer Duncan Chapman, the project also features a collection of sounds gathered in order to create a bespoke soundscape unique to Portsmouth for this performance.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Thanks to funding from the Hinrichsen Foundation.

About the Artists

Manasamitra

Manasamitra is an artist-led organisation based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, delivering a range of exciting and original cross-cultural experiences. Their work is rooted in the creative vision of Supriya Nagarajan, a classically-trained Carnatic singer who is inspired by not only the traditions of her South Asian roots but also by a drive to work with new ideas, forms and aesthetics from across the world, presented within a contemporary British context. Find out more.

ROMANTIC PIANO TRIOS

Leonore Piano Trio

Emmanuel Church, Barnsley
Friday 17 November 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets:
£14.50
£10 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s

Past Event
Home› What's on› ROMANTIC PIANO TRIOS

HAYDN Piano Trio in B flat Hob. XV:20 (16’)
DVOŘÁK Piano Trio in G minor Op.26 (35’)
SMETANA Piano Trio in G minor (30’) 

The Leonore Piano Trio brings their series of Romantic trios to Barnsley – featuring music full of high drama and intense passion and contrasting with the intimate simplicity of work by Haydn.  

Dvořák and Smetana are two of Bohemia’s greatest composers, and their trios in this concert explore an incredible range of emotions, with both ending in a blazing glory of light and optimism. 

HAYDN Joseph, Piano Trio in B flat Hob. XV:20

Allegro 
Andante cantabile 
Finale. Allegro 
 

Haydn wrote piano trios throughout his career, but many of them dated from later in his life. The B flat Piano Trio was completed in 1794 during Haydn’s second stay in London, one of a set of three first published in the same year by the London firm of Longman and Broderip with a dedication to Princess Maria Therese of Esterhazy. The first movement (Allegro) is full of typically Haydnesque verve, some unusual sonorities and numerous delightful touches. In the slow movement (Andante cantabile), the theme is presented in the piano left hand before Haydn embarks on a series of delicate and subtle variations, each instrument contributing the colours and contrasts of each iteration of the theme before coming to rather an abrupt end. The finale (Allegro) is an amiable delight, recalling the style and the expressive range of the finales of Haydn’s mature string quartets, moving from quiet charm to moments of pathos and back again, to bring the work to an affirmative close.  

 

© Nigel Simeone 

DVOŘÁK Antonín, Piano Trio in G minor Op.26

Allegro moderato
Largo
Scherzo. Presto – Trio. Poco meno mosso – Presto da capo
Allegro non tanto

Dvořák composed this Piano Trio in January 1876 at a time of great personal sadness: his daughter Josefa had died in infancy a few months earlier and the composer embarked on three works: this trio, the String Quartet in E major, and the Stabat mater, each of which can be considered a kind of memorial to Josefa. It was first performed on 29 June 1879 with Dvořák himself at the piano at a concert in the Bohemian town of Turnov. The mood of the trio is predominantly melancholic and tender, with a strong aura of nostalgia, but there is a clear national identity too.

A review in the Athenaeum following the first London performance in May 1880 expressed some reservations about Dvořák’s handling of form in the first movement, but praised ‘a succession of charmingly fresh and piquant ideas, more or less suggestive of the nationality of the composer. Some of the themes are so unmistakably Slavonic in character that Dvořák may possibly have culled them from the stores of folksongs ready to be utilized with effect in instrumental composition. Whether this be so or not, the entire trio, and especially the two middle movements, pleases on account of its thematic beauty and easy, unstudied expression.’

© Nigel Simeone

SMETANA Bedrich, Piano Trio in G minor

Moderato assai
Allegro, ma non agitato
Finale. Presto

Smetana noted down the tragic circumstances in which he composed the Piano Trio in his catalogue of works. He described it as ‘written in memory of my first child, Bedřiška, who enchanted us with her extraordinary musical talent, and yet was snatched away from us by death, aged four-and-a-half years.’ The grieving Smetana wrote this work – his only piano trio – between September and November 1855, and it was first performed in Prague on 3 December with the composer at the piano. Given that the work was written as a memorial, the surprise is that this trio contains no slow movement – and it’s certainly possible (as musicologist Basil Smallman suggested) that Smetana had to modify an earlier scheme that included one owing to pressure of time.

Two features of this trio are noteworthy: one is the powerful motto theme first heard at the very start – an idea that unifies much of what follows – and the other is Smetana’s use of popular Czech dance forms: the second movement is a Polka and the finale is based on the Skočná, a rapid jig-like dance. The reviews of the first performance included some negative comments about the work’s rhapsodic structure, and its use of folk elements that deviated from the abstract ‘purity’ expected in chamber music at the time. Smetana was understandably upset by this, but he was greatly heartened by the positive reaction to the work by a revered colleague: Franz Liszt.

© Nigel Simeone

About the Artists

Leonore Piano Trio

Formed in 2012, the Leonore Piano Trio brings together three internationally acclaimed artists whose piano trio performances as part of Ensemble 360 were met with such enthusiastic response that they decided to form a piano trio in its own right. The Trio has since given concerts both at home and in many other parts of the world, combining a comprehensive repertoire of works by the celebrated classical and romantic composers; an unrivalled exploration of lesser-known and forgotten pieces from the 19th century; exciting and innovative performances for young audiences and a range of contemporary and new works.

