Join Ensemble 360 for an intimate concert of quartets and quintets as darkness descends on a special musical day in Sheffield General Cemetery. Among the highlights are Mozart’s lilting and languid Oboe Quartet and Korngold’s magical Piano Quintet. Full of wit and wonder, with a lushly romantic, haunting second movement, it features the beautifully apt and expressive theme “Moon, you rise again”.
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WEBER Carl Maria von, Clarinet Quintet Op.34
Allegro
Fantasia. Adagio ma non troppo
Menuetto. Capriccio presto
Rondo. Allegro giocoso
Just as Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Concerto had been written with a particular player in mind, so were the concertos and Quintet of Carl Maria von Weber. Heinrich Bärmann and Weber immediately struck up a rapport after their first meeting in Munich, and his virtuosity greatly impressed the composer. This was partly, too, because of Bärmann’s choice of instrument. As John Warrack has explained, ‘two years before their Munich meeting, Bärmann had acquired a ten-key clarinet that allower greater flexibility and smoothness; an in Bärmann’s clarinet Weber found an instrument that with its French incisiveness and its German fullness seemed to express a new world of feeling, and to match both the dark romantic melancholy and the extrovert brilliance of his own temperament.’ As well as concertos for Bärmann, Weber worked sporadically on a Quintet. Having started this in 1811, he finally finished it on 25 August 1815, the day before the first performance. Given the rather haphazard composing process, it’s not surprising that the work is not one of Weber’s most profound, but it is a brilliant and charming vehicle for the soloist – described by John Warrack as ‘a pocket concerto, written purely for delight in virtuoso effect.’
Mozart’s Oboe Quartet was written in Munich in 1781 with a particular player in mind: the oboist Friedrich Ramm (c.1744–1813). Ramm had been a member of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, where Mozart had first met him in 1777 and wrote very enthusiastically at the time about his playing and his ‘beautiful fine tone.’ Mozart arrived in Munich in late 1780 to prepare his new opera Idomeneo and Ramm was in the orchestra. Their admiration seems to have been mutual, since Ramm said of Idomeneo after an early rehearsal that no music had ever impressed him more deeply. According to at least one early catalogue of Mozart’s works (by Johann André), the Quartet was written during January 1781, while final preparations were being made for the première of Idomeneo on 29 January 1781.
The Oboe Quartet has been described by the oboist and musicologist Bruce Haynes as a ‘sparkling, ethereal work’. In three movements, and score for oboe, violin, viola and cello, it’s especially innovative in its exploitation of the oboe’s upper register – using notes that were only to be found on the latest models of oboe, and something of a Ramm speciality. Haynes has also noted that none of Mozart’s other works for oboe use the instrument’s highest notes in this way. The writing for the oboe is superbly idiomatic – and it’s intriguing to speculate (as Haynes has) that if Mozart had not met the brilliant clarinettist Anton Stadler after his move to Vienna (coincidentally, in the same year he composed the Oboe Quartet) – he might have written late masterpieces for solo oboe rather than for clarinet. The first movement is a breezy Allegro, while the slow movement suggests a slow, lyrical opera aria (making the most of Ramm’s singing tone). The finale is more unusual: a rondo that has passages where oboe and strings are playing in different time signatures (the oboe playing in 6/8 time while the strings are in 4/4) and makes the most of the virtuoso possibilities of the soloist.
NIGEL SIMEONE, 2010
KORNGOLD Erich Wolfgang, Piano Quintet in E major Op.15
Mäßiges Zeitmaß, mit schwungvoll blühendem Ausdruck [Moderate speed, with blossoming expression]
Adagio (Freie Variationen über die Lieder des Abschieds) [free variations on the Songs of Farewell, Op. 14]
3. Finale. Gemessen beinahe pathetisch – Allegro giocoso [Measured but emotional]
Before Korngold reached his twelfth birthday, his cantata Gold was acclaimed by Mahler as the work of a ‘musical genius’ and his ballet The Snowman was performed at the Vienna Opera. Korngold continued to develop thorough his teens, and in his early twenties he enjoyed phenomenal success with the opera Die tote Stadt, given a simultaneous premiere in Hamburg and Cologne in 1920. The Quintet was completed in 1921 and the first performance was in Hamburg on 16 February 1923, with Korngold at the piano. It was published in 1924 with a dedication to Gustinus Ambrosi, a sculptor who had made a bust of the 14-year-old Korngold which was destroyed in the war. There are three substantial movements. The first begins with a heroic idea that gives way to a more reflective cello solo and a delicate new theme, decked with trills (and a hint of Mahler). After extensive development, the movement ends with an impassioned recollection of the opening. The Adagio is a set of variations based on Mond, so gehst du wieder auf (Moon, thus you rise once more’ from Korngold’s Four Songs of Farewell. With its distinctive drooping intervals, the theme is treated with great ingenuity. The finale begins with a dramatic idea in octaves and a short violin cadenza that leads to the main Allegro giocoso in which Korngold is at his most uninhibited.
