FANTASIAS & FLIGHTS: THE LARK ASCENDING
Ensemble 360
The Stables, Milton Keynes
Tuesday 4 March 2025, 8.00pm
Tickets:
£22 – £24
HOLST Phantasy String Quartet
BRITTEN Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
HOLBROOKE Eilean Shona
HOWELLS Phantasy Sting Quartet Op.25
PURCELL (transc. Warlock) Three-part Fantasias 1,2 & 3
HOWELLS Rhapsodic Quintet
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (arr. Gerigk) The Lark Ascending
The violin soars melodiously above the rest of the quartet in the gorgeous arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ most popular work The Lark Ascending, which concludes this concert of English music for clarinet and string quartet. Fantasies from the Baroque gems of Purcell’s Three-part Fantasias (arranged for string trio) to Imogen Holst’s Phantasy String Quartet sit alongside this perennial favourite and Holbrooke’s intoxicating depiction of a Scottish Island in a magical Celtic evocation for clarinet and strings.
BRITTEN Benjamin, Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
Britten planned these movements as part of a five-movement Quartetto serioso with a subtitle from Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale: “Go play, boy, play!” An earlier version of the opening March was written for a suite inspired by the film Emil and the Detectives (the children’s novel by Erich Kästner was a great favourite of Britten’s), but this was never completed. Eventually he settled on a work in three movements, and the first performance was given by the Stratton Quartet at the Wigmore Hall on 25 February 1936. The audience response was chilly and a hurt Britten withdrew the Three Divertimenti, which were only published after his death. His brilliant gift for idiomatic quartet writing is already apparent in this early work – from the arresting rhythms and textures of the March to the beguiling central Waltz, and the driving energy of the closing Burlesque.
© Nigel Simeone