Find out more. 

SIR SCALLYWAG & THE GOLDEN UNDERPANTS

Ensemble 360 & Alice Beckwith

Stoller Hall, Manchester
Saturday 23 September 2023, 11.00am / 1.00pm

Tickets from £7.50

Past Event
Home› What's on› SIR SCALLYWAG & THE GOLDEN UNDERPANTS

Part of Manchester Medieval Quarter Festival 2023.

When King Colin’s golden underpants go missing, it’s Sir Scallywag to the rescue! Brave and bold, courageous and true, he’s the perfect knight for the job… even if he is only six years old!  

Original music by our children’s Composer-in-Residence, Paul Rissmann, features instruments including strings, woodwind, and horn, presented together with story-telling and projected illustrations from the best-selling children’s book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul.   

Performed by the wonderfully dynamic and hugely engaging Ensemble 360 and Alice Beckwith, 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 and their families.

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. 

 

Alice Beckwith

After a memorable Opera North workshop whilst still at school, Alice discovered a love of opera through professional experience at Glyndebourne and English National Opera.

As an animateur and repetiteur, Alice contributes to opera and music education workshops in educational settings across the UK. As a workshop leader she has worked with Music in the Round / Chetham’s School of Music, Pelican Music / Good Shepherd Primary School, Music Basti / Delhi Orphanages, and ExCathedra / John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital.

She is a repetiteur for Mahogany Opera Group’s Snappy Operas schools projects (2019 / 2022), and was a staff accompanist for Children’s International Voices of Enfield between 2014-17. Read more

THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Ensemble 360 & Elinor Moran

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 20 November 2023, 1.30pm

Booking for schools is now open, for tickets please contact portsmouthmusichub@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Home› What's on› THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

CONCERTS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Celebrating the importance of love and happiness in everyone’s lives, Paul Rissmann’s much-loved musical retelling of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s best-selling picture-book returns.  

Meet Chutney the Chimpanzee who, with one small act of planting a seed, transforms the lives of the entire town of Drabsville, and teaches its inhabitants to celebrate their differences and make life more colourful along the way!   

With narration, visuals from the book and lots of music to introduce the musicians of Ensemble 360, this is a brilliant first concert for 3 – 7 year-olds.

Presented in collaboration with the Guildhall Trust and Portsmouth Music Hub.

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. 

 

Elinor Moran

Elinor is in demand as a vocal workshop leader and animateur. She regularly works in learning and participation teams with such companies as ROH, ETO, Opera North, Snape Maltings, Garsington Opera and as far away as The Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus in Toronto.

Elinor has just returned from singing with André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra as a soloist on a world tour. She was a soloist on a SONY BMG recording “The Best Of Gilbert And Sullivan” which reached the top of the Classical Chart and can be heard on Blossom Street’s new Naxos recording of choral music by female composers “This Day”. Her recent roles include Mimi La Boheme (in the Olivier Award winning OperaUpClose production at the Soho Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre and Tour) and she has been the recipient of a Garsington Opera Chorus Award. 

Elinor studied voice at Chetham’s School Of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2012 she performed a dance role in Danny Boyle’s Olympic Opening Ceremony but has since put away her hip hop shoes (until the right future opportunity…).

SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNA MEREDITH STRING QUARTETS

Ligeti Quartet

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth
Thursday 21 March 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNA MEREDITH STRING QUARTETS

Anna Meredith’s joyful, furious, energetic and restful music dazzles but is never too serious. The critically-acclaimed Ligeti Quartet share tracks from their new album fusing acoustic and electronic music for string quartet by the Mercury-prize nominated composer.

MEREDITH Tuggemo (5’30)
MEREDITH A Short Tribute To Teenage Fanclub (5’)
MEREDITH Honeyed Words (4’)
MEREDITH Chorale (8’)
MEREDITH Shill (3’)
MEREDITH Haze (4’)
MEREDITH Blackfriars (3’)
MEREDITH Nautilus (5’)

Anna Meredith has achieved incredible success straddling multiple musical worlds, never compromising her raw, individual style. This concert is based around the Ligeti Quartet’s new album, Nuc, providing a survey of Meredith’s career to date, heard through her original works for string quartet.

Nuc started life as a conversation between Anna Meredith and Richard Jones (Ligeti Quartet’s viola player) after realising that after a decade of frequently working together, they had almost an album’s worth of music. So an idea developed in which they would not only make the first studio recordings of Anna’s original music for string quartet, but that Richard would create new arrangements of existing tracks by Anna including from her award-winning electronic and dance albums.

The result is a joyful, occasionally furious, never too serious, energetic/restful collection of tracks which dazzle with Anna’s signature compulsive harmonies, rhythmic shifts of gear and sparkling textures.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

“A remarkable, uncompromising collection that shows the composer and ensemble to be uniquely perfect collaborators.”

