FESTIVAL LAUNCH

Claire Booth & Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Friday 15 May 2026, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s

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WEIR King Harald’s Saga (15’)
BIRTWISTLE Cortege for 14 musicians (15’)
BRAHMS Serenade Op.11 (46’)  

Claire Booth kicks off the 2026 Sheffield Chamber Music Festival in style!  

Our Guest Curator, and RPS Singer of the Year 2025, opens with a one-woman opera retelling the story of ‘the last real Viking’, Harald Hardrada, by Judith Weir. The forces of Ensemble 360 follow, with Birtwistle’s highly theatrical procession of musicians and one of their favourites, Brahms’s brilliant and beloved Serenade, a swaggering, celebratory launch to nine days of chamber music, song and high theatre.  

Post-concert drinks 
To celebrate the start of the Festival, ticket-holders are invited to join us for a free glass of wine or soft drink in the Crucible bar after the concert.  

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BRAHMS Johannes, Serenade No. 1 in D Op. 11, nonet version reconstructed by David Walter

Allegro Molto
Scherzo: Allegro non troppo
Adagio non troppo
Minuet
Scherzo: Allegro
Rondo: Allegro

Brahms’s D major Serenade is well known as his first orchestral work – but, like the D minor Piano Concerto from the same period, it had a complicated genesis. It was first conceived in 1857 as a Serenade for eight instruments in three or four movements, and a year later it had become a work in six movements, now scored for nine instruments. By 1860, it had been rewritten for full orchestra – the version that survives today (though Brahms even considered developing that into his first symphony, but decided to leave well alone). The nonet version was performed in public on 28 March 1859 at a concert in Hamburg, and a year later the orchestral version was given its premiere in Hannover. Whether Brahms destroyed the chamber version, or whether the material simply vanished is not known, but a skilful reconstruction reveals something of Brahms’s original conception: a work much closer in spirit to the serenades and divertimentos of Mozart than the reworked orchestral version.

© Nigel Simeone 2013

About the Artists

Claire Booth

“An actor-singer who can raise the dramatic heat as soon as she enters the stage” (Opera Now), “that most questing, resourceful and intelligent of sopranos” (Daily Telegraph), British soprano Claire Booth has been widely acclaimed for her “radiant, rapturous, wonderfully nuanced performances” and voice of “piercing purity [and] luscious richness” (The Scotsman). She is renowned for her breadth of repertoire, and for the vitality and musicianship that she brings to the operatic stage and concert platform, with a versatility that encompasses repertoire spanning from Monteverdi and Handel, through Rossini, Berg and Britten, to a fearless commitment to the music of the present day. Booth has won the 2025 RPS Singer Award with the jury celebrating an artistry that “knows no bounds.” Read more.

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players.