ENSEMBLE 360 (wind and strings)
SUNDAY 16th JUNE 2024
ENSEMBLE 360 (wind and strings)
STANFORD CENTENARY CONCERT
Stanford |
Fantasy No. 1 for Clarinet and String Quartet |
Ireland |
Sextet for Clarinet, Horn and String Quartet |
Clarke |
Two Pieces for Viola and Cello |
Brahms |
Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 |
For our second concert we welcome back Ensemble 360, a versatile and unique group of musicians, equally at home in the classics of chamber music as in more diverse and eclectic programming. Formed in 2005, the group now boasts a glowing reputation throughout the UK and is known best for the outstanding quality of its performances, the breadth of its work and its passion for reaching new audiences. The group is regularly featured on BBC Radio 3 and in 2023 Ensemble 360’s significant contribution to the UK’s chamber music scene was acknowledged in a shortlisting for the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award.
To mark Stanford’s Centenary year, the programme opens with works composed by Stanford and by two composers who studied under him at the Royal College of Music, where he was made Professor of Music in 1888, a post he held for 40 years. The first is one of Stanford’s Clarinet and String Quartets, written 3 years before he died in 1924. John Ireland’s Sextet was written in 1898, during his student years, and is clearly influenced by Brahms: Ireland was present at the first London performance of Brahms' magnificent Clarinet Quintet, our final piece in this evening’s concert. Rebecca Clarke was Stanford’s first female student and is now recognised as one of the most important British composers of the interwar years. Best known for her chamber pieces, much of her works remains unpublished.