Endymion has a range of programmes for the 2011/12 season, rasing from a feisty trio of jazz-inspired works, to the quintessential Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets, to exquisite paring of Brahms and Ligeti, to boisterous, central European favourites by Dohnányi, Martinu and Brahms.
If you are interested in any of these programmes, or if you would like to engage Endymion to perform any other repertoire, please get in touch here. We have an extensive list of classical and contemporary repertoire that we have performed in all sorts of venues and festivals. All programmes can be preceded with a short pre-concert talk, with musical excerpts, if required.
From New Orleans to Moscow
A feisty programme of music all inspired in some way or another by jazz and folk music. The sumptuous Ravel sonata conjures up the blues with some exotic harmony. Ravel’s sonata directly inspired Bartok’s trio, which was written for jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman and revels in quasi-folk melodies and Hungarian dances. The Armenian folk melodies in Khachaturian’s trio evoke the mysticism and romance of Arabia, while Stravinsky steals the show with a gritty ragtime romp with a wild finale.
Ravel – Violin sonata no. 2 in G major
Bartok – Suite for clarinet, violin and piano “Contrasts”, Sz.111
Khachaturian – Trio for clarinet, violin and piano in G minor
Stravinsky – The Soldier’s Tale suite (trio version)
Alternative:
Brahms – Sonata for Clarinet & Piano No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120/2
Khachaturian – Trio for clarinet, violin and piano in G minor
Ravel – Violin sonata no. 2 in G major
Bartok – Suite for clarinet, violin and piano “Contrasts”, Sz.111
Alternative:
Brahms – Sonata for Clarinet & Piano No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120/2
Mozart – Trio for clarinet, viola & piano in E flat major “Kegelstatt”, K. 498
Ravel – Violin sonata no. 2 in G major
Bartok – Suite for clarinet, violin and piano “Contrasts”, Sz.111
Duration: 75–80 minutes, 3 players (all alternatives)
‘Hommage à Brahms’
An illuminating programme that really takes the listener on a spiritual journey. From the joyous chirrups of the violin in one of Beethoven’s most famous works to the poignant, heavenly stillness of the end of Ligeti’s masterful horn trio. Ligeti’s inspiration was not the hunting calls and folk tunes in the outer movements of Brahms‘ horn trio, but the second movement, a deeply moving elegy to the memory of his mother.
The Guardian said of a recent performance of this programme at the Southbank Centre:
“The [Ligeti] trio is intriguingly subtitled “Homage to Brahms”. And, though there is nothing nostalgic or anecdotal about Ligeti’s music, it’s still fascinating to hear it programmed alongside Brahms’s own Horn Trio Op 40, as it was in this recital by three members of Endymion – horn player Stephen Stirling, violinist Krysia Osostowicz and pianist Michael Dussek. The two works follow four-movement plans, and a mood of melancholy pervades both. Ligeti’s final adagio is a lament that eventually evaporates in ominous bass notes and fragmentary themes; Brahms places his great emotional outpouring third, before the bucolic finale. Both are haunted, too, by the sound of the natural horn, for which Brahms originally wrote his work (though Stirling sensibly played it on a modern valved instrument), and whose harmonics give a special tang to Ligeti’s harmonies.
The Endymion performances had a wonderful assurance about them, technical and musical, as if pairing these two distinctive masterpieces was the most natural thing in the world.”
Beethoven – Violin sonata no. 5 in F major, “Spring Sonata”, Op.24
Ligeti – Trio for horn, violin and piano, ‘Hommage à Brahms’,
Brahms – Trio for horn, violin and piano in E flat major, Op.40
Duration: 81 minutes, 3 players
Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire … and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth …. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever … that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished ….”
Olivier Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time is one of the most transcendental and powerful pieces ever to have been written. It is an undoubted masterpiece. Written in Stalag VIII, a German prisoner of war camp in 1941. Endymion has performed this piece many, many times, and although it can be paired with other works such as Debussy or Brahms, it often works better performed alone, or perhaps prefaced with readings or poetry. After our most recent performance of this piece in a late-night concert in London, one audience member came to thank us; she had been moved to floods of tears.
Duration: 55 minutes, 4 players
Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets
This is one of our favourite programmes, both to play and for our audiences. In his quintet, Mozart basks in an unusually wide range of moods and textures, bringing enormous richness from his themes. Philip Venables’ short prelude is a thought-provoking, reverent exploration of the opening few bars of the Mozart. Darker, yearning autumn colours in the Brahms Quintet make a sublime contrast.
The Guardian said, about a recent performance at Wigmore Hall:
“Brahms’s extraordinary Clarinet Quintet…was performed after the interval, in an intense performance that rightly hovered between yearning and bitterness. The clarinettist, Mark van de Wiel, was immaculate in his negotiation of the thin line between suavity and strident anger on which the work depends.”