Buzzmag

About the Artists

Ligeti Quartet

The ​Ligeti ​Quartet ​have ​been ​at ​the ​forefront ​of ​modern ​and ​contemporary ​music since ​their ​formation ​in ​2010. ​They ​have ​established ​a ​reputation ​as ​one ​of ​the ​UK’s leading ​ensembles, ​breaking ​new ​ground ​through ​innovative ​programming ​and championing ​of ​today’s ​most ​exciting ​composers ​and ​artists.

Find out more.

SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

Tabea Debus, Samuele Telari & Elisa Blasi

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth
Friday 8 March 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

A unique performance of music and movement inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie.

PÄRT Pari Intervallo (5’)
CAGE Harmony XVIII (from 44 Harmonies) (2’)
ROOSENDAEL Rotations for solo recorder (15’)
CAGE Harmony XX (From 44 Harmonies) (5’)
LIM slowly, turning (6’)
CAGE Harmony XXXVI & HARMONY XL (From 44 Harmonies) (3’)
HOSOKAWA Sen V for solo accordion (10’)
CAGE Harmony XII (From 44 Harmonies) (1’)
PÄRT – Spiegel im Spiegel (8’)

A unique programme of music and movement, inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created by virtuoso recorder player Tabea Debus and dazzling accordion player Samuele Telari, in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie.

Featuring a new commission and works from giants of twentieth century music, the show’s choreography of the musicians makes full use of the Guildhall’s intimate ‘in the round’ Studio space.

This performance has no interval. There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

Presented by Music in the Round, in partnership with the Young Classical Artists Trust.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

About the Artists

Tabea Debus

“Neat, unforced, beautifully articulated.” – The Times

Described by The Times as a charismatic virtuoso, Tabea Debus is constantly exploring the horizons of music for recorder and has performed widely across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Tabea’s keen interest in contemporary music for recorder has led to numerous collaborations with composers throughout the UK and beyond. She has premiered new works at LSO Soundhub, at the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound and Baroque at the Edge festivals, worked with composers including Philip Cashian, Freya Waley-Cohen, Moritz Eggert and Alex Nante, and has appeared as soloist in contemporary recorder concertos with the WDR Rundfunkchor at the Funkhaus in Cologne and the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall. In 2020 the recorder solo Diaries of the Early Worm by Gareth Moorcraft, which Tabea premiered and recorded, won the solo/duo category at the Ivors Academy Awards. Read more.

Samuele Telari

‘His musicianship is so big, so irrepressible, that he transcends the instrument that he’s playing’ (BBC Record Review).

Sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Samuele’s recent solo engagements include recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Berlin Konzerthaus. 

Highlights during 2023 include his debut at the Trasimeno Festival in Italy with Angela Hewitt and a ‘Story Teller’ event for the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska. He returns to the MiTO Festival in Milan and Torino to perform Mussorgsky’s Pictures alongside a newly commissioned arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, and will be resident at the Machynlleth Festival in Wales. Read more. 

Elisa Blasi

Elisa is an Italian dancer who having trained in ballet and contemporary dance at the Balletto di Roma moved to London to complete her Bachelor’s degree at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

During her time at Rambert she had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Richard Alston, Alleyne Dance, Christopher Bruce CBE and Akram Khan.

Since graduating Elisa has gone on to work with with dance theatre company Sweetshop Revolution and most recently started working with Alexander Whitley Dance Company in October 2022.

SOUNDS OF NOW: VOICE(LESS)

Rosie Middleton & Angharad Davies

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth
Thursday 5 October 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: VOICE(LESS)

Exploring the sonic force of the human voice and how easily it can be silenced.

Programme includes:

ESIN GUNDUZ – En-he-du-an-na-me-en (3′)
MIRA CALIX – code poem: any chance of war? (c.9′)
LAURA BOWLER – Cover Squirrel (c.15′)
Includes improvisations by Angharad Davies

(A woman sits alone in the room. She tries to speak. Her voice is gone.)

Mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton and violinist Angharad Davies perform a sequence of works that explore the sonic force of the human voice and how easily it can be silenced.

Esin Gunduz examines power and resistance in music that transforms Rosie’s voice through electronic manipulation. Semaphore, morse code and other non-verbal communication inform Mira Calix’s anti-war musical poem. In Cover Squirrel by Laura Bowler, the human voice switches from operatic power to broken and unintelligible fragments. This provocative performance blends music and physical gesture by two captivating, exceptional performers.

Watch and listen to short clips of work from the performers and find out more about the Voice(less) project here:

This performance has no interval. There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

About the Artists

Rosie Middleton

Mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton specialises in new music. In 2019 Rosie was artist-in-residence at Snape Maltings and The Banff Centre, where she collaborated with composers on voice(less) – a series for voice and electronics with works by Mira Calix, Laura Bowler, Esin Gunduz and Michael Betteridge exploring voice loss and communication. Find out more. 

Angharad Davies

Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance.

Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation. Find out more. 

