The highly acclaimed trumpet player, Alison Balsom, was named Best Young British Performer at the 2006 Classical Brit Awards and was honoured with the Classic FM Listener’s Award in the September 2006 Gramophone Awards.  She brings her newly formed Ensemble to play an unusually varied and delightful programme from across the centuries. 

The Hermitage String Trio and

Nikolai Demidenko piano

An evening of varied  piano quartets and string trios performed by the distinguished UK based Russian musicians, Sergey Levitin, Associate Concertmaster of the Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden, Alexander Zemtsov, principal viola of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonid Gorokhov (cello) and Nikolai Demidenko (piano) who have world- wide solo careers.

Mahler: Piano Quartet Movement in A minor (1876)

Dohnanyi: Serenade Op 10 (1902)

Schubert: Adagio & Rondo Concertante for piano & string trio in F D487

Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor Op 60

The Fitzwilliam founded in 1968 by four Cambridge undergraduates, became well known through their close personal association with Dmitri Shostakovich. They are joined by the distinguished cellist, Moray Welsh, who studied with Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatoire and Carolyn Sparey, composer and principal viola of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to play some of the most melodic and beautiful chamber music. The overture to Wagner’s The Mastersingers  has been arranged  by Carolyn Sparey for string quartet as a tribute to her parents, Leslie and Joan Sparey, who founded the Keswick Music Society. It was her Father’s favourite piece of music and it is fitting that the first performance should be given by the Fitzwilliam Quartet during the Diamond Jubilee Season.

Wagner: The Mastersingers Overture arr. Carolyn Sparey

Brahms: Sextet in B flat

Schubert: Quintet in C major

The Gould Piano Trio are one of the most exciting ensembles to emerge in recent years and were chosen as the British Rising Stars for 1998/99 season.  Robert Plane enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. Tonight, following Takemitsu’s heartbreakingly beautiful piano trio, he plays Debussy’s vivid Rapsodie, while in the second half the full ensemble performs Messiaen’s outstanding “Quartet for the End of Time”, written when he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp.

Takemitsu: Between Tides

Debussy: Premiere Rapsodie

Orchestra of 30 Strings and Winds

Like “The Four Seasons”, “L’estro armonico” (“the harmonic whim, fancy or inspiration) is an inventive and enchanting set of concertos.  The spectacle and virtuosity of Vivaldi’s colourful pieces for one, two and four violins create a drama all of their own, especially in the hands of Northern Sinfonia’s irrepressible leader Bradley Creswick and the renowned Sinfonia. They pair it with two sparkling works from the young Benjamin Britten.

Winner of the 2005 Kathleen Ferrier Award, Anna, a rising star, has appeared as a soloist with numerous choral societies including the Bach Choir.  As an accomplished Lieder singer,
she has given recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival and at the Wigmore Hall. In 2007 she will make her BBC Proms debut in the role of Wellgunde in Gotterdammerung.   Jonathan Beatty held both Instrumental and Choral Awards at Clare College, Cambridge and was recently awarded the prize for the best accompanist at the Kathleen Ferrier Competition. We are grateful to the Countess of Munster Musical Trust who sponsor this concert.

Mozart: Overture to the Marriage of Figaro

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Beethoven: Violin Concerto