The Endymion Ensemble perform during the Kings Place Festival 2009.


Kings Place Festival 2010 performances - Saturday 11th September 11.15am and 12.30pm

http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/music/kings-place-festival/endymion-for-anton-stadler

The world-class chamber ensemble Endymion always strives to bring the greatest chamber music past and present to a wide audience. Known for the vitality, virtuosity and innovation of its players, Endymion has already made an impact at Kings Place by giving the first public performance in Hall One at the opening Festival in 2008, with a new piece by Simon Holt. Last summer Endymion celebrated 30 years with a major new music project, Sound Census, showcasing 27 premieres during a week of concerts here. This year their festival programmes epitomise the character of Endymion's music-making, contrasting two of the most emotional and engaging classics of the repertoire by Mozart and Brahms with an intriguing recent work by composer and artistic director Philip Venables.

‘The brilliant Endymion' The Sunday Times

Endymion
Mark van de Wiel clarinet
Krysia Osostowicz & Clara Biss violin
Asdis Valdimarsdottir viola
Jane Salmon cello

Phillip Venables K, a prelude to Mozart's Clarinet Quintet
W A Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581

Philip Venables's K is a tribute and prelude to Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, which follows in this programme. It takes the first two bars of the Quintet and, in the composer's words, ‘pulls them apart, exposing, reworking, fragmenting, reflecting and elaborating their harmony and gesture'. The fragment on which the piece is based is heard towards the end. Mozart fell in love with the voice-like sound of the clarinet relatively late in life. Clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler was the catalyst for this passion and inspired both the Clarinet Concerto and this Clarinet Quintet. The first of the Quintet's four movements sets the mood with its charming, conversational exchange between the clarinet and string quartet. The second movement is strikingly similar to the slow movement of the concerto, with the clarinet's lyrical qualities to the fore. A delightful minuet with two trios follows before the theme and variations of the final movement in which Mozart experiments further with all the possible combinations of instruments in a finale of striking inventiveness.

http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/music/kings-place-festival/endymion-for-richard-muhlfeld

Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Brahms's Clarinet Quintet has much in common with the Clarinet Quintet by Mozart (heard earlier this morning). Like Mozart, Brahms's late conversion to the clarinet was inspired by a virtuoso, Richard Muhlfeld, for whom he also wrote his two masterful clarinet sonatas. Muhlfield premiered the work with a quartet led by violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms's long-time friend and collaborator.

As a tribute to Mozart's Quintet, Brahms's follows a similar four-movement structure. The first movement, like many of Brahms's late works, has a brooding, autumnal quality. The second movement shows Brahms at his most expansive and lyrical, with the strings subtly playing on the colours and harmonic flavour of the clarinet melody. The short third movement, with its gently meandering melodies, is one of the few lighter moments in the work. Following Mozart's example, Brahms finishes with a theme and variations but where Mozart's is playful and charming, Brahms's is searching and darkly romantic.

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