STRAVINSKY, COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, SCHUBERT

Ensemble 360

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 22 April 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£10 – £20

Past Event
String players of Ensemble 360
Home› What's on› STRAVINSKY, COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, SCHUBERT

STRAVINSKY Three Pieces for String Quartet (7’)
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Clarinet Quintet (31’)
SCHUBERT String Quartet No.14 ‘Death and the Maiden’ (40’)

A concert of contrasts, showcasing the versatility of the world-class musicians from Ensemble 360.

Schubert’s deeply personal and beloved ‘Death and the Maiden’ string quartet is set alongside two lesser-known pieces written within a century but which could hardly be more different: Stravinsky’s compelling fragments for string quartet and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s exquisite clarinet quintet. The latter is arguably the greatest achievement in Coleridge-Taylor’s chamber music, by turns lyrical and muscular. It bears the unmistakable hallmarks of Dvořák’s profound influence on this tumultuous period of music.

There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists and Colin Jagger of Portsmouth Chamber Music.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

STRAVINSKY Igor, Three Pieces for String Quartet

Composed in 1914, Stravinsky revised these pieces in 1918 when he dedicated them to the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet. The first performance was given in Paris in May 1915 by a quartet which included the composer Darius Milhaud playing violin, while the 1918 version had its premiere in London on 13 February 1919. The work comprises three short movements without titles or tempo markings. Though the dimensions of the pieces are slight, Stravinsky managed to baffle (and infuriate) early critics with the unusual sound effects and performance markings in places, and the deliberate absence of any conventional forms or traditional thematic development. Instead, the mood is by turns stange and grotesque. The second piece was inspired by the comedian Little Tich (Harry Relph) whose jerky stage act had impressed Stravinsky during a visit to London in 1914. The result might almost be described as an anti-quartet, and as the critic Paul Griffiths later remarked, these little pieces are ‘determinedly not a “string quartet”. The notion of quartet dialogue has no place here, nor have subtleties of blend: the texture is completely fragmented, with each instrument sounding for itself.’  

 Nigel Simeone 

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Samuel, Clarinet Quintet Op.10

Allegro energico
Larghetto affettuoso
Scherzo. Allegro leggiero
Finale. Allegro agitato – Poco più moderato – Vivace

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London and entered to Royal College of Music in 1890 to study the violin. His ability as a composer soon became apparent, and he studied composition with Stanford, becoming one of his favourite pupils. His Piano Quintet Op.1 (1893) heralded the arrival of a remarkable talent, but the Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1895, demonstrates Coleridge-Taylor at the height of his creative powers. Stanford had given his students a challenge, declaring that after Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, written in 1891, nobody would be able to escape its influence. Coleridge-Taylor couldn’t resist trying, and when Stanford saw the result he is said to have exclaimed ‘you’ve done it!’ Coleridge-Taylor took his influences not from Brahms but from another great contemporary composer: in places this work sounds like the clarinet quintet that Dvořák never wrote. That’s a mark of Coleridge-Taylor’s wonderfully fluent and assured writing. The sonata form first movement is both confident and complex, with the clarinet forming part of an intricately-woven ensemble texture. The Larghetto has a free, rhapsodic character, dominated by a haunting main theme. The Scherzo delights in rhythmic tricks while the central Trio section is more lyrical. The opening theme of the finale governs much of what follows until a recollection of the slow movement gives way to an animated coda. The first performance took place at the Royal College of Music on 10 July 1895, with George Anderson playing the clarinet. Afterwards, Stanford wrote to the great violinist Joseph Joachim describing the piece as ‘the most remarkable thing in the younger generation that I have seen.’

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. 

 

MENDELSSOHN STRING QUARTETS

Consone Quartet

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 26 February 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£10 – £20

Past Event
Home› What's on› MENDELSSOHN STRING QUARTETS

HAYDN String Quartet in D Op.64, No.5 ‘Lark’ (20’)
FANNY HENSEL-MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E flat (22′)
FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E minor Op.44, No.2 (32′)

The electrifying Consone Quartet, recent BBC New Generation Artists, comprises four sensitive and spirited musicians who have formed a dynamic ensemble prized for expressive interpretations of classical and romantic repertoire through historically informed performance.

One of Haydn’s most popular quartets opens this concert, featuring a soaring bird-like part for violin which earned the piece its Lark nickname. The evening also contrasts the music of both Mendelssohn siblings: Fanny’s raw, passionate and tempestuous quartet, the only one she published, and Felix’s stately, lyrical and deftly crafted E minor quartet.

There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists and Colin Jagger of Portsmouth Chamber Music.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

Time displayed is start time.

HAYDN Joseph, String Quartet in D Op.64, No.5 ‘Lark’

It was the soaring violin theme at the start of the first movement which gave this quartet its nickname, in a movement which wears its learning lightly, transforming the main melody in inventive ways right up to its final appearance. The hymn-like Adagio cantabile (with a contrasting minor-key central section) is followed by a Minuet which combines the feeling of a rustic dance with sophisticated motivic development. The finale is an exciting virtuoso display with almost continuous activity, but also some ingenious elements of contrast (such as the passage where the rushing main idea is treated fugally). 