One of the most gifted pianists andimaginative composers on the Europeanscene, this is a chance to experience themasterful jazz artist Gwilym Simcockup close as he returns to his improvisational jazz roots.
“[Gwilym Simcock is] a stupendous improviser and a remarkable musician all round.”
MESSIAEN Le Rouge-gorge from ‘Petites esquisses d’oiseaux’ (2’) COUPERIN Le rossignol en amour (3’) TELEMANN Fantasia No.2 in A minor (5’) MESSIAEN L’alouette Calandrelle from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, 5eme Livre (5’) RAMEAU La Rappel des Oiseau (3’) TELEMANN Fantasia No.7 in D (5’) MESSIAEN Le Merle Noir (6’) SAINT-SAËNS(arr. Richter) Volière from Le carnaval des animaux (2’) VIVALDI Cantabile from ‘Il Gardilino’ (3’) MESSIAEN Le Loriot from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, 1iere Livre (9’) MARTINŮ Allegro poco moderato from Flute Sonata No.1 (5’)
Among the sheltering trees of Sheffield General Cemetery, the dawn chorus continues an ancient wordless cycle of song. Inspired by and performed in the midst of this natural wonder, discover music for flute and piano spanning three centuries, from Baroque evocations of nightingales to Messiaen’s dazzling transcriptions of wild birds.
Pause, listen and be transported, as we revive a beloved Sheffield Chamber Music Festival tradition with this dawn celebration of the music of the birds.
Post-concert Bird Walk BBC Radio 3’s Tom McKinney – classical music’s favourite birder, and veteran of Sheffield Chamber Music Festival – leads a walk from Samuel Worth Chapel to spot and celebrate the avian musicians of the General Cemetery. Strictly limited to ticket-holders for the Bird Song concerts.
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
TELEMANN Georg Philipp, Fantasia No. 2 in A Minor
Telemann and his godson C.P.E. Bach had a lot in common: both studied law before pursuing music, both became key links between late-Baroque and early-Classical styles, and both composed prolifically—Telemann’s output is measured in the thousands. Alongside the reams of sacred music, instrumental suites, operas, and concerti, Telemann also wrote sets of unaccompanied instrumental fantasias, for violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord and flute.
The second Fantasia of this set of twelve has four sections (Grave, Vivace, Adagio, and Allegro), with tempo changes aligning with changes of mood or character. This Fantasia in particular is a fantastic example of Telemann’s mastery of counterpoint, managing to keep multiple lines of melody spinning concurrently through regular changes of register.
Hugh Morris 2024
RAMEAU Jean-Philippe, Le Rappel des oiseaux, Rigaudons I, II & Double, Les tendres plaintes
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) published his first collection of harpsichord pieces in 1706 and further collections appeared in the 1720s. Though widely admired at the time, these works lapsed into obscurity and it took their rediscovery at the end of the nineteenth century, when a handsome edition, prepared by Camille Saint-Saëns, was published by Durand in 1895. Rameau’s collections mostly comprise dance movements, such as the two Rigaudons and ‘Double’ from the 1724 volume of Pièces de clavecin. This was also the source of one of his most celebrated imitative pieces, Le rappel des oiseauxwith its evocations of chirruping birdsong, and of Les tendres plaintes, a more subtle evocation of melancholy.
Nigel Simeone
MESSIAEN Olivier, Le Merle Noir
Le Merle Noir – The Blackbird – was composed in March 1952 as the test piece for the flute class at the Paris Conservatoire. Messiaen took the opportunity to make an important stylistic departure in this work: it was the first of his pieces to attempt a detailed depiction of a specific named bird. The first performances – in June 1952 – were given at the flute concours by the most promising members of Gaston Crunelle’s flute class that year. One of them was the British flautist Alexander Murray, who shared his memories of the piece in with the present writer:
“We saw it for the first time four weeks before the concours and then dissected it four times a week with Gaston Crunelle … Noël Lee, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, was our accompanist, and was present daily for the last week. He had analysed the last section and demonstrated the rhythmic permutations – which did not make life easier. However, his utter reliability made memorising less of a problem. We all played from memory. … I was awarded a premier prix (I think the first British student to be so lucky). Messiaen was present in class at least once, as I remember, and of course at the concours.”
