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Details
St Mary-le-More Church
Market Place
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 0EG
England
Tickets
Prices: £20.00
Book Tickets
Programme
Johannes Brahms – String Sextet no.1 in B flat major, Op.18
~ Interval ~
Arnold Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht, Op.4
Performers
Programme Note
The Consones have previously performed in Wallingford as a string quartet to very enthusiastic audiences and we are delighted to welcome them back with two extra players: Francesca Gilbert (viola) and Alexander Rolton (’cello) to perform two sumptuous sextets written early in the careers of their respective composers.
Brahms's love of rich textures made writing string sextets a natural choice. His first sextet genially unfolds with an abundance of melody; contrast being provided by the darker tones of the second movement’s variations featuring a particularly rich harmonic palette. Perhaps unexpectedly for Brahms, the work has featured on both small and large screen, including appearances in Inspector Morse, Star Trek and The Piano.
Many music lovers associate Arnold Schoenberg with the more challenging manifestations of Modernism, and it can be a surprise to discover that he started off expressing himself in the language of late Romanticism as developed by Brahms and Wagner. Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) is one such work; written in just three weeks in 1899, it charts the troubled but ultimately ecstatic course of the two lovers in Richard Dehmel’s expressionist poem of the same name.