 

Composed in 1790, Haydn’s Op.64 quartets were the earliest to receive their premieres at public concerts rather than at intimate gatherings of connoisseurs, and the finale of The Lark must have electrified its large audience – and delighted the composer himself: at the invitation of Johann Peter Salomon, Haydn arrived in England on New Year’s Day 1791 and remained there for the next 18 months. When the Quartets were published by the London firm of John Bland in June 1791, the title page announced that they had been ’composed by Giuseppe Haydn and perform’d under his direction at Mr Salomon’s concert, the Festino Rooms, Hanover Square’.  

 

© Nigel Simeone 

HENSEL-MENDELSSOHN Fanny, String Quartet in E flat

In the last couple of decades, the increasing interest in Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s music has demonstrated beyond doubt that her brother Felix was not the only member of the family with extraordinary gifts. 

 

Fanny’s only String Quartet dates from 1834 but has its origins in an earlier piano sonata from 1829. That was never completed but its first two movements were reworked as the Adagio and Scherzo of the present quartet which was given its first performance at her Berlin salon in 1834. The formal freedom of this quartet is one of its most remarkable features, beginning with an intense, fantasia-like Adagio that begins in C minor before gradually working towards the home key of E flat by the end of the movement. The Scherzo in C minor, with a Trio section in C major, has something an elfin quality, whereas the following Romanze is a deeply-felt movement that shifts between G minor and major with some surprising detours into remote keys. The finale is a Rondo whose main theme (in tumbling thirds on the violins) dominates this movement, an exciting moto perpetuo. 

 

© Nigel Simeone 

MENDELSSOHN Felix, String Quartet in E minor Op.44, No.2

Mendelssohn composed a set of three string quartets first published in 1840 and dedicated to Gustav, Prince of Vasa, Crown Prince of Sweden. The first version of Op.44 No.2 was completed in 1837 and first performed that year, and before publication Mendelssohn revised it two years later. This work shows the most comprehensive command of the medium of the string quartet – demanding but superbly crafted, and beautifully written for the instruments involved. The first movement is dominated by a kind of lyrical melodiousness that hints at the musical language of a more famous work by Mendelssohn in the same key: the Violin Concerto. Where his earlier string quartets were intended as a deliberate homage to Beethoven – reflecting that in their terse, concentrated ideas – in this quartet Mendelssohn is more overtly expressive, while still controlling the form with great concision and skill. The Scherzo in E major is in the dashing, elfin style familiar from the Octet and the incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it’s easy to forget just how utterly original Mendelssohn was being in these movements. The slow movement, in G major, is a relaxed song without words, leading to a finale of great intensity and ingenuity in which a consistent level of energetic flow is complemented by a brilliant variety in texture.
© Nigel Simeone

About the Artists

Consone Quartet

The first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the Consone Quartet are fast making a name for themselves with their honest and expressive interpretations of classical and romantic repertoire. Music in the Round is delighted to welcome the Quartet to ‘the family’ as our Visiting Quartet. Supported by the Frost Trust, they visit schools across the city, working in partnership with Sheffield Music Hub and performing at concerts promoted by us around the country.

Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the Consone Quartet launched their professional career in 2015, shortly after which they were awarded two prizes at the 2015 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, including the EUBO Development Trust Prize and a place on the EEEmerging Scheme in France. They went on to win the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize, and in 2022 were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) fellowship. Read their full biography here.

HAYDN, SCHUMANN & MORE

Trio Gaspard

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 29 January 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£10 – £20

Past Event
Home› What's on› HAYDN, SCHUMANN & MORE

HAYDN Piano Trio in A Hob.XV:9 (13’)
SCHUMANN Piano Trio No 2 in F Op.80 (27’)
HAYDN Piano Trio in E flat minor Hob XV:31 (13’)
BEAMISH Piano Trio written for Trio Gaspard’s ‘Haydn Project’ (c.10’)
LISZT Hungarian Rhapsody No.9 ‘Carnival in Pest’ (10’)

Trio Gaspard has earned an international reputation for refreshing interpretations of core piano trio repertoire and championing new music. This eclectic programme does just that, juxtaposing two trios by Haydn, the father or the form, and a short work commissioned from Sally Beamish celebrating this ever-evolving tradition. Liszt’s colourful and virtuosic Hungarian Rhapsody provides a spirited and celebratory finale.

There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists and Colin Jagger of Portsmouth Chamber Music

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

HAYDN Joseph, Piano Trio in A, Hob.XV:9

Haydn composed this trio in 1785 – the year when he also wrote the ‘Paris’ Symphonies. It was first published in February 1786 by the London firm of William Forster as one of Three Sonatas for the Harpsichord or Piano-Forte with an Accompaniment for a Violin & Violoncello and further editions appeared soon afterwards in Germany and Austria. It is cast in two movements, both in A major. The first is a spacious Adagio in which Haydn can be heard developing the notion of an ‘accompanied’ piano sonata into music where the string parts begin to emerge as more equal partners. Near the end of the movement, Haydn inserts a short cadenza-like passage before the music winds down to a gentle close. The second movement is fast and florid, with its fair share of harmonic quirks, as well as Haydn’s endless melodic invention and his irresistible flair for generating energetic momentum.  

