Category Archives: Small scale

In Concert – Michael Collins & Wu Qian @ Wigmore Hall: Finzi, Martinů, Milhaud, Tailleferre & Arnold Cooke (reviewed online)

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Michael Collins (clarinet, above), Wu Qian (piano, below)

Finzi 5 Bagatelles Op.23 (1920-9)
Martinů Sonatina for clarinet and piano (1956)
Milhaud Duo Concertante Op.351 (1956)
Tailleferre Arabesque (1973)
Cooke Clarinet Sonata in B flat (1959)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 9 March, 1.05pm

Reviewed from the online broadcast by Ben Hogwood Photo of Michael Collins (c) Jack Lewis Williams

This was the first public appearance for Michael Collins and Wu Qian as a duo, yet together – on BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert at least – they displayed an easy familiarity, suggesting a partnership of a longer vintage.

They began with five much-loved miniatures from Gerald Finzi, often heard in isolation on rival radio stations. Collins and Qian enjoyed the bustling counterpoint of the outer Prelude and Fughetta movements, but the emotional heart of the set lay in the lovingly phrased Romance and Forlana, whose lilting rhythms were persuasively played, and the solemn Carol. The downbeat mood, inhabited from wartime struggles, was especially pertinent, though the Fughetta gave the music renewed energy in this performance.

Martinů’s Clarinet Sonatina is a late work, completed during a brief second stay in New York. The Czech composer was used to relocating at short notice on account of Nazi invasions of his homeland and Paris, but this brief second trip to America was an ultimately unsuccessful career move. The Sonatina inhabits the composer’s restlessness, looking longingly across the Atlantic towards Paris. This was captured by Collins and Qian in the bare piano octaves and reflective melody of the Andante, while the finale found greater conviction of feeling.

While Martinů pined for the French capital, Darius Milhaud was writing his Duo Concertant as a competition piece for his Paris Conservatoire students. Milhaud rarely outstays his welcome, and the piece was wrapped up with typical humour and a heartfelt central episode, gracefully played. Meanwhile the Arabesque of Milhaud’s fellow ‘Les Six’ member, Germaine Tailleferre, was a softly undulating dance that proved restrained yet elegant.

The English composer Arnold Cooke acquired a continental edge to his music thanks to a period of study with Paul Hindemith in the 1920s. His compositions for clarinet were written for Franz Reizenstein, also a pupil of Hindemith, and include a concerto and quintet. The airy first movement of the Clarinet Sonata in B flat – written deliberately without major or minor key labelling – was similarly elusive, its questioning line thoughtfully phrased by Collins in a satisfying balance with Qian.

The strident second movement is laced with humour which Collins was keen to bring out, before a probing slow movement with private asides from the clarinet hints at darker thoughts, particularly in its low burbling notes from the instrument near the end, suggesting a watery contemplation. The Finale swept these thoughts aside, making demands on Collins’ agility with the wide range of its thematic material, common across the work. The music dipped and weaved its way through a number of entertaining figures, plumping resoundingly for the major key in a hugely satisfying coda.

You can listen to this concert on BBC Sounds until 9th April.

Published post no.2,824 – Monday 9 March 2026

In Concert – Simon Wallfisch & Joseph Middleton @ Wigmore Hall: Voices of Terezin

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Simon Wallfisch (baritone, above), Joseph Middleton (below)

Ullmann Beryozkele from 3 jiddische Lieder Op. 53 (1944); Lieder der Tröstung (1943): Tote wollen nicht verweilen, Erwachen zu Weihnachten; From Drei chinesische Lieder (1943): Wanderer erwacht in der Herberge; Der Müde Soldat
Taube Ein jüdisches Kind (1944)
Haas 4 Songs on Chinese Poetry (1944)
Leo Strauss arr. Iain Farrington Als Ob! (c.1942-4)
Brahms 4 Serious Songs Op.121 (1896): Ich wandte mich und sahe an alle
Ullmann From Der Mensch und sein Tag Op. 47 (1943): Heimat, Der Liebsten, Verdämmern, Nacht
Brahms 4 Serious Songs Op.121 (1896): Wenn ich mit Menschen und mit Engelszungen redete
Ullmann Stille from Der Mensch und sein Tag Op. 47 (1943)
Ilse Weber Wiegala (1944)
Ravel Kaddisch from 2 mélodies hebraiques (1914)

Wigmore Hall, London
Tuesday 27 January 2026, 1pm

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

This remarkable concert, given on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, took the form of a wholly appropriate tribute to the musicians, writers and academics assembled by the Nazis in the Ghetto Theresienstadt. This was based at Terezin, the small town near Prague, and used as a propaganda tool to present Jewish prisoners as thriving artists, in spite of them being held prior to being sent to the Auschwitz or Treblinka concentration camps.

