Saturday 10 November 2018, 7:30pm Pre-concert discussion with the artists at 6:30pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   HAYDN Quartet in D, Op.20 No.4 BARTOK Quartet No. 1 BRAHMS Quartet in A Minor, Op.51 No.2 A welcome return visit to Norwich by one of the world’s leading string quartets. Bartók’s First Quartet was described by his compatriot Kodály as ‘a gradual return to life, more evocative with its modest four instruments than Berlioz with his huge orchestra’. Framing the Bartók are the wit…

Saturday 24 November 2018, 7:30pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   BACH Partita No.3 in A minor BRAHMS Six Pieces, Op.118 BEETHOVEN Sonata in B flat, Op.106 ('Hammerklavier')   Dénes várjon, one of the most talented and successful among the younger generation of Hungarian pianists, plays Beethoven’s colossal ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata. Beethoven’s work, with its fugal fnale, is in part a homage to Bach, one of whose keyboard partitas begins the programme. As a contemplative interlude come Brahms’s late piano pieces Op.118. Dénes Várjon…

Saturday 8 December 2018, 7:30pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   SOLLIMA Lamentatio BACH Suite No.3 in C HINDEMITH Sonata, Op.25 No.3 KODÁLY Sonata, Op.8 The brilliant Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniţă won frst prize in the cello division of the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and was subsequently one of Radio 3’s ‘New Generation Artists’. His programme includes the solo sonata by Kodály – the most spectacular and virtuosic piece for unaccompanied cello since the suites of Bach. Andrei Ioniţă website

Saturday 26 January 2019, 7:30pm Pre-concert talk by Misha Donat at 6:15pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   SCHUMANN ARR. BIZET Six Studies in Canonic Form MOZART Sonata in F, K.497 BACH ARR. KURTAG Chorale Preludes SCHUBERT Allegro in A minor, D.947, Rondo in A major, D.951 STRAVINSKY ARR. MOORE 3 Movements As composers of four-hands piano music, Mozart and Schubert stand supreme. Mozart’s F major Sonata is an undiscovered masterpiece – a work of truly symphonic proportions; while the Schubert pieces here,…

Saturday 9 February 2019, 7:30pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   BOCCHERINI String Quintet in B flat, Op.39 No.1 STRAVINSKY Tree Pieces for Clarinet MOZART Duo in B flat for violin and viola, K.424 SCHUBERT Octet in F, D.803 In its formal layout, Schubert’s Octet is modelled on the ever-popular Septet by Beethoven. But Schubert’s effervescent piece is stamped throughout with his own personality. Mozart’s masterly Duo for violin and viola is an object lesson in how to write inventively for the…

Saturday 23 February 2019, 7:30pm Pre-concert talk by Misha Donat at 6:15pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   HAYDN Quartet in F minor, Op.20 No.5 WEBERN Five Movements, Op.5 BEETHOVEN Quartet in B flat, Op.130 & 133 The Endellion String Quartet, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, offers a programme ranging from Webern’s miniature and highly concentrated Five Movements Op.5 to Beethoven’s epic Quartet Op.130, with the gigantic fugue which originally formed its fnale. Haydn’s Quartet Op.20 No.5 also ends with a fugue,…

Saturday 23 March 2019, 7:30pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   SUK Meditation JANÁCEK Quartet No.2 (‘Intimate Letters’) DVOŘÁK Quartet in G, Op.106 An all-Czech evening, featuring composers of three different generations. Dvořák’s G major Quartet was composed in the wake of his three-year stay in America, in the 1890s. The ‘Meditation’, by his pupil and son-in-law Josef Suk, is based on an old Czech chorale; while Janácek’s Quartet No.2 was inspired by the many love letters he wrote to his…

Sunday 7 April 2019, 3:00pm Pre-concert talk by Misha Donat at 1:45pm Venue: John Innes Conference Centre   BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata in D, Op.12 No.1 Violin Sonata in A, Op.12 No.2 Violin Sonata in A minor, Op.23 Violin Sonata in E flat, Op.12 No.3 (cycle to be completed in the following season)   James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong begin their journey through the Beethoven violin sonatas with the frst four works of the series. The triptych Op.12 shows the youthful…