 

© Nigel Simeone 

SCHUMANN Robert, Piano Trio No 2 in F Op.80

Schumann’s Second Piano Trio was initially sketched in 1847, while he was still finishing the Op. 63 Trio, but it was not completed until nearly two years later, in April 1849. Written in the pastoral key of F major, it is a very different work from its much darker and more dramatic predecessor. The reason for this is immensely touching: when Schumann began work, it was the tenth anniversary of his secret engagement to Clara, and the Trio is full of allusions to their first love. As Joan Chisell wrote: ‘no further guesses are needed as to why the first two movements are threaded with the opening phrase (“In the depths of my heart I keep a radiant image of you”) of his love-song Intermezzo (from the Eichendorff Liederkreis Op. 39) written for Clara just before their eventual long-delayed marriage in 1840.’ The first movement, in quick triple time, is both lively and ardently lyrical, while the song-like slow movement is a radiant outpouring of adoration. The third movement Scherzo is in a minor key, gentle and wistful. After this nostalgic interlude, the finale ends the work in a state of almost untroubled elation. For Clara Schumann this piece remained a great favourite among her husband’s works – partly, no doubt, because of its intimate private messages, but also because it shows Schumann at his most effortlessly inventive. The first performance was given in their house on 29 April 1849, in a private concert that also included the première of Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel for four solo voices and piano, and Clara subsequently played it on many occasions.

 

Nigel Simeone © 2010

HAYDN Joseph, Piano Trio in E flat minor Hob XV:31

Haydn’s autograph manuscript of this trio is in the British Library, part of the extraordinary music collection assembled by the writer Stefan Zweig which was later bequeathed to the nation by his heirs. The first page of music is signed and dated ‘Haydn, 1795’. The most striking aspect of this work is the key of the first movement: E flat minor (with its key signature of six flats). This was very rarely used in the eighteenth century except in works like Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier which deliberately explored all 24 major and minor keys. The Andante cantabile is rather an austere rondo, which includes some remarkable harmonic excursions (including an episode in B major) and a generally serious mood which is only lightened by a contrasting episode in E flat major. At the head of the last movement, the manuscript has a line in Haydn’s writing which has subsequently been scratched out (presumably by the composer himself): ‘Sonata: Jacob’s Dream’, a reference to Jacob’s vision in the Book of Genesis where he sees a ladder reaching from earth up to an angel-filled heaven. But Haydn’s use of the title was a joke: a violinist he knew liked to show off his playing in the highest register (apparently none too well) and Haydn peppers his cheery movement (in E flat major) with moments where the violin has to play extremely high and fast.  

 

© Nigel Simeone

BEAMISH Sally, Trance

This piece was commissioned by the Trio Gaspard to sit alongside Haydn’s piano trios. The sound of these wonderful players was in my head as I wrote. Haydn’s trios famously give a pretty subordinate role to the cello, so my first idea was to make the cello a soloist in my piece. My relationship with Haydn’s F sharp minor trio goes back to childhood, when my mother, violinist Ursula Snow, performed it many times with her trio. I must have heard hours of rehearsal.  This led me to think of my mother, and how much I miss her, and feel I understand her better as I get older. This short piece is dedicated to her memory.  

 

I took F sharp as my starting point, and threaded in occasional notes taken from Haydn’s Andante cantabile movement. The harmonies, which form a repeated chaconne-like pattern in the piano part, are also derived from the Haydn, but in my own way, and not necessarily audible to the listener. The music is like a series of fragmented memories; the violin at first ghost-like, while the cello has an improvisatory line; the violin then drawing the cello into its falling 5th motif, while the piano has the solo line. The three instruments become equal as the music comes to a head, before dissolving into a quiet final statement of the chord sequence.  

 

The melancholic nature of Haydn’s trio affected my approach, combined with memories of my mother and her gradual disappearance into dementia. The title, Trance, indicates a meditative state, but also a ‘passageway’, or departure – the confusing journey of my relationship with my mother as her personality shifted, changed and faded. 

 

Trance was commissioned by the Trio Gaspard, and first performed at the West Cork Festival on 28th June, 2023. 

© Sally Beamish 

LISZT Franz, Hungarian Rhapsody No.9 ‘Carnival in Pest’

Liszt composed his Carnival in Pest in 1847 for solo piano, the ninth of his Hungarian Rhapsodies in which he aimed to compose virtuoso works in which he could incorporate traditional music from his homeland. Carnival in Pest is dedicated to the Brno-born violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, It was therefore a particularly appropriate idea for Liszt to compose a version for piano trio which includes a flamboyant violin part – in fact all three instruments are given some dazzling writing. 

Dating from 1848, the autograph manuscript of the trio version (in the collection of the Juilliard School in New York) is covered in revisions and deletions, suggesting that Liszt rethought much of the work when he made this transcription. It is a piece that is largely celebratory in mood and Liszt presents a succession of stirring Hungarian Gypsy themes with frequent changes of tempo, interspersed with cadenzas. It culminates in a triumphant reprise of the opening idea on the strings, in octaves, followed by a dizzying coda. It is unclear why Liszt did not publish the trio version during his lifetime, but it eventually appeared posthumously in 1892. 