MARTINŮ Bohuslav, Sonata for flute, violin and piano H254
Allegretto poco moderato Adagio Allegretto
Martinů composed this sonata in less than two weeks, between 4 and 16 May 1937 while he was living in Paris. The work is dedicated to Blanche Honegger, a violinist who studied with Adolf Busch and who later married the pianist Louis Moyse. With his father, the flautist Marcel Moyse, they gave the first performance of Martinů’s sonata on French Radio on 1 July 1937. (Blanche Honegger Moyse later moved to the United States and became a much-admired conductor. She died in 2011 at the age of 101). Martinů had moved to Paris in the 1920s and he completed his studies there with Albert Roussel. With his homeland under threat from Nazi invasion, this sonata has musical characteristics that reflect a love of his homeland including stylised polka rhythms and turns of phrase typical of Moravian folk music. When German forces occupied Paris, Martinů fled to the United States where he lived until 1953. Shortly after emigrating, he was asked by the New York Herald Tribune about his most important musical influences and he listed Bohemian and Moravian folk music, the English madrigal and the music of Debussy. Elements of all these can be heard in this three-movement work
MESSIAEN Le Rouge-gorge from ‘Petites esquisses d’oiseaux’ (2’) COUPERIN Le rossignol en amour (3’) TELEMANN Fantasia No.2 in A minor (5’) MESSIAEN L’alouette Calandrelle from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, 5eme Livre (5’) RAMEAU La Rappel des Oiseau (3’) TELEMANN Fantasia No.7 in D (5’) MESSIAEN Le Merle Noir (6’) SAINT-SAËNS(arr. Richter) Volière from Le carnaval des animaux (2’) VIVALDI Cantabile from ‘Il Gardilino’ (3’) MESSIAEN Le Loriot from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, 1iere Livre (9’) MARTINŮ Allegro poco moderato from Flute Sonata No.1 (5’)
Among the sheltering trees of Sheffield General Cemetery, the dawn chorus continues an ancient wordless cycle of song. Inspired by and performed in the midst of this natural wonder, discover music for flute and piano spanning three centuries, from Baroque evocations of nightingales to Messiaen’s dazzling transcriptions of wild birds.
Pause, listen and be transported, as we revive a beloved Sheffield Chamber Music Festival tradition with this dawn celebration of the music of the birds.
Post-concert Bird Walk BBC Radio 3’s Tom McKinney – classical music’s favourite birder, and veteran of Sheffield Chamber Music Festival – leads a walk from Samuel Worth Chapel to spot and celebrate the avian musicians of the General Cemetery. Strictly limited to ticket-holders for the Bird Song concerts.
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
TELEMANN Georg Philipp, Fantasia No. 2 in A Minor
Telemann and his godson C.P.E. Bach had a lot in common: both studied law before pursuing music, both became key links between late-Baroque and early-Classical styles, and both composed prolifically—Telemann’s output is measured in the thousands. Alongside the reams of sacred music, instrumental suites, operas, and concerti, Telemann also wrote sets of unaccompanied instrumental fantasias, for violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord and flute.
The second Fantasia of this set of twelve has four sections (Grave, Vivace, Adagio, and Allegro), with tempo changes aligning with changes of mood or character. This Fantasia in particular is a fantastic example of Telemann’s mastery of counterpoint, managing to keep multiple lines of melody spinning concurrently through regular changes of register.
Hugh Morris 2024
RAMEAU Jean-Philippe, Le Rappel des oiseaux, Rigaudons I, II & Double, Les tendres plaintes
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) published his first collection of harpsichord pieces in 1706 and further collections appeared in the 1720s. Though widely admired at the time, these works lapsed into obscurity and it took their rediscovery at the end of the nineteenth century, when a handsome edition, prepared by Camille Saint-Saëns, was published by Durand in 1895. Rameau’s collections mostly comprise dance movements, such as the two Rigaudons and ‘Double’ from the 1724 volume of Pièces de clavecin. This was also the source of one of his most celebrated imitative pieces, Le rappel des oiseauxwith its evocations of chirruping birdsong, and of Les tendres plaintes, a more subtle evocation of melancholy.
