Portsmouth Chamber Music Series, Monday 2 December, Guildhall
As usual, the programme is an interesting one, with a little-known work by an older composer – George Onslow – who was a slightly younger comtemporary of Beethoven, and a new work by Huw Watkins entitled Broken Consort. In between is the wonderful quintet by Mozart for piano and wind instruments. A post-concert Q&A will be facilitated by Colin Jagger.
Here’s a bit more about Broken Consort.
This piece was commissioned by Music in the Round for Ensemble 360 and had its premiere in Sheffield in 2008.
Broken consort is a term used to describe an instrumental ensemble that developed in Europe during the Renaissance. It originally referred to ensembles featuring instruments from more than one family of instruments, as for example a group featuring both string and wind instruments. It also neatly describes what I have done with the eleven instruments from Ensemble 360 (a group featuring string, wind, brass and keyboard instruments).
There are four main movements – a lament, a study, a sicilienne and a finale – which all use different groups of instruments with the whole ensemble only playing together in the finale.
Each movement is preceded with a brief interlude (or introduction in the case of the lament) which all use the same fanfare-like material in different ways. This material occasionally finds its way into the main movements, more or less overtly, at important structural moments.
Notes (c) Huw Watkins.