© Nigel Simeone 

About the Artists

Trio Gaspard

Founded in 2010, Trio Gaspard is one of the most sought-after piano trios of their generation, praised for their unique and fresh approach to the score. Trio Gaspard is regularly invited to perform at major international concert halls, such as Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Grafenegg Castle Austria, Salle Molière Lyon, NDR Rolf-Liebermann Hall, Hamburg and Shanghai Symphony Hall as well as making appearances at festivals such as Heidelberger Frühling, Mantua Chamber Music Festival, Boswiler Sommer and PODIUM Festival Esslingen. Important engagements over the past year include recitals at the BBC Proms, Unione Musicale Turin, Wigmore Hall, KKL Lucerne as well as at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. A highlight of 2018 was performing Beethoven Triple Concerto in Switzerland under the baton of eminent musician and conductor, Gabor Takács-Nagy. Read their full biography here.

RACHMANINOV 150

Ensemble 360

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 20 November 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£10 – £20

Past Event
Home› What's on› RACHMANINOV 150

RACHMANINOV Trio élégiaque No.1 in G minor (14’)
PROKOFIEV Quintet in G minor (21’)
PROKOFIEV Overture on Hebrew Themes (9’)
TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No.2 in F Op.22 (36’)

The world-class musicians from Ensemble 360 return with a blistering programme of Russian music to celebrate the 150th birthday of Sergei Rachmaninov, best known for his sweeping symphonic music and monumental works for piano. They open with his heart-wrenching trio and conclude with a rarely-performed piece by Tchaikovsky, considered by the composer to be his best work of all: a dense, lyrical and dramatic quartet which shares much with his better known large-scale works.

There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists and Colin Jagger of Portsmouth Chamber Music.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

RACHMANINOV Sergei, Trio élégiaque No.1 in G minor

Lento lugubre
Risoluto
Tempo primo
Più vivo
Alla marcia funebre

 

Rachmaninov wrote two piano trios, both called “elegiac”. The second (D minor) trio was composed at the end of 1893 as a memorial to Tchaikovsky, but the present G minor Trio dates from January 1892, and was first performed on 30 January 1892 with Rachmaninov at the piano and his friend Anatoly Brandukov as the cellist – later to be the dedicatee of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata and best man at Rachmaninov’s wedding. The G minor Trio was written while Rachmaninov was still a student, and is a single-movement lamentation. The main theme (reminiscent of a melody in Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony) is first presented by the piano over shimmering bare fifths. This idea dominates the movement, appearing in a variety of guises, and the contrasting falling melody that is no more consoling. The final presentation of the main idea is the most stark – a transformation into a funeral march.

 

Nigel Simeone © 2011

PROKOFIEV Sergei, Quintet in G minor

Tema con variazioni
Andante energico
Allegro sostenuto, ma con brio
Adagio pesante
Allegro precipitato, ma non troppo presto
Andantino

 

Prokofiev’s Quintet Op.39 of 1924 incorporates music from Trapeze, a ballet he composed at the same time. Written while Prokofiev was living in Paris for a company that could only afford a small instrumental ensemble, the original ballet comprised eight movements of which six were used in the Quintet. The language is often astringent but Prokofiev is highly imaginative in the way he uses limited resources to the fullest possible effect. After a Theme and Variations that moves from a deadpan opening to frenetic energy before returning to the music of the start, the second movement opens with a double bass solo before some rather acidic writing for the whole ensemble. The short Allegro sostenuto, ma con brio is a witty scherzo-type movement that is followed by the darkest part of the Quintet, a brooding Adagio pesante notable for some unusual instrumental colours including sul ponticello string writing. The Allegro precipitato is another brilliant, highly animated exploration of intriguing sonorities, while the concluding Andante is more stately to begin with, becoming a little livelier in the central section, and ending vigorously, with the parts marked tumultuoso e precipitato.

PROKOFIEV Sergei, Overture on Hebrew Themes

Prokofiev composed this piece for clarinet, string quartet and piano in 1919, while he was on tour in the USA. It was commissioned by the Zimro Ensemble, a Russian group who had recently arrived in America. The ‘Hebrew’ themes Prokofiev used were very probably composed by Simeon Bellison, the group’s clarinettist. The premiere was given by Prokofiev with the Zimro Ensemble in New York on 2 February 1920.

 

Nigel Simeone 2014

TCHAIKOVSKY Pyotr, String Quartet No.2 in F Op.22

Adagio – Moderato assai 
Scherzo. Allegro giusto 
Andante ma non tanto 
Finale. Allegro con moto 

 

Tchaikovsky wrote his Second String Quartet in January 1874 and it remains a neglected work – a fate it shares with the Third Quartet of 1876 – certainly when compared with the better-known First Quartet. In his biography Tchaikovsky: the man and his music, David Brown has suggested that the F major shows Tchaikovsky trying to grapple with the economy and rigour of Beethoven’s quartets, particularly in the first movement where the thematic material is “more concise” than might be expected with Tchaikovsky, “thus facilitating far greater flexibility in what is built from it.” This is a very fair assessment of a movement that has clear debts to Beethoven in terms of structure and compositional process. The Scherzo is delightfully quirky, based on a lopsided bar of 2, 2 and 3 beats until the more stable, waltz-like Trio section. The emotional core of the work is anguished slow movement (David Brown describes this as music of pain-filled intensity). The Rondo finale that follows is effervescent and untroubled. 

