TIL 20 Oct

14
QUINTESSENTIALS: 12 QUINTETS,
6 CONCERTS BY SCHUBERT QUARTET
The Schubert Ensemble's acclaimed
Quintessentials series reaches its final
concert on 9 November at Kings Place.
Concert 6 pairs the rhythmic vitality and
folk-inspired colour of Martinu's Second
Piano Quintet with the endlessly
inventive Op. 81 Quintet by Dvorak, a
seamless show of gorgeous melody and
rich drama, unmatched in the chamber
music repertoire.
The concert will begin with the
Ensemble's popular Behind the Notes
sessions, in which they will explore and
illuminate both works, using live
performance to strip down the music
and reveal its inner workings. Part Two
will be a performance of both quintets.
Since its first concert in January
1983, the Schubert Ensemble has
become widely recognised as one of the
world's leading exponents of music for
piano and strings. The ensemble has
performed in over 40 different countries,
has over 80 commissions to its name,
has recorded over 30 critically acclaimed
CDs and is familiar to British audiences
through regular broadcasts on BBC
Radio 3. In 1998, the Ensemble's
contribution to British musical life was
recognised by the Royal Philharmonic
Society when it presented the group with
the Best Chamber Ensemble Award, for
which it was shortlisted again in 2010.
In the past few years, the Ensemble has
enjoyed a busy international schedule,
with performances in Bermuda, Canada,
the Czech Republic, China, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, the
United Arab Emirates, and the USA.
Schubert Ensemble has decided to
bring its 35-year career to a close at the
end of June 2018. It will see out its final
season in celebratory style, with around
fifty concerts planned in the UK and
abroad, including return visits to
Romania and Luxembourg and two
tours of the USA with their final concert
at Wigmore Hall on 21 March 2018.
Kings Place box office telephone
020 7520 1490 or kingsplace.co.uk
Schubert Ensemble.
NATIONAL HONEY WEEK
To celebrate National Honey Week,
the Great Northern Hotel in London’s
Kings Cross have collaborated with The
London Honey Company, to curate a
special menu which will be served in the
Plum + Spilt Milk restaurant.
The three-course menu, designed by
Head Chef Mike Denman, will be an
alternative option to the à la carte menu,
and will feature three different types of
honey. The starter will comprise of Grilled
Stawley goat’s cheese, Shropshire honey,
cider poached apples and cobnuts,
followed by Suffolk pig’s cheeks braised
with Borage honey and cloves, glazed
carrot and mustard creamed potato and
for dessert, a Bell Heather Honey and
buttermilk pudding, spiced raspberries
and lavender shortbread.
The London Honey Company was
founded in 1999 by Steve Benbow and
begun on his roof in Tower Bridge. It
was here he first installed his
honeybees, determined to bring a taste
of his Shropshire roots into his life in
the capital. They were quickly invited to
some of London’s iconic rooftops, such
as Fortnum and Mason’s and the Tate.
The special menu will be available at
Plum + Spilt Milk throughout National
Honey Week, from 23 – 29 October.
NEW MOZART ORCHESTRA 40TH
ANNIVERSARY CONCERT
Choosing ‘New’ as part of this
orchestra’s name when it was formed in
1977 certainly added a sense of
heightened expectation. Forty years on
and the New Mozart Orchestra has lived
up to the national press’ verdict of the
time – ‘It deserves to last!’
Founded by conductor Clive Fairbairn
with encouragement from the cream of
London’s orchestral players, it rapidly
collected armfuls of outstanding reviews
from The Times, Daily Telegraph, et al.
Although Fairbairn went swiftly on from
this to debut with LSO, LPO and
Philharmonia, he continued to specialise
in C18th music with NMO.
So the NMO is now marking its 40th
birthday, but Clive Fairbairn is celebrating
much more. His daughter Susanna
(pictured), is now an established opera
singer and concert soprano in her own
right, and will be joining him for the
concert on 26 October at St. James’s
Piccadilly (19.30) in two of Mozart’s
greatest concert arias.
Unsurprisingly, Mozart’s 40th
Symphony features in the concert, but
so too does the ravishing String
Serenade by Tchaikovsky, a composer
who greatly admired Mozart. Aaron
Copland’s hauntingly beautiful Quiet City
provides an oasis of calm in this
otherwise effervescent celebratory event.
www.ticketsource.co.uk/new-mozartorchestra
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e