Nigel Simeone
MESSIAEN Olivier, Le Merle Noir
Le Merle Noir – The Blackbird – was composed in March 1952 as the test piece for the flute class at the Paris Conservatoire. Messiaen took the opportunity to make an important stylistic departure in this work: it was the first of his pieces to attempt a detailed depiction of a specific named bird. The first performances – in June 1952 – were given at the flute concours by the most promising members of Gaston Crunelle’s flute class that year. One of them was the British flautist Alexander Murray, who shared his memories of the piece in with the present writer:
“We saw it for the first time four weeks before the concours and then dissected it four times a week with Gaston Crunelle … Noël Lee, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, was our accompanist, and was present daily for the last week. He had analysed the last section and demonstrated the rhythmic permutations – which did not make life easier. However, his utter reliability made memorising less of a problem. We all played from memory. … I was awarded a premier prix (I think the first British student to be so lucky). Messiaen was present in class at least once, as I remember, and of course at the concours.”
MARTINŮ Bohuslav, Sonata for flute, violin and piano H254
Allegretto poco moderato Adagio Allegretto
Martinů composed this sonata in less than two weeks, between 4 and 16 May 1937 while he was living in Paris. The work is dedicated to Blanche Honegger, a violinist who studied with Adolf Busch and who later married the pianist Louis Moyse. With his father, the flautist Marcel Moyse, they gave the first performance of Martinů’s sonata on French Radio on 1 July 1937. (Blanche Honegger Moyse later moved to the United States and became a much-admired conductor. She died in 2011 at the age of 101). Martinů had moved to Paris in the 1920s and he completed his studies there with Albert Roussel. With his homeland under threat from Nazi invasion, this sonata has musical characteristics that reflect a love of his homeland including stylised polka rhythms and turns of phrase typical of Moravian folk music. When German forces occupied Paris, Martinů fled to the United States where he lived until 1953. Shortly after emigrating, he was asked by the New York Herald Tribune about his most important musical influences and he listed Bohemian and Moravian folk music, the English madrigal and the music of Debussy. Elements of all these can be heard in this three-movement work
DEBUSSY (arr. Simcock) ‘Children’s Corner’ (30’) GRAINGER (arr. Simcock)
Bold William Taylor (4′)
Twa Corbies (3′)
Hard Hearted Barb’ra Ellen (6′) VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (arr. Simcock) Infinite Shining Heavens (2′) GRIEG (arr. Simcock) Haugtussa Op.67 III. Blåbaer-Li (2′) FAURÉ (arr. Simcock)
Après un Rêve (3′)
Au bord L’eau (2′) DEBUSSY (arr. Simcock) Nuits d’étoiles (2′) SCHOENBERG (arr. Simcock) Nun sag ich dir zum ersten Mal (4′) LEVENT/HEYMAN (arr. Simcock) Blame It On My Youth (4′) WEILL (arr. Simcock) My Ship (4′)
Gilym Simcock, the “jaw-droppingly exciting” pianist (The Guardian) and jazz superstar is celebrated for his ability to move effortlessly between jazz and classical music.
For one night only, Gwilym and his band of incredible jazz musicians are joinedby world-class classical artists for what promises to be a hugely entertaining evening. His phenomenal talent breathes new jazz-inspired life into award-winningmakeovers of classical music. This thrilling evening gives a fresh take on Debussy’s ‘Children’s Corner’ and other classics.
Gwilym has toured extensively with the cream of international jazz artistsincluding Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny. His high-profile collaborations with the classical world include a rapturously-received late-nightBBC Prom with the classical virtuoso Nigel Kennedy, performing a jazz-infused version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
In partnership with Sheffield Jazz Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
DEBUSSY Claude, Children’s Corner
IV. The Snow is Dancing
II. Jimbo’s Lullaby
V. The Little Shepherd
III. Serenade for the Doll
Dedicated to ‘my dear little Chou-Chou, with her father’s tender excuses for what follows’, Children’s Corner was written in 1908 and dedicated to his daughter Claude-Emma. However, it was never intended as a piece for children to play, and the suite was introduced to the Parisian musical public by the virtuoso pianist Harold Bauer on 18 December 1908. Aside from its technical demands, another reason why this is not really ‘children’s’ music is its sophisticated use of parody and quotation. There’s a rather tragic postscript to the story of the dedication: Chou-Chou died aged only fourteen, a year after Debussy himself.
