For the End of Time

Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time The Gould Trio and Robert Plane have been playing Messiaen’s monumental quartet together for over thirty years. Don’t miss this opportunity to marvel at Messiaen’s kaleidoscopic creation, today enhanced by the words of one of its most ardent admirers, poet Michael Simmons Roberts.

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Under Nordic Skies
We travel north to explore the music and the folk traditions of Scandinavia with the evocative strains of the Hardanger fiddle and a selection of Danish folk tunes, as arranged by the Danish String Quartet. These sit alongside lesser-known works from the classical tradition in this night under the Northern Lights.

Niels Gade: Fantasiestücke for Clarinet and Piano, op.43
Folk music performed on the Hardanger Fiddle
Edvard Grieg: Andante con Moto in C minor, for Piano Trio
Danish String Quartet arrangements

Festival Finale

The sound of the cimbalom brings extra Eastern European spice to our closing concert. Hungarian composer György Kurtág celebrated his 100th birthday this February, and his Tre Pezzi are typical of his evocative work. But Debussy also fell for the cimbalom’s quirky charm! The Gould Trio complete their Schumann cycle, and Tchaikovsky finally sends us away bathed in Tuscan sunshine.

Claude Debussy: La plus que lente
György Kurtág: Tre Pezzi for clarinet and cimbalom, op. 38
Robert Schumann: Piano Trio no. 3 in G minor, op. 110
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: String Sextet in D minor, op.70, Souvenir de Florence