 

© 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. 

 

SCHUBERT, JANÁČEK & BRAHMS

Leonkoro Quartet

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 16 October 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£10 – £20

Past Event
Home› What's on› SCHUBERT, JANÁČEK & BRAHMS

SCHUBERT String Quartet No.9 in G minor D173 (23’)
JANÁČEK String Quartet No.1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ (19’)
BRAHMS String Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.51 No.1 (32’)

The four outstanding young musicians of the Leonkoro Quartet have already acquired an astonishing list of international prizes to their name. Last year’s awards included first prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, where they astonished both the jury and audience with their boundless energy and powerful musicality, and their appointment to the prestigious BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme.

For their Portsmouth debut, they’ll be performing a programme that tackles the profound drama of Janáček and Brahms, alongside the graceful lightness of a quartet composed by Schubert when he was still a teenager.

There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists and Colin Jagger of Portsmouth Chamber Music.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

SCHUBERT Franz, String Quartet in G minor, D173

Allegro con brio 
Andantino  
Menuetto. Allegro vivace 
Allegro 
 

Schubert’s sheer productivity in 1815, the year in which he turned 18 years of age, is nothing short of astonishing: over 150 songs, two symphonies, piano pieces, religious music and the present string quartet, written between 25 March and 1 April 1815, while Schubert was also working as an assistant teacher in his father’s school. According to a note in his own hand, the first movement was composed ‘in four and a half hours.’ There’s no mistaking the influences on the teenage Schubert in this music, particularly Beethoven’s Op.18 quartets and, above all, Mozart’s Symphony No.40.  

But far from being merely derivative or imitative, this quartet is a notable example of Schubert experimenting with quartet structures, and starting to find his way as an original genius. Schubert expert Brian Newbould has noted that ‘Schubert’s way of plucking … principles from the repertoire all around him in his teenage years … is part of a positive, learning, and properly creative purpose.’ Newbould goes on to write that in this quartet, we find ‘things here that represent the first stirrings of inclinations that were to come to fruition in later works.’ 

© Nigel Simeone 

JANÁČEK Leoš, String Quartet No.1 Kreutzer Sonata

Adagio – Con moto 
Con moto 
Con moto – Vivo – Andante 
Con moto – (Adagio) – Più mosso 
 

Janáček composed his 1st String Quartet in 1923, taking as his inspiration Kreutzer Sonata, the novella by Tolstoy that had in turn been inspired by Beethoven’s famous violin sonata. Janáček’s quartet was composed in just a few days, and it’s probable that he drew on material from an earlier piano trio (now lost) based on the same story. The music does not follow Tolstoy’s narrative in detail, but it does evoke the rage and passion of the protagonists, using a musical language made up of generally quite short motifs that form both the melodies and the urgent, thrilling ideas that accompany them. Janáček also alludes to Beethoven’s Kreutzer, most obviously at the start of the third movement where he recalls the second theme of Beethoven’s opening movement. Janáček’s own motto theme in the Quartet is the rising idea heard at the opening. This returns at the start of the fourth movement, but this time it is followed by a melancholy violin theme, marked ‘as if in tears’. Janáček’s final transformation of the motto theme is magnificent: a furious fortissimo, accompanied by chords marked ‘festive, like an organ’. After this ecstatic moment of release, the music subsides back to the brooding, unsettled mood of the opening. 

 

© Nigel Simeone 

BRAHMS Johannes, String Quartet in C minor Op.51 No.1

Allegro
Romanze. Poco adagio
Allegretto molto moderato e comodo
Allegro

The string quartet was a form that gave Brahms a great deal of trouble and the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven meant that Brahms was especially critical of his efforts at quartet writing. The C minor Quartet was finished in the mid-1860s, but Brahms revised it extensively over the next decade and re-wrote it during the summer of 1873. The first performance took place in Vienna in December 1873 by the Hellmesberger Quartet. The work is dedicated to Brahms’s friend Theodor Billroth, one of the most innovative surgeons of his time and a keen amateur musician. There’s a very close relationship between the main themes in each of the four movements, each of which grow from the same basic idea, and the overall structure sees two intimate miniatures framed by the more symphonic outer movements.

Nigel Simeone ©2014

“The Leonkoros draw on a wealth of youthful sonority, fiery vitality and rousing drive.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung

About the Artists

Leonkoro Quartet

The ensemble is framed by brothers Jonathan and Lukas Schwarz on first violin and cello, while the middle voices are formed by Amelie Wallner on second violin and Mayu Konoe on viola. Leonkoro, in Esperanto: Lionheart, alludes not coincidentally to Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book about two brothers, a book that juxtaposes the grave reality of death with a large and heartfelt yearning for comfort and solace – a sentiment that string quartet repertoire addresses in several instances. See their full biography here.