ARRIEU Suite en quatre (10’)
GOUNOD Petite symphonie (20’)
MOZART Serenade No.10 K361 ‘Gran Partita’ (50’)
Mozart’s Serenade No.10 – immortalised in the 1984 film Amadeus – is considered one of the composer’s greatest works, and is a masterpiece of wind writing. Nicknamed the ‘Gran Partita’ (or ‘big wind symphony’), it is breathtaking in its beauty.
Described by English music critic Noël Goodwin as “virtually an ‘operatic’ ensemble of passionate feeling and sensuous warmth”, the work’s emotional core is the third movement’s Adagio, a lyrical, intense melody that tugs at the heartstrings.
This is chamber music on a large scale, with an array of oboes, bassoons, horns, clarinets, basset horns and a double bass playing one of the undisputed highlights of classical music.
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SAARIAHO Terra Memoria (18’)
GESUALDO Moro, lasso, al mio duolo (4’)
MUSSORGSKY Songs and Dances of Death (selection) (10’)
LISZT Via Crucis (selection) (10’)
SCHUBERT String Quartet No.14 in D minor, ‘Death & the Maiden’ (35’)
Described as “quite simply revelatory” (The Irish Times) and “stylish, open-minded and adventurous” (The Guardian), the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has made its name as playful, inventive interpreters of the string quartet repertoire. Coached by Peter Cropper (first violin of the Lindsay String Quartet and founder of Music in the Round) in the early years of their collaboration, they have since gone from strength to strength. Presenting Schubert’s extraordinary and profound ‘Death and the Maiden’ String Quartet alongside their own arrangement of a 17th century Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo and Kaija Saariaho’s modern masterpiece, Terra Memoria (‘Earth Memory’), this concert promises to thrill, intrigue and delight.
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Another chance to step inside the music of Bach, up-close and reimagined, in this specially created surround-sound installation running alongside Benjamin Nabarro’s recitals in the tranquil setting of Upper Chapel.
To make this innovative, multi-speaker installation, fragments of Ben’s performance of Bach’s Sonata No.1 in G minor were recorded, layered, looped and transformed. Played through eight loudspeakers, visitors will be enveloped in Bach’s life-affirming music, reworked in this unique and immersive sensory experience.
BACH Sonata No.3 in C (25’)
BACH Partita No.3 in E (20’)
Marvels of violin writing, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas achieve the seemingly impossible: the solo violin is both melody and accompaniment, conjuring two, three or even four musical voices from a single instrument. Captivating to watch, the sonatas and partitas are equal parts spellbindingly expressive and technically demanding. This is music that demands virtuosic skill from its player. For this, the final in his series, Ensemble 360’s violinist Benjamin Nabarro will present Bach’s third Sonata and Partita. Inventive, profoundly imaginative, and demonstrating a mastery of the form unmatched in the 400 years since their composition, these are pieces that continue to dazzle and amaze.
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Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin were composed at Cöthen in 1720 (the date on Bach’s beautifully written fair copy of the set), at about the same time as his Cello Suites. The three Sonatas follow the pattern of the sonata da chiesa, with four movements, alternating slow and fast, while the three Partitas are suites of dances. Even though they were not published until 1802, Bach’s contemporaries recognized his superlative achievement in these pieces. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote that his father ‘understood to perfection the possibilities of all stringed instruments. This is evidenced by his solos for the violin and violoncello without bass. One of the greatest violinists once told me that he had seen nothing more perfect for learning to be a good violinist.’ Which violinist Bach may have had in mind when he first wrote the pieces remains unknown.
© Nigel Simeone
RADIGUE
Occam XXI (16’)
Occam River XVIII (15’)
Occam XVII (13’)
Occam River XVII (16’)
Occam (28’)
Occam River XV (15’)
Occam Delta XIV (17’)
In this special concert, Welsh harpist and improvisor Rhodri Davies, together with Angharad Davies (violin) and Dominic Lash (double bass), present a selection of works composed for them by Radigue. Ranging from solos to ensemble pieces, this is a rare opportunity to explore the singular aesthetic of one of the 21st century’s most important composers, performed by some of the musicians with whom she has most closely collaborated. Through extended instrumental techniques (the harp is played using two violin bows) and a close attention to timbre, Radigue conjures luminescent, intricately layered and richly textural soundscapes that slowly evolve.
