Chamber music

Oxford Chamber Music Society

Sunday concerts at 3pm in the historic Holywell Music Room

In partnership with

Oxford Chamber Music Society

Nash Ensemble

Sunday 18 May 2025 at 3pm

Programme

Beethoven - Clarinet Trio in B♭ Op.11

Stravinsky - 'The Soldier's Tale' Suite (arr. for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello)

Ignaz Moscheles - Fantasy, Variations, and Finale (piano, clarinet, violin, and cello)

Brahms - Clarinet Trio in A minor Op. 114

This year the Nash Ensemble celebrates its 60th anniversary. Over these years, it has built up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain’s finest and most adventurous chamber groups. Acclaimed for its exceptional recitals, the ensemble has won numerous tributes for ‘artistic excellence’ and for its ‘immaculate performance of a wide range of music’.

In 2010, it became the resident chamber ensemble of the Wigmore Hall and plays most of its subscription concerts there. The ensemble also appears frequently at the Royal Festival Hall’s Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and has toured throughout the UK, Europe, the USA, South America, Australia, and Japan.

An impressive collection of recordings illustrates a varied and colourful combination of classical masterpieces, little-known neglected gems, and important contemporary works.

In a superb finale to our season, four members of the ensemble will be with us to perform a virtuoso programme for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Beethoven’s trio is a relaxed work full of catchy tunes and bold key changes and ending with ingenious variations on a popular tune. Stravinsky’s jazz-inspired suite is a masterpiece of the short-form and is, at once, dark yet full of humour. The inventive piece by Ignaz Moscheles, based on a Bohemian folk song, precedes Brahms’ emotionally rich and melancholic late trio.

Alasdair Beatson (piano), Richard Hosford (clarinet), Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Adrian Brendel (cello)

Photo credit © 2024: Nash Ensemble