Have you booked for the London Chamber Ensemble on December 11th?
Madeleine, Gordon, Bridget and Joseph will be joined by cellist Kirsten Jenson and violist Dorothea Vogel for Brahms Sextet No 2 in G and a movement from Schubert’s wonderful Cello Quintet.
Those who joined us for the LCE’s last concert in May when they played Charles Wood’s Highgate Quartet will be delighted to hear that they have just recorded the piece together with Wood’s Variations on an Irish Folk Tune and the ’Harrogate’ Quartet. The album will be released on SOMM next year.
The concert will be followed by supper as usual – to book, go here.
Clarinet Fest
For our Clarinet Fest with Boyan Ivanon and Hannah Shilvock (here they are courtesy of the lovely Alison Gardiner) we had an audience made up almost entirely of current or ex clarinet players – all of whom revelled in our performers’ agile leaps from Beethoven to Tozzola via Eastern Europe – and an amazing piece from Swedish composer Svante Henryson.
Here are a couple of short samples – a snatch from their Beethoven (Duet No. 3 in B-flat Major for Clarinet and Bassoon), Hannah playing solo and the very recognisable TicoTico.
Because a lot of the programme looked towards Argentina, I decided that we should give a South American lilt to supper after the concert. The empanadas with chimchurri sauce went down very well but the hit of the night was my beetroot salad. I cannot give you an exact recipe as I am afraid I rather made up as I went along, but if you want to give it a go:
- Roughly equal quantities of grated raw beetroot and thinly sliced Sweetheart cabbage.
- Finely sliced raw leek
- Generous helping of roasted pumpkin seeds
- Somewhat meaner helping of currants, soaked for a few minutes in boiling water and then dried
- Dressing of 2/3 to 1/3 hot horseradish sauce (mine came from Waitrose) and mayo, ‘let down’ to salad cream thickness with a little boiling water, and seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Lots of roughly chopped fresh coriander
- Fresh pomegranate seeds
Mix the beetroot, cabbage, leek, pumpkin seeds and currants well together. Dress with the horseradish/mayo and set aside. (You can make it 24 hours in advance and leave it in the fridge.)
Just before serving, mix well as the dressing will have sunk to the bottom, then mix in the coriander. Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and serve.
Britten Sinfonia’s Opus 1 & Magnum Opus
Britten Sinfonia’s composer development schemes have been going now for over 30 years, each year giving six aspiring young composers the chance to work with a chamber group from within the orchestra, and three more established composers an opportunity to ‘develop their skills in orchestral writing’. Each group then gets to perform their works as part of a concert programme. And last night was the final concert for the 2025 ‘intake’.
The six Opus 1 composers were each required to create a short piece for a trio of harp, flute and viola – performed by BS’s Lucy Wakeford, Emer McDonough and Bridget Carey. Magnum Opus composers got longer and two of the three chose to write for accompanied voice. (Follow the links above to find out more about all nine composers.)
All were really interesting but I was particuarly taken with Michael Betteridge’s Bodies. This was a setting of four contemporary poems exploring how queer people experience themselves – all of them sung with charismatic intensity by counter tenor Collin Shay.
Terje Isungset Ice Quartet at King’s Place
I know that I find some ‘unusual’ concerts to go it but this one (at King’s Place on Sunday 23rd November) must rank amonst the weirdest – a quartet from Norway who, literally, play on instruments made of ice.
Frustratingly I will not be able to experience them in person as I am already booked to see my good friend Soumik Datta performing on his sarod at the Purcell Room. (The SouthBank site says there are a few tickets left if you prefer the sarod to the ice!)
However if you want to sample the ice experience, here is a clip from their show in Bristol. And if you are free to go, you can book tickets here. (If you go, please report….)
Upcoming concerts:
23rd November – Highgate Society Sunday Lunchtime concert – the Fira Duo – flute and violin. More information and tickets here.
15th January – the Bellot Ensemble – Venice to London in music and memory. More information and tickets here.
18th January – Highgate Society Sunday Lunchtime concert – Catriona Bourne and Francis Tulip – Jazz harp and guitar. More information tickets here.
26th February – Nathaniel Mander and La Pompadour at the court of Versailles. More information and tickets here.
For other upcoming concerts see our Upcoming Events page.
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