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Part of: OCCAM OCEAN: THE MUSIC OF ÉLIANE RADIGUE
“Radigue writes awesomely gradual music that is always on the move… It is music that flowers in some enchanted hinterland where sounds are sparse and mercurial, spiritual and grounded, narrative and abstract… she is always on the hunt for sound within sound – a realm of partials, harmonics, and subharmonics… the intangible cloud that makes up that note’s aura.”
Kate Molleson
The French composer Éliane Radigue, now 93 years old, has dedicated the last quarter of a century to crafting her extraordinary, subtle and luminescent compositions for acoustic instruments. Each titled ‘Occam’ (after ‘Occam’s razor’, the idea that the simplest solution is often the best), these warm and generous works explore the essence of an instrument’s sound in gradually unfolding, richly present textures.
For ‘Occam Ocean’, Music in the Round has curated a series of special events bringing together some of Radigue’s closest collaborators for two days of music and talks, offering a rare, immersive experience of this composer’s singular sound world.
Presented in partnership with The University of Sheffield.
Musicians Rhodri Davies, Angharad Davies and Dominic Lash are joined by Louise Gray (writer on music and sound art for The Wire) and Julia Eckhardt (longtime Radigue collaborator and author of Éliane Radigue – Intermediary Spaces/Espaces intermédiaires) for this panel discussion exploring the unique practice and sound world of the pioneering French composer, Éliane Radigue.
Part of: OCCAM OCEAN: THE MUSIC OF ÉLIANE RADIGUE
“Radigue writes awesomely gradual music that is always on the move… It is music that flowers in some enchanted hinterland where sounds are sparse and mercurial, spiritual and grounded, narrative and abstract… she is always on the hunt for sound within sound – a realm of partials, harmonics, and subharmonics… the intangible cloud that makes up that note’s aura.”
Kate Molleson
The French composer Éliane Radigue, now 93 years old, has dedicated the last quarter of a century to crafting her extraordinary, subtle and luminescent compositions for acoustic instruments. Each titled ‘Occam’ (after ‘Occam’s razor’, the idea that the simplest solution is often the best), these warm and generous works explore the essence of an instrument’s sound in gradually unfolding, richly present textures.
For ‘Occam Ocean’, Music in the Round has curated a series of special events bringing together some of Radigue’s closest collaborators for two days of music and talks, offering a rare, immersive experience of this composer’s singular sound world.
Presented in partnership with The University of Sheffield.
MENDELSSOHN Variations concertantes (10’)
CHOPIN Piano Trio (30’)
C SCHUMANN Three Romances for Violin and Piano (10’)
MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No.2 in C minor (30’)
A stirring evening of romantic favourites performed with customary flair and intimacy by Sheffield favourites, the Leonore Piano Trio. From Chopin’s passionate Trio – his only work for the combination of piano, violin and cello, described by the English composer Charles Willeby as “one of the most perfect… of Chopin’s works” – to Mendelssohn’s lyrical Second Piano Trio, this is music to enchant, captivate and delight.
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This concert is generously sponsored by Alison Batchelor, in memory of Aidan Batchelor
MOZART Sonata in E minor K304 (12’)
R SCHUMANN F-A-E sonata (mvt 2) (3’)
MOZART Sonata in G K301 (15’)
R SCHUMANN Sonata No.1 in A minor Op.105 (17’)
MOZART Sonata in A K305 (15’)
Mozart’s glorious violin sonatas – among the composer’s most charming works – nestle between music by Robert Schumann in this hour-long recital for violin and piano. Violinist Claudia Ajmone-Marsan and pianist Tim Horton promise an hour of exuberant, lyrical, and joyful music from two of the greatest composers of the Classical and Romantic periods.