“Gwilym Simcock’s prodigious creations on the piano straddle the border between classical and jazz to mesmerising effect… a stupendous improviser and a remarkable musician all round.”
By popular request, Izzy Gizmo is back! Perfect for 3–7 year-olds, this delightful family concert is based on the best-selling children’s book ‘Izzy Gizmo’ by Pip Jones, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie.
The book tells the enchanting story of an intrepid young inventor who puts her talents to work to rescue a crow that can’t fly. This family concert brings Izzy’s mechanical marvels and infectious creative spirit to life.
Original music by Paul Rissmann features instruments including strings, woodwind, horn and piano, and you might even spot the musicians playing pots, pans, whistles and household items!
Together with story-telling and visuals from the book, this concert is a great introduction to live music for children. It’s full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in.
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
SUK Piano Trio (15’) L BOULANGER D’un matin de printemps (4’) GORDON Piano Quintet ‘Kintsugi’ (18’) Co-commission with Presteigne Festival DVOŘÁK Piano Quintet No.2 (40’)
Lyrically expressive Czech-folk-inspired music opens and closes this concert of works for piano and strings, with Dvořák’s much-loved Piano Quintet No.2 providing a joyful conclusion. Michael Zev Gordon’s delicate and enchanting Piano Quintet ‘Kintsugi’ (a Music in the Round co-commission with Presteigne Festival), is named after the Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery with gold to make it stronger than the original, and follows Lili Boulanger’s ravishing piano trio, ‘On a Spring Morning’.
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
SUK JOSEF, Piano Trio in C Minor, Op.2
Allegro
Andante
Vivace
Suk composed the earliest version of his Piano Trio in 1889 during his first year as a composition pupil at the Prague Conservatory, originally in four movements. A year later, he revised while in the class of Karel Stecker (to whom the trio is dedicated), and the first
performance was given at an evening of music by student composers on 15 January 1891. Suk completed the revision process once he had joined Dvořák’s composition class (he later married Dvořák’s daughter), completing the definitive version in spring 1891. The opening of the Allegro is muscular and impassioned; its bold opening theme gives way to a more tender contrasting theme and these two characterful ideas form the basis of what follows. Even though Suk was still a student, his handling of form is impressively confident and closely-argued. He brings this admirably compact movement to an affirmative close in C major. The second movement is marked Andante and it resembles a gentle folk dance, reaching a dramatic climax before moving into a tranquil coda, still dominated by the dotted rhythms that have permeated the whole movement. The third movement, marked Vivace, is a vigorous finale, with some enchanting moments of repose. A change from C minor to C major sets up the coda which brings the work to an impressive conclusion.
Lili Boulanger – younger sister of the great teacher Nadia Boulanger – was an astonishingly gifted child: Fauré (who later taught her composition) discovered that she had perfect pitch when she was two years old, and at the age of 19, Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for musical composition, but throughout her life she was dogged by ill health – the consequence of pneumonia when she was a child – and had to return early from Rome.
D’un matin de printemps exists in three versions: for violin or flute and piano, for orchestra, and for piano trio. The autograph manuscript of the trio version is headed ‘Pièces en trio’ alongside D’un soir triste, which was composed at the same time. Apart from a poignant and beautiful setting of the Pie Jesu (possibly intended as part of a projected Requiem) these are the last two compositions of Boulanger’s tragically short creative life. She died at the age of 24 leaving a remarkable legacy including some memorable Psalm settings, the marvellous song cycle Clairières dans le ciel and a handful of instrumental works such as this trio.
Kintsugi is a Japanese art form which involves repairing broken pottery. Lacquer, most often of gold, is used to join the pieces together, to emphasize the cracks, not to hide them. The exquisite results show us that beauty in art – and, by extension, composure in our lives – can be found precisely by embracing imperfection and fragmentation.
For a long time, I have been making musical forms out of fragments, and in my new piano quintet, there are thirteen short movements, which run into each other. There are a number of external musical references, including a Yiddish song, baroque textures and a distant waltz, which jostle with a range of other moods, from gentle to pained.
But there is also one unchanging harmony that recurs repeatedly, at once separating and joining the fragments, my musical equivalent of the kintsugi lacquer. I hope this harmony not only helps to create beauty and repose, but is also a kind of response to the the ancient rabbinical saying that threads its way through the titles of movements 1, 4, 8, 10 and 13.
