Saint-Saëns. The Renaissance Man

Saint-Saëns:
Morceau de concert for horn and piano
Bassoon Sonata
Les odeurs de Paris
L’assassinat du duc de guise
The Carnival of the Animals

Camille Saint-Saëns’ most celebrated work, ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ is a work unlike any other, transporting the listener into a musical menagerie that includes a swan, a tortoise, lions and a plunge into a truly magical aquarium. It is presented here alongside rarely performed pieces including ‘Les odeurs de Paris’, a musical riot, with the addition of trumpets and children’s toys to convey the many smells of Paris. Early French film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise is one of the very first to feature an original film score. Written by Saint-Saëns, the music will be performed live alongside a screening of the film in a celebration of the beloved French composer.

French Gems

Maurice Ravel: Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
Camille Saint-Saëns: Oboe Sonata in D major, op. 166
Thomas Adès: Alchymia for clarinet quintet
Interval
André Messager: Solo de Concours for solo clarinet
César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

French Gems

Maurice Ravel: Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
Camille Saint-Saëns: Oboe Sonata in D major, op. 166
Thomas Adès: Alchymia for clarinet quintet
Interval
André Messager: Solo de Concours for solo clarinet
César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

Friday Night in Paris
Roderick Williams and Ensemble 360

Musical national treasure Roderick Williams, soloist at King Charles III’s Coronation and Singer-in-Residence with Music in the Round, returns to the Crucible Playhouse with Ensemble 360 for a magical tour through the City of Light.

Fauré’s first Piano Quintet was a labour of love that he nurtured over many years, and the song cycles and works for violin he wrote alongside it echo through this exquisitely constructed piece.

Poulenc’s kaleidoscopic sextet encompasses jazz, ragtime, pastiche of Mozart and a tribute to Ravel, whose ‘Madagascan’ songs they follow, in this programme luxuriating in the many sounds of fin de siècle Paris.

Culminating in Fauré’s intricate song-cycle, crafted from the poems of Paul Verlaine, this concert reunites Ensemble 360, with Music in the Round’s singer-in-residence Roderick Williams for the first time since 2017.

Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quintet no. 1 in D minor, op. 89
Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Interval
Francis Poulenc: Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano in C major
Gabriel Fauré: La Bonne Chanson for Baritone, String Quintet and Piano

Ensemble 360 and Steven Isserlis in Festival Finale

George Onslow: Nonet, op. 77
Gabriel Fauré: Elegie, op. 24
Interval
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: String Sextet in D minor, op.70, Souvenir de Florence

A grand work for a grand finale: captivating charm and wit from George Onslow’s Nonet. Nicknamed the ‘French Beethoven’, this is a chance to hear one of his finest and largest-scale chamber works whose five movements move through an expressive array of moods from turbulence to a jubilant conclusion.

Steven Isserlis then joins pianist Tim Horton for a heartfelt lament by Gabriel Fauré, before we sign off with Tchaikovsky’s celebratory musical postcard, Souvenir de Florence. This hugely popular string sextet by the great Russian composer features both Steven Isserlis and Ensemble 360’s cellist Gemma Rosefield, and promises to be a fitting farewell to the Festival in our anniversary year.

Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581
Interval
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, op. 44

George Onslow: Nonet, op. 77
Interval
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in E flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
Huw Watkins: Broken Consort