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BEETHOVEN
Flute Sonata in B flat (25’)
Trio for piano, flute and bassoon (25’)
Be transported to the classical elegance of an 18th century salon in this concert celebrating Beethoven’s joyful, sparkling music for flute to open Classical Sheffield’s Festival Weekend. Beethoven’s Flute Sonata is full of his characterful wit, while his Trio showcases the dazzling virtuosity of Ensemble 360.
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- Allegro
- Polacca [Polonaise]
- Largo
- Theme and Variations: Allegretto
The authorship of this substantial flute sonata remains a mystery. But even if the identity of the composer remains uncertain, its association with Beethoven is genuine enough: a manuscript copy was found among the composer’s papers after his death. This found its way into the manuscript collection of the publisher Artaria and in their catalogue it appears as a ‘Sonata for piano and flute in B flat. Score. Autograph? Unpublished, probably from Beethoven’s early years.’ By 1970, when the Berlin State Library published a catalogue of its Beethoven holdings, the manuscript was described as a ‘fair copy’ and the attribution to Beethoven as ‘doubtful’. Even so, the title page has a note in pencil ‘Sonata fecit di Bethoe’ (i.e. Beethoven). If it is by Beethoven, then it is certainly an early piece, from his time in Bonn, before he moved to Vienna in 1792. The Beethoven scholar Willy Hess argued that Beethoven would not have kept a copy of the work in his library unless he had some sort of personal connection with it. This is a very fair assumption it gets us no closer to establishing the identity of the composer. It may have been by another pupil of Beethoven’s teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe, or by one of Beethoven’s colleagues from the court orchestra in which he played the viola. A further complication is that it might be a transcription of an as-yet-unidentified sonata for violin and piano, something suggested by the unidiomatic flute writing at the very start.
Whatever the facts about its attribution, the Flute Sonata is a work of considerable charm, with some attractive ideas. In place of a minuet, the second movement is a Polonaise, the slow movement a song-like Largo and the finale a set of variations.
Allegro
Adagio
Tema andante con variazioni
Composed between 1786 and 1790, while Beethoven was still living in Bonn, the manuscript of this early work described it as a “Trio concertant à Clavibembalo, Flauto [e] Fagotto”. Whether it was ever played with a harpsichord is unclear, but it was composed for domestic music-making by the family of Baron Friedrich von Westerholt-Gysenberg, Equerry to the Elector of Bonn. The Baron himself was a bassoonist, his son Wilhelm was a flautist, and his daughter, Maria Anna Wilhelmine, was a fine pianist – according to Beethoven’s own teacher Neefe, her playing was “fiery” and of “marvellous accuracy”. For a time she was adored by the young Beethoven, who taught her the piano for several years before her marriage in 1792 and even sent her poetry declaring that “My heart will never change, and I will cherish you forever!”
Nigel Simeone © 2012
SHOSTAKOVICH
String Quartet No.10 (26’)
String Quartet No.12 (27’)
Ensemble 360 performs two of Shostakovich’s late string quartets in this, the second concert of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend. Music of extremes, these quirky quartets are at times exuberant, at others sombre, and often capricious, playful and energetic.
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Part of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 March 2025
Immerse yourself in the chamber music of enigmatic Soviet-Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), one of the most important composers of the 20th century. This specially curated weekend of music and insights celebrating the composer in his 50th anniversary year includes performances of his intimate chamber works and a fascinating Roundtable with Durham University’s specialist in Soviet music, Professor Patrick Zuk.