German-English Baritone Simon Wallfisch is a member of a deeply musical family, with his grandmother, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a survivor from the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. Together with pianist Joseph Middleton he presented music from four composers held in the ghetto, part of a sequence intertwined with diaries, poems, essays, pictures and musical excerpts. They gave the Wigmore Hall a deeply moving period of contemplation, their consummate artistry and control ensuring that a celebration of the creative spirit ultimately won through.

Wallfisch and Middleton (above) used the music of Viktor Ullmann as reference points. A principal focus was the composer’s settings of German haiku equivalents by the Czech poet Hans Günther Adler, a Holocaust survivor whose son Jeremy addressed the audience before the concert began. Ullmann’s music found a blend of touching simplicity and harmonic daring, pulling against tonal confines to give increased tension but in a way bringing the music closer to Berg than Schoenberg.

His word settings were particularly vivid in the first song, Beryozkele (Little birch tree), especially the line Jedes Bletele ihr’s Scheptshet schtil a t’rile (Each little leaf whispers quietly its own prayer), a parallel for each of the souls held captive in the town.

Meanwhile the crumpled harmonies of Tote wollen nicht verweilen (The dead do not want to linger) contrasted with the eerie purity of the fragment Erwachen zu Weihnachten (Awakening at Christmas), while in the Adler settings we heard the concentrated Heimat (Home) and the shafts of hopeful light offered by Der Liebsten (The loved one). The cold bell of Verdämmern (Twilight) rendered by Middleton offered beauty but also fear, before the pair achieved a remarkable stasis during Stille (Stillness).

The music of Carlo Sigmund Taube was similarly moving, through the innocence of Ein jüdisches Kind (A Jewish child), but was a wild contrast to the approach of Leo Strauss, whose cabaret scene Als Ob! (As If!) was deadpan, its humour brilliantly done but cold in the extreme.

The music of Czech composer Pavel Haas continues to make a striking impact, and his 4 Songs on Chinese Poetry were prefaced by a video clip (above) of the tensile Study for Strings from Theresienstadt itself. The songs were dramatic, particularly The moon is far from home, where the bare bones of Middleton’s left-hand line supported the powerful vocal. The discomfort and distorted imagery of A sleepless night were similarly vivid.

Finally Ilse Weber, the nurse who opted to travel with her young children to Auschwitz, was represented by Wiegala (Cradle Song), a touching sweetness lent to the upper piano part and a moving simplicity to Wallfisch’s reading.

Complementing the four Terezin composers was the music of Brahms, whose last work for voice, the 4 Serious Songs Op.121, were heard in a concert in the ghetto. Their gravitas here was only enhanced by the composer’s sense of mortality, Wallfisch singing with poise and power. The final word, however, was left to Ravel, whose Kaddisch was a potent memorial, Wallfisch commanding through his intonation and ornamentation.

A prolonged silence followed; the only appropriate response to a deeply moving concert. Here, in spite of the horrors suffered by the composers and the subjects of the readings, it was possible to appreciate their resolve and enduring talent, their lights somehow undimmed. Here they were remembered with the utmost respect and appreciation, and I for one shall never forget it.

Published post no.2,781 – Tuesday 27 January 2026

In Concert – Cuarteto Casals @ Wigmore Hall: Bach, Shostakovich & Turina

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Cuarteto Casals [Abel Tomàs, Vera Martínez-Mehner (violins), Cristina Cordero Beltrán (viola), Arnau Tomàs (cello)]

J.S. Bach Art of Fugue BWV1080: Contrapunctus 1, 4, 6 & 9 (1742, rev.1748-9)
Turina La oración del torero Op.34 (1925)
Shostakovich String Quartet no.3 in F major Op.73 (1946)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 12 January 2026, 1pm

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

Cuarteto Casals began this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert with a quartet of movements from The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach’s four-part masterpiece of musical counterpoint. The collection has that rare quality of being able to combine technical prowess and emotional substance, and these were evident right from the outset. Initially plaintive, Contrapunctus 1 grew in scope and stature, though while three of the quartet opted against vibrato cellist Arnau Tomàs did not, meaning his instrument was more rounded in tone. A convincing Contrapunctus 4 featured lively exchanges, while Contrapunctus 6 enjoyed the dotted rhythms redolent of a French ‘ouverture’. Finally Contrapunctus 9 was a light-footed dance, its slower theme commendably clear towards the end.

Vera Martínez-Mehner then swapped with Abel Tomàs to assume first violin duties for Joaquin Turina’s chamber tone poem La oración del torero. This vivid account of bullfighters praying for their lives before a fiesta was written in the wake of a scene witnessed by the composer, observng the toreadors ‘backstage’ in the chapel. Martínez-Mehner and Cristina Cordero Beltrán, perhaps unwittingly, were ironically clad in red for a performance that turned up the temperature a good 20 degrees inside the Wigmore Hall. Their highly descriptive account featured castanet evocations that were on point and searching solos that led to a radiant concluding section. Turina’s chamber music is rarely heard in the concert hall, and while this performance revealed a healthy debt to Debussy’s string quartet in particular, it showed off an attractive melodic style. On this evidence it would be rewarding to hear the composer’s string quartets and piano-based chamber music much more frequently.

The temperature cooled notably for the Shostakovich, though here again the quartet were able to use the extremes of their dynamic range. With the String Quartet no.3 closely attuned to the end of the Second World War, it was difficult not to think of telling parallels with the current situation in Russia and Ukraine, evident on every page. The songful melody of Martínez-Mehner’s opening tune cast initial warmth, but this soon dissipated, the quartet’s confidential asides drawing a notably hushed response from the Wigmore Hall audience.

Parallels with Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony, completed just three years earlier, were revealed – the heavy-set viola tread of the second movement recalling its scherzo, while the solemn fourth movement Passacaglia, placed as in the symphony, found an equivalent emptiness, nowhere more so than in the stricken unison from viola and cello towards the end.

Yet there was hope, as the questioning finale struck a more positive tone in spite of heavy irony, and a cold dread as the Passacaglia music reappeared. The music hung in a still suspension through the coda, in only the way Shostakovich can, revealing answers that were hard to come by while peace and dread co-existed in equal measure. Silence followed, and there was understandably no encore.

Listen

You can listen to this concert on BBC Sounds, until 11 February. Meanwhile click here to listen to a playlist of the works in this concert on Tidal, with the J.S. Bach and Shostakovich recorded by the Cuarteto Casals themselves.

Published post no.2,766 – Tuesday 13 January 2026

In concert – Chaos String Quartet @ University of Birmingham: Haydn, Wallen & Bartók

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Chaos String Quartet [Susanne Schäffer & Eszter Kruchió (violins), Sara Marzadori (viola), Bas Jongen (cello)]

Haydn String Quartet in E flat major Op.20/1 (1772)
Wallen Remembering 2012 (2025) [BBC commission: World premiere]
Bartók String Quartet no.3 BB93 (1927)

Elgar Concert Hall @ Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham
Friday 12 December 2025 (1pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Birmingham University’s regular series of lunchtime recitals came to its close for 2025 with one postponed from earlier this year – the Chaos String Quartet (based in Vienna) being heard in a programme that played to the strengths of this most enterprising among younger ensembles.

Its warmly received debut release having featured the fifth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets, it was good to hear this group as persuasive in the first work from that groundbreaking set. Certainly its initial Allegro moderato found the right balance between an underlying elegance with that inquiring spirit such as informs all six of these pieces, and was duly abetted by the deceptive playfulness of its ensuing Minuet. The slow movement was as ‘sustained and affectionate’ as its marking indicates it should be, with the final Presto propelled along on its buoyant course.

There have been numerous commissions in BBC Radio 3’s ’25 for 25’ series, with this latest being by Errollyn Wallen (currently Master of the King’s Music). Howsoever its title might be interpreted, Remembering 2012 packs considerable emotion into its five-minute duration – such that the composer might consider extending it or adding further movements. It hardly needs adding that the year in question, coming mid-way between the world financial crash and Brexit, now seems harbinger of a more positive era which manifestly failed to happen.