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.
ANNEA LOCKWOOD Ear-Walking Woman (14′) XENIA PESTOVA BENNETT Iridescence (7’) XENIA PESTOVA BENNETT Tapetum lucidum (8’) ANNEA LOCKWOOD Red Mesa (15’) Ceci n’est pas un piano (12’) electroacoustic interlude – Buoyant (6’) RCSC (4’) Gone (variable)
This concert is a rare opportunity to hear Xenia Pestova Bennett “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (TEMPO) play the intricate and spellbinding piano works of Annea Lockwood. Long-time collaborators, Xenia brings insight and sensitivity to Lockwood’s music.
The concert features two of Pestova Bennett’s own compositions alongside a selection of Lockwood’s works for prepared piano in which ribbons, objects and a transducer speaker are placed inside the instrument; an example of Lockwood’s pioneering electroacoustic work; and ‘Gone’, a playful performance piece in which a music box is floated through the concert hall using helium balloons.
Pre-concert Q&A, 6.45pm – 7.15pm Join us for a pre-concert discussion with Annea Lockwood (joining online from her home in the US) and pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett.Tickets: £5 / free to all ticket-holders, though booking is required.
In partnership with University of Sheffield Concerts
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
LOCKWOOD Annea, Ear-Walking Woman
Ear-Walking Woman (1996) was commissioned by pianist Lois Svard, to whom it is dedicated. It is a collaboration in which the player is using various tools such as bubble wrap, a pestle, stones, small wooden balls etc. I ask her to listen closely to the sounds created by each action, exploring the new sounds which always arise when she uses a little more pressure, a slightly different wrist position or timing, a different make of piano. I call this “ear-walking”.
Annea Lockwood
PESTOVA BENNET Xenia, Iridescence and Tapetum lucidum
Iridescence and Tapetum lucidum (2023) are part of a cycle of ten pieces for piano, with Iridescence using the same piano preparations as Annea Lockwood’s Ear-Walking Woman. The sea permeates the movements of this piece – it is there and not there at the same time. Over the course of about four years, I lived in a very special house overlooking the Belfast Lough. According to some, it used to belong to a sea captain. On clear days, Scotland was visible just across the water with hills and wind turbines. The sound and smell of the sea was constant. Storms threw down tree branches and fling salt onto the windows. There were many birds: plump eiders, redshanks, oyster catchers, shags, guillemots, corvids and gulls dropping mollusk shells onto the rocks to get at the tender flesh inside. There were rock pools, crabs, limpets, snails; sea vegetables: dulce, sea radish, scurvy grass. Seals sunbathed and curved their tails into the air; sometimes, you saw little sea otters. Container ships huddled in the bay to wait out storms, their lights gleaming in the night. There was a little cove with the submerged cave, waves churning, cold-water swimmers in all seasons and weathers, starfish gleaming from the depths below, a whole unknown forest beneath the surface. Then, the beach: sadly, full of plastic, glass, golf balls, lighters, toys, bottles, and depending on rainfall, toilet paper. I am grateful to Bill Thompson’s cameo as captain of the CSS Alabama in 1864 on Tapetum lucidum.
Xenia Pestova Bennet
LOCKWOOD Annea, Red Mesa
Red Mesa (1989) was written at the request of the composer and pianist Max Litschitz, and is dedicated to Ruth Anderson. It was written after a solo journey I made in the starkly beautiful Four Corners desert country of the American Southwest in 1988. A mesa is a flat-topped tableland with steep flanks. Some, such as Mesa Verde, shelter cliff dwellings, pueblos with origins dating back to the 500s A.D., elegant houses and ceremonial structures arising by the early 1100s, and largely deserted by the early 14th century, due, it is thought, to a long drought.
Annea Lockwood
LOCKWOOD Annea, Ceci n’est pas un piano
Ceci n’est pas un piano (2002) was commissioned by pianist Jennifer Hymer to whom it is dedicated. It has long been my feeling that musical performance is a deeply generous gift, drawing as it does on the performer’s whole body, history and spirit. With Ceci… I want to acknowledge that, asking Xenia to talk about her hands and about pianos she owns and loves, then weaving her recorded thoughts and memories into the sonic flow, eventually directly through the piano’s resonance, merging her voice with her instrument.
