The London Chamber Ensemble play Haydn and Charles Wood

We are delighted to say that on Sunday May 18th Madeleine Mitchell and her quartet – Gordon MacKay, Bridget Carey and Joseph Spooner – will be back in Hampstead Lane.

You may remember that they were last with us in March last year playing Charles Wood's Quartet in D Major - and now they  are bringing us his Highgate Quartet (what could be more appropriate!) which they are hoping to record later in the year.

The Highgate Quartet will be paired with Joseph Haydn's delightful Bird Quartet - Opus 33 No. 3

Haydn's Op. 33 String Quartets , of which 'The Bird' is number 3, were written in the summer and autumn of 1781 after a break of some 10 years and are in a very different style from Haydn's earlier quartets. Their publication coincided with Mozart's arrival in Vienna, and catalysed Mozart into returning to string quartets himself, leading to the wonderful set of six quartets that he dedicated to Haydn.

For those who do not know his music, Charles Wood (1866 – 1926) was an Irish composer and teacher. He was one of fifty inaugural class members of the Royal College of Music, studying with both Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Hubert Parry. In due course he moved on to Cambridge becoming, on Stanford's death in 1924, Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge where his pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells.


PROGRAMME:

Josef Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op 33 No 3 (The Bird)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegretto
Adagio non troppo
Finale: Rondo Presto

Charles Wood: Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major (Highgate Quartet)
Allegro con moto
Molto Moderato
Adagio ma non troppo
Molto animato

Charles Wood: Variations on an Irish Tune

SUPPER:

The concert will be followed, as usual, by a buffet supper and wine.

TICKET 'PRICE':

Because we are not a public venue we cannot 'sell' tickets. Instead we ask you to make a donation (suggested minimum £30 per ticket) which will enable us to pay our musicians a reasonable fee and contribute a small amount towards the cost of supper and wine.

ABOUT THE PLAYERS:

The London Chamber Ensemble Quartet’s recent album, Howells & Wood Quartets received stunning reviews includung Gramophone - ‘one of the best albums of 2024’, The Observer “expertly played“ and BBC Music Magazine “how closely attuned expressively the LCQ players are to one another”. They will be recording further Charles Wood quartets for SOMM in August.

They recently toured Scotland and Wales including late Beethoven and Ravel, and performed Haydn for the Worshipful Company of Glaziers. Following their success at the international Red Violin festival Leeds, where Michael White wrote of their Howells performance: ‘so appealing, with a complex, interwoven lyricism and translucent beauty’, they’ve been invited to perform at Pinner and Music in Country Churches Festivals in June, HHH Concerts in December and next year’s Three Choirs and English Music Festivals.

Their film from the V&A with Borodin, Tchaikovsky etc as a result of Madeleine’s Royal Philharmonic Society award is available here

www.londonchamberensemble.com