Brahms' Clarinet Quintet is one of the best-known and most popular of chamber works. Far less well-known is the Clarinet Quintet written by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the story behind how it came to be written.

Coleridge-Taylor was a pupil of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music.   When Brahms' Clarinet Quintet was published, it made a profound impression on the musical world.   In his analysis of Brahms' quintet with his students, Sir Charles said that
      "Of course it is now impossible to write a clarinet quintet without being influenced by this great work."

Coleridge-Taylor took this as a challenge.   He went away and over the next months wrote a lovely clarinet quintet.

You can judge for yourselves whether he was successful in avoiding a Brahmsian influence.

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The Berkeley Ensemble was formed by eight outstanding young musicians who met as members of Britains's Orchestral Academy, Southbank Sinfonia. It has quickly made its name, reaching the final of the Royal Overseas League competition in March 2009.

The Berkeley Ensemble performs regularly in London and across the UK, championing British works alongside more mainstream repertoire. The ensemble takes its name from two British composers of the last hundred years, father and son Sir Lennox and Michael Berkeley.

Members of the Berkeley Ensemble perform regularly with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata.