Nash Ensemble: Beethoven, Stravinsky, Moscheles, and Brahms

Tickets £24 (ages 8-25 free)

Programme:

Beethoven – Clarinet Trio in B♭ Op.11 (clarinet, piano, cello)

Stravinsky – 'The Soldier's Tale' Suite (arr. for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello)

Ignaz Moscheles – Fantasy, Variations, and Finale, Op.46 (piano, clarinet, violin, and cello)

Brahms – Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114 (clarinet, piano, cello)

This year the Nash Ensemble celebrates its 60th anniversary. Over that time, it has built up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain's finest and most adventurous chamber groups. Acclaimed for its exceptional recitals, the ensemble has won numerous tributes for ‘artistic excellence’ and for its ‘immaculate performance of a wide range of music’. 

Resident chamber ensemble of the Wigmore Hall, they play most of their subscription concerts there. The ensemble also appears at the Royal Festival Hall's Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and has toured throughout the UK, Europe, the USA, South America, Australia, and Japan.

An impressive collection of recordings illustrates a varied and colourful combination of classical masterpieces, little-known neglected gems, and important contemporary works. 

In a superb finale to the Oxford Chamber Music Society’s 2024/25 season, four members of the ensemble will be with us to perform a virtuoso programme for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Beethoven’s trio is a relaxed work full of catchy tunes and bold key changes and ending with ingenious variations on a popular tune. Stravinsky’s jazz-inspired suite is a masterpiece of the short-form and is, at once, dark yet full of humour. The inventive piece by Ignaz Moscheles, based on a Bohemian folk song, precedes Brahms’ emotionally rich and melancholic late trio.

Performers

Alasdair Beatson (piano), Richard Hosford (clarinet), Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Adrian Brendel (cello)

Photo credit © 2024: Nash Ensemble