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- Andante
- Allegretto furioso
- Adagio –
- Allegretto – Andante
Shostakovich’s Tenth Quartet was composed in July 1964, and dedicated to his close friend Miecysław Weinberg (1919–96). Written in the space of eleven days, its four movements are often uneasy, its moods ranging from ambivalence to anger. Based on two main ideas, the first movement opens with an unadorned violin melody and the music develops quite freely: Gerald Abraham described it as ‘one of those movements so characteristic of Shostakovich, which it is foolish to try to refer to any conventional form’, adding that the ideas ‘develop freely … as a plant develops.’ The second movement, marked Allegretto furioso is filled with rage, its opening theme, in descending whole-tones is a familiar Shostakovich fingerprint (similar to passages in the Eighth Quartet and the first movement of the Fifth Symphony). The anger here is palpable, and Judith Kuhn wrote that this music was ‘perhaps the most successful and exciting of the composer’s attempts to use the string quartet to depict large-scale conflict.’ It sustained intensity is astonishing. The Adagio is Passacaglia (ground bass), a favourite form for Shostakovich, here used to powerful expressive effect. At the end of the movement, the passacaglia theme passes from the bass to the first violin, ending on a sustained note which is held over into the start of the concluding Allegretto. This begins with a dance-like theme (a kind of Trepak, reminiscent of Mussorgsky), but as the movement develops, earlier themes from the quartet return, including the passacaglia theme which is combined with the trepak, as well as material from other movements. The quartet ends with all four instruments in the upper register, fragments of motifs dissolving into near silence.
The first performance was given on 20 November 1964 in the Moscow Conservatory, repeated the next day in the Glinka Concert Hall in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), played on both occasions by the Beethoven Quartet.
Nigel Simone 2025
- Moderato
- Allegretto–Adagio–Allegretto
Shostakovich completed his Twelfth Quartet on 11 March 1968 and the same day he wrote to Dmitri Tsyganov, first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, which had, since 1938, worked very closely with the composer, and given the first performances of all his quartets apart from the first. In his letter to Tsyganov, Shostakovich wrote: ‘Tomorrow is your sixtieth birthday. I have just completed a quartet and I ask you not to refuse the honour of accepting my dedication to you.’ This quartet is cast in two movements which demonstrate the composer’s increasing fascination with incorporating twelve-tone techniques into his musical language, while remaining anchored in traditional keys: Shostakovich himself described the work as being in D flat major. The opening Moderato begins with a ghostly cello theme which opens with a 12-note row, but this immediately resolves on to the home key of D flat. Much of the musical argument in this movement involves finding ways of reconciling the tension between atonal themes and conventional tonality. The writing is often sparse, and the opening idea is contrasted with a rather nervous and tortured waltz-like second theme. There is a sense of the composer relishing the creative challenges posed by using elements of twelve-tone writing, and of finding ways to subsume those techniques into his own musical language. This becomes even more apparent in the very expansive second movement. The result has been described by Elizabeth Wilson as music of ‘unrelenting force and intensity’; and to create this extraordinary movement, Shostakovich made extreme demands on his players: not only in terms of technical virtuosity but also the range of colours and effects required.
Any kind of overt espousal of twelve-tone techniques was likely to attract the wrong kind of attention from the authorities: the Soviet position on the Second Viennese School was hostile. Probably feeling the need to forestall official criticism, Shostakovich explained his intentions in an article about the new work, writing that ‘if a composer sets himself the aim of writing purely dodecaphonic music at all costs, then he is artificially limiting himself. But using elements of this system can be fully justified when dictated by the actual compositional concept.’
Shostakovich was particularly pleased with what he had achieved in this remarkable quartet. He told Tsyganov that it worked ‘splendidly’, and that it was ‘more of a symphony than a chamber work.’ The private premiere was given by the Beethoven Quartet on 14 June 1968 at the USSR Composers’ Club in Moscow, followed by the official first performance at the Moscow Conservatory a few months later, on 5 November 1968. On that occasion, Shostakovich presented Tsyganov with the autograph manuscript.
Nigel Simone 2025
SHOSTAKOVICH
String Quartet No.3 (33’)
String Quartet No.8 (20’)
Shostakovich’s most famous String Quartet No.8 takes centre stage, performed alongside Quartet No.3. Deeply expressive, raw and emotional, both quartets are rich with evocation and allusion – to Shostakovich’s own work, to the sounds of battle, and with his response in the aftermath of war.