The recital ended with a performance of Bartók’s Third Quartet which hopefully commended to those present what is the most difficult to grasp of this cycle – not least given the ingenuity of its formal design, along with its innovative if always constructive use of extended playing techniques. Having pursued a suspenseful course across its ‘Prima parte’, the Chaos ensured a visceral impact to its ‘Second parte’ before securing palpable eloquence from the former’s ‘Recapitulazione’, prior to a ‘Coda’ as carried all before it in an outburst of unbridled energy.

A memorable conclusion to an impressive recital, the Chaos returning with the Minuet from the fourth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets as teasing encore. Its sophomore recording scheduled early next year, hopefully this most questing ensemble will be back in the UK before long.

Published post no.2,753 – Friday 19 December 2025

For more on the Barber Lunchtime Concerts, head to the Barber Institute website, and click on the links to read more about the Chaos String Quartet and composer Errollyn Wallen

In concert – Kleio Quartet @ Wigmore Hall: Elgar, Webern & Haydn

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Kleio Quartet [Juliette Roos, Katherine Yoon (violins), Yume Fujise (viola), Eliza Millett (cello)]

Elgar String Quartet in E minor Op.83 (1918)
Webern 5 Movements for String Quartet Op.5 (1909)
Haydn String Quartet in D major Op.50/6 ‘Frog’ (1787)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 6 October 2025 (1pm)

On the evidence of this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, the Kleio Quartet – members of the station’s New Generation Artists scheme – are ones to watch. Not least for their programming, for it was refreshing to see a Haydn string quartet given top billing at a concert rather than making up the numbers.

The concert began with an account of Sir Edward Elgar’s sole String Quartet notable for its poise, elegance and understated emotion. Elgar’s ‘late’ works are best experienced in concert at this autumnal time of year, though the dappled sunlight evoked here was compromised by a subtle yet lasting foreboding. For the youthful Kleio Quartet to capture the thoughts of a man in his early 60s with such clarity was impressive indeed. They did so through a first movement taking the ‘moderato’ of Elgar’s tempo marking to hand – deliberate but never plodding. The dense, Brahmsian counterpoint was deftly unpicked, while the nostalgic elements of the second movement gave the feeling of an ensemble performing in an adjacent room, the listener asked to imagine an elegant salon setting. The purposeful finale snapped us out of this reverie with vigorous exchanges, though there was time for affection in its second theme. Ultimately the music revelled in the Sussex outdoors enjoyed by Elgar and wife Alice, though the Autumnal chill remained present.

Memories of a very different kind coursed through Webern’s 5 Movements for String Quartet, written in the wake of his mother’s death. These remarkable compositions illustrate an unparalleled gift for intense, compressed expression. None of the movements last longer than two minutes, yet so much concentrated feeling is loaded into their short phrases, pushing against tonality with oblique melodies and rich yet desolate harmonies.

The Kleio Quartet found those qualities and more in a deeply impressive account, with the alternate moods of the first movement, argumentative and then delicate, and the forthright third. Countering these moods were the soul searching second and the sparse, eerie fourth, where the ticking motif of Yume Fujise’s viola suggested a period of insomnia. The bare bones of Webern’s anguish were made clear in the final movement, in the high, inconsolable violin of Juliette Roos and the empty closing chords.

Following this with one of Haydn’s most amiable quartets was an inspired move, the Wigmore Hall audience smiling feely as the composer’s humour was repeatedly revealed. The so-called ‘Frog’ quartet, named for the croaking repeated notes of the finale’s main theme, shows Haydn completing his Op.50 set of six quartets with a panache that would surely have delighted their beneficiary, Frederick William II of Prussia.

The Kleio had fun with the unpredictable first movement, spirited yet restless, and the harmonic twists and turns of the Poco adagio, led by expressive flourishes from Roos. The quirky Menuetto revelled in melodic inflections and cheeky asides, with the pregnant pauses of the trio section adding to the irregular rhythms within the triple time meter. All of which set up the fun and frolics of the finale, where the occasional slip of ensemble tuning could be easily forgiven in the spirit of the Kleio’s performance, Haydn charming his audience to the very end.

Listen

You can listen to this concert as the first hour of BBC Radio 3’s Classical Live, which can be found on BBC Sounds until Tuesday 4 November.

Published post no.2,680 – Tuesday 7 October 2025