classical music, chamber music, liverpool, merseyside, concerts
Monday 13 October 2008 at 7.30pm
Undici
Chamber EnsembleBeethoven: Quintet for Piano & Winds in Eb
Brahms: Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op.120-1
Poulenc: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano
Mozart: Quintet for Piano & Winds in Eb
Undici Chamber Ensemble comprises 11 musicians - winds, strings and piano- all of whom are graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music and who are now working as freelance musicians with the some of the top professional orchestras on the UK. Undici’s 11 members come together to explore the diverse range of chamber works written for various combinations of these instruments, giving vibrant and exciting performances for concert societies around the country. Recent performances have included Martinu’s Nonet, Janacek’s Mladi, Spohr’s Nonet, both the Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets, and the great Schubert Octet.
In 1784 Mozart wrote to his father that he had written a quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, and claimed that it is "the best thing I have so far written in my life". What makes this statement so remarkable was that by this time he must have completed at least the first two of the great string quartets (the G Major and the D minor) that he was to dedicate to Joseph Haydn (although these works had not been published or played in public at that time). However Mozart's pride in this work is fully justified, for it is indeed a gem.Beethoven obviously admired this work by Mozart too, because he composed a work for the same combination of instruments and in the same key, and it is this work which will open our concert.
Before Brahms composed his two sonatas for clarinet and piano, he had declared that he was about to give up composing. However, having heard the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld perform, he was so taken with the possibilities of the instrument that he went on to compose four chamber works which included a clarinet. The Clarinet Sonata in F minor is the first of a pair of such works.
Poulenc conciously wrote his Trio for Oboe, Bassoon & Piano in a neo-classical style, and it has been called his first true chamber work. It is a nicely balanced work with a touch of humour.