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Part of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 March 2025
Immerse yourself in the chamber music of enigmatic Soviet-Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), one of the most important composers of the 20th century. This specially curated weekend of music and insights celebrating the composer in his 50th anniversary year includes performances of his intimate chamber works and a fascinating Roundtable with Durham University’s specialist in Soviet music, Professor Patrick Zuk.
Browse the full programme online, explore the seasons with our digital brochure or download a copy of our 2025 brochure.
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Shostakovich began his Third String Quartet in January 1946 but made no progress beyond the second movement until May when he went with his family to spend the summer at a dacha near the Finnish border. According to Beria (head of the Soviet secret police) in a letter to Shostakovich, this retreat was a personal gift from Stalin. It was a productive summer and the quartet was completed on 2 August 1946. The same day Shostakovich wrote to Vassily Shirinsky, second violinist of the Beethoven Quartet: ‘I have never been so pleased with a composition as with this Quartet. I am probably wrong, but that is exactly how I feel right now.’ The Beethoven Quartet gave the first performance at the Moscow Conservatory on 16 December 1946. Though there was an ominous silence from official critics, Shostakovich’s reputation was still high among the nation’s leaders: on 28 December he was given the Order of Lenin and each member of the Beethoven Quartet received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Just a year later the Third Quartet was denounced in the journal Sovetskaya musika as ‘modernist and false music.’
Although Shostakovich had no overt programme in mind, he invested a great deal of private emotion in the work – sufficient, as Fyodor Druzhinin (violist of the Beethoven Quartet) recalled, for the music to move the composer to tears when he attended a rehearsal in the 1960s, twenty years after he had written it. The start of the first movement, in F major, recalls the Haydn-like mood of the Ninth Symphony (completed in 1945) and this is followed by a contrasting idea, played pianissimo. The development includes some turbulent fugal writing, injecting a sense of unease that hovers over the rest of the movement. The Moderato con moto (in E minor) is based on a series of sinister ostinato figures and frequent repetitions while the third movement is a violent scherzo in G sharp minor. The Adagio is an extended passacaglia (ground bass) that gives way to a Moderato in which some kind of resolution is found in the closing bars, ending with three pizzicato F major chords.
Nigel Simeone
Largo
Allegro molto
Allegretto
Largo
Largo
The Eighth String Quartet is often considered to be a kind of musical autobiography, permeated throughout with Shostakovich’s musical monogram, D–S–C–H (D, E flat, C, B). In an interview with Elizabeth Wilson, the cellist Valentin Berlinsky (a founder member of the Borodin Quartet) said that it was ‘a landmark, the summing up of a whole period in the composer’s life. The quotations from the composer’s previous works give it the character of autobiography.’
The quartet was composed very quickly (from 12 to 14 July 1960) during a visit to Gohrish, near Dresden. The printed dedication is ‘In memory of the victims of fascism and war’. To his friend Isaak Glickman, Shostakovich wrote – in a letter dripping with irony – that it was ‘ideologically flawed and of no use to anybody’. But what followed was a remarkable and much more personal revelation: ‘When I die, it’s unlikely that someone will write a quartet dedicated to my memory, so I decided to write it myself. One could write on the title page: “Dedicated to the author of this quartet” … And the quartet makes use of themes from my own works.’ But for all the sardonic mood of this letter, the composer was in an extremely emotional state when he composed it. He told Glickman that ‘the pseudo-tragedy of the quartet is so great that, while composing it, my tears flowed abundantly.’
Just after his return from Dresden he played the work through to a friend in Moscow, admitting that it would be his ‘last work’ and even hinting that it was a kind of suicide note. He had just been coerced into joining the Soviet Communist party and was in a mood of utter despair. In other words, for Shostakovich, it seems that the real ‘victim’ he had in mind when composing this quartet was himself. Like the Third Quartet, the Eighth is in five movements, played without a break. These constitute a deeply moving and sometimes harrowing tapestry of violently shifting moods and musical self-quotations, all held together by the DSCH motif which seems to haunt the whole work.
© Nigel Simeone