Annea Lockwood
LOCKWOOD Annea, Buoyant
Buoyant (2013)
I spend my summers on a large lake in N.W.Montana, Flathead Lake; one afternoon, readingdown by the lake, I began to notice the deliciously pitched plops and gurgles with which thepiece opens and was able to set my microphone down in amongst the rocks, very close to the water. Later that year, visiting a friend’s installation at the Hoboken Ferry Terminal in New Jersey, I was struck by the sounds the metal gangplanks generated, and returned on a windy day. Each time a boat passed on the Hudson or a ferry docked nearby, the gangplanks’ overlapping sections produced intricate textures, resonating strongly in the hangar-like terminal. Buoyant is the interplay of these sources, together with a recording I made in 1999 of a boat basin on Lake Como, Italy.
Annea Lockwood
LOCKWOOD Annea, RCSC
RCSC (2001) was commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill as one of a set of seven short pieces by women composers honoring Ruth Crawford Seeger, whose music I deeply admire. The title is a near-palindrome of their names, and for its pitch content I drew on the ten-note row from the final movement of Crawford’s String Quartet 1931. RCSC is dedicated to Sarah Cahill.
Nay master, percussionist and composer, Faris Ishaq charts unexplored territories with one of the oldest types of flute still in use today, the Nay. Rooted in his Palestinian heritage, Faris celebrates the instrument, which has Middle Eastern roots dating back to around 5000 BCE, and its cultural legacy, in his own compositions.
In ‘Jasad’ – Arabic for ‘body’ – he draws on the essence of the Nay to create a distinctive solo setup, playing the instrument alongside a leg-mounted frame drum and foot percussion, and weaves these sounds together to produce a multi-layered acoustic solo performance. With exceptional dexterity and expressive nuance, he blends intricate melodies with dynamic beats to evoke the feel of looped textures while being fully acoustic.
“A walking musical genius” – Max Reinhard, former BBC Radio 3
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DENYS BAPTISTE saxophone SULTAN STEVENSON piano LARRY BARTLEY bass JOEL BARFORD drums Acclaimed saxophonist Denys Baptiste presents his new quartet, featuring rising star pianist Sultan Stevenson, who will explore an exciting mix of new compositions, standards and revisit compositions from his award-winning albums. An amazingly versatile musician with roots steeped in the jazz tradition, Denys incorporates ideas from other musical forms and popular culture. His powerful technique and an ability to improvise effortlessly across a wide range of musical styles have made him a much sought after soloist, playing with some of the biggest names in jazz and other genres. Expect an evening of deep swing, infectious melodies and inventive solos.
*Please note Music in the Round offers and discounts do not apply to this concert.
DEBUSSY En blanc et noir (16’) RAVEL La valse (12’) RACHMANINOV Symphonic Dances (30’)
With their 2025 two-piano concert described as “piano playing at its most… visceral” (Bachtrack), Tim Horton and Ivana Gavrić return to the Crucible Playhouse for a concert of spellbinding and exhilarating music for two pianos. Rachmaninov’s own arrangement of his ‘Symphonic Dances’ takes centre stage, with its arresting rhythmic passages and virtuosic energy. Debussy’s ‘En blanc et noir’, by contrast, sees expressionist clouds of colour conjured from the two pianos, while Ravel’s poetic ‘La valse’ is best described by the composer himself: “Whirling clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples dancing. The clouds scatter, little by little. One sees an immense hall peopled with a twirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth, fortissimo”.
This concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast.