Venables – K, a prelude to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet
Mozart – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A major, “Stadler”, K.581
Brahms – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor, Op. 115
Duration: 75 minutes, 5 players
Postcards from Central Europe
A very boisterous programme of music from Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hungary. Martinu’s Madrigals are some of the finest of all repertoire for string duo. It’s rousing, beautiful melodies are flanked in the outer movements by rhythmic drive and a huge, sonorous sound. You’ll be surprised how just two players can fill a hall with sound! Brahms’ Trio is a sumptuous labyrinth of melodies, with the final two movements taken by a Viennese-style waltz and an exciting gypsy-esque Rondo finale. Dohnányi’s Sextet is, we muse, is the Endymion piece. A lively, colourful mix of timbres and tunes, with a truly emphatic ending.
We have recorded the Dohnányi. Classic CD magazine gave the disc 5 stars, and said this:
“…Both these works break the mould of conventional piano chamber music with scoring that mixes string and wind instruments. The resultant colouring is so beautiful and distinctive that one wonders why so few other composers explored such possibilities…This really is an outstanding chamber music disc and a truly worthy addition to the catalogue.”
Martinu – Three Madrigals for violin and viola, “Duo No. 1”, H313
Brahms – Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in A minor, Op. 114
Dohnányi – Sextet in C major for clarinet, horn, piano and string trio, Op.37
Duration: 83 minutes, 6 players
A breeze through France and Germany
This is a ravishing programme uniting the starkly contrasting Germanic and Gallic musical tastes by arguably two of the most famous representatives of each. Two of Endymion’s favourite feature in this programme: Mozart’s elegant quintet and it’s antithesis, the raucous, chic and cheeky Sextet by Poulenc. They make excellent companions, guaranteed to inspire you with beauty, and then put a smile on your face. Beethoven’s quintet was written when Beethoven was just 26, in homage to Mozart, using the same instruments, key and form as the elder composer. Ravel provides the bridge from Mozart to Poulenc, mixing classical Teutonic ideas with spine-tingling, French panache.
Mozart – Quintet for piano and winds in E flat major, K. 452
Ravel – Mother Goose Suite (arr. Nissen)
Beethoven – Quintet for piano and winds in E flat major, Op. 16
Poulenc – Sextet for piano and winds
Duration: 80 minutes, 6 players
Autumn Tones
Dark passions are aroused in Debussy’s Violin Sonata and trios by Brahms and Beethoven’s for clarinet, cello and piano; the latter, the composer’s own arrangement of his monumental Septet.
Debussy – Violin Sonata
Brahms – Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in A minor, Op. 114
Beethoven – Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in E flat major, Op. 38
Duration: 85 minutes, 4 players
Septet and Octet
Beethoven – Septet in E flat major, Op. 20
Schubert – Octet in F major, D. 803
Alternative:
Brahms – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor, Op. 115
Schubert – Octet in F major, D. 803
Duration: 95 minute (alternative: 80 minutes), 8 players
Britten Centenary Programmes
Britten’s Britain: clarinet, oboe, horn, piano and string trio
Britten – Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, for solo oboe
Bridge – Phantasy Quartet in F# minor
Vaughan Williams – Quintet for clarinet, horn, piano, violin and cello
Britten – Phantasy Quartet, op.2, for Oboe & String Trio
Dunhill – Quintet in Eb, Op.3
Duration: 80 minutes, 7 players
Phantasies and Metamorphoses: oboe, piano and string trio
Britten – Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, for solo oboe
Britten – Lachrymae, for viola and piano
Dunhill – Phantasy Trio (Vn, Va & Pno) op.36
Britten – Temporal Variations, for Oboe & Piano
Britten – Phantasy Quartet, op.2, for Oboe & String Trio
Bridge – Phantasy Quartet in F minor, for piano & strings
Duration: 85 minutes, 5 players
Songs: soprano, oboe & guitar
with soprano Juliet Fraser (www.julietfraser.co.uk)
Cage – The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs, for voice & guitar
Britten – Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, for solo Oboe
Dowland – Four Songs
1. Flow My Tears
2. Time Stands Still
3. Awake, Sweet Love
4. Come Again
Vaughan-Williams – Ten Blake Songs for voice & oboe
Britten – Nocturnal (after Dowland), for solo guitar
Walton – From Anon in Love, for voice & guitar
Britten – Folksong Arrangements, Vol.VI “England”
1. I will give my love an apple
2. Sailor-boy
3. Master Kilby
4. The soldier and the sailor
5. Bonny at Morn
6. The shooting of his Dear
Duration: 90 minutes, 3 players