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DEBUSSY Claude, En blanc et noir
Avec emportement
Lent. Sombre
Scherzando
One of Debussy’s last compositions, En blanc et noir for two pianos was completed in June 1915. It was originally called ‘Caprices en blanc et noir’, the title under which it was first performed in January 1916 at a private concert in the Paris salon of the Princesse de Polignac (played by Walter Rummel and Thérèse Chaigneau). Later the same year, in December 1916, it was given under its definitive title by Debussy and Roger-Ducasse, at a concert given for the benefit of French prisoners of war. Fiercely patriotic, and unafraid to express his anti-German sentiments in time of war, Debussy prefaced each movement with a literary quotation. The first is from Jules Barbier and Michel Carré’s libretto for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette: ‘He who stays in his place and does not dance, admits to disgrace’, almost certainly a bitter self-reflection: Debussy, greatly weakened by cancer and now very ill, was unable to take part in the ‘dance’ of fighting for France. Debussy’s music is less confrontational: dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky, it is essentially a kind of waltz, the writing brilliantly exploiting the potential of two pianos. The superscription for the second movement is taken from François Villon’s Ballade contre les ennemis de la France (written in 1461): ‘worthless is he … who would wish evil on the state of France!’ The dedication is a memorial to Jacques Charlot, ‘killed by the enemy on 3 March 1915’. Charlot was the nephew of Debussy’s publisher Jacques Durand, and the composer’s quiet rage can be heard at the start of this movement when low chords are interrupted by a dissonant chord followed by distant bugle calls. After a radiant section marked ‘calme’, what follows (‘sourdement tumultueux’) is hushed and disturbing, with the German chorale melody ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott’ emerging from the texture. The final Scherzando is prefaced by a line from Charles d’Orléans: ‘Winter, you are nothing but a villain’ and it is dedicated to Igor Stravinsky. Though the music is sometimes playful, the mood is often equivocal, as are Debussy’s intentions: En blanc et noir is a bewitching combination of boldness and ambiguity.
In a thought-provoking discussion of Ravel’s La Valse, the composer George Benjamin wrote: ‘Whether or not it was intended as a metaphor for the predicament of European civilization in the aftermath of the Great War, its one-movement design plots the birth, decay and destruction of a musical genre: the waltz.’ Ravel himself was at pains to distance the work – written in 1919–20 – from any such immediate associations. In his published preface to the score, he described the scene he had tried to evoke: ‘Drifting clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples waltzing. The clouds gradually scatter, and an immense hall can be seen, filled with a whirling crowd. The scene gradually becomes illuminated. The light of chandeliers bursts forth. An imperial court about 1885.’ But of all Ravel’s orchestral works, this is the most dissonant, brutal and strange: the swaying one-in-a-bar of the Viennese waltz becomes a sinister undertow at the start, before the main theme begins to emerge, seeming to crawl towards the light, and gradually gaining in confidence. But at the end, it is brutally crushed in a way that is both stunning and disturbing. Ravel’s own solo piano version emphasizes the percussive characteristics of the music, especially its rhythmic energy.
Nigel Simeone 2014 (c)
RACHMANINOV Sergei, Symphonic Dances, Op.45 for Two Pianos
Non allegro
Andante con moto. Tempo di valse
Lento assai – Allegro vivace
This is Rachmaninoff’s last major composition, completed in 1940. The Symphonic Dances were dedicated to Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra who gave the premiere on 3 January 1941. Though the two-piano version was finished first (in August 1940), its earliest known performance not given until August 1942 at a private event in Beverly Hills, California, when it was reportedly played by Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz. The original title was ‘Fantastic Dances’ with the movements called ‘Noon’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘Midnight’. Rachmaninoff decided to scrap these programmatic titles, and to emphasise the symphonic stature of the music was surely correct: this is powerful, imposing music which the Rachmaninoff authority Geoffrey Norris described as ‘a symphony in all but name.’ The opening of the first dance has a kind of stark energy that develops an impressive head of
steam. A more reflective central section leads to a reprise of the opening, but this then dissolves into a beautiful coda where Rachmaninoff introduces a quotation of the main theme from his First Symphony: a work that had famously failed at its premiere but in which he still (rightly) had faith. This theme has hints of Orthodox church music – an influence to which the composer returns later in the work. The second movement is a beguiling and harmonically ambiguous waltz. While much of the finale dazzles with brilliant colour in its outer sections (with a lyrical interlude at its heart), it also includes prominent references to the Dies irae plainchant and a reworking of music from Rachmaninoff’s own All-Night Vigil. At the start of the thrilling coda, Rachmaninoff wrote on the orchestral version ‘Alleluia’, and it’s likely he intended this close to serve as a kind of joyous valediction.
Join us for a workshop on making musical patterns with live coding led by Alex McLean. Whether you’re a complete novice or simply curious about the world of coding and music, this event offers a unique opportunity to explore creativity through sound. No prior experience is necessary, just bring your curiosity and a desire to experiment!
Alex will introduce the open-source live coding platform that he co-instigated, Strudel. It enables complex musical rhythms and patterns to be created and explored with simple code.
The workshop is suitable for beginners with no experience in coding or music-making, exploring patterns by listening to and adjusting just a line or two of code.
Participants should bring a laptop (or similar device with a web browser – as long as it can make sounds with https://strudel.cc/)
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
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