Review: Ensemble Concertante Clarinet Quartet at Stansted House

A Stansted House music afternoon on 9 October

At Stansted House in October the Ensemble Concertante Clarinet Quartet performed a musical afternoon to a capacity audience of fifty in the private Music Room hosted by the Friends of Stansted Park and the Stansted Foundation.

This was an intimate occasion of very varied music, old and contemporary, by four exceptional clarinettists. Opening with the exciting Overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, music by Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera including Mack the Knife changed the mood completely.

Songs of the British Isles arranged by Rickards & Wood provided other well-loved melodies with The Londonderry Air and The Blaydon Races. The first half ended with 12th Street Rag. After generous refreshments, the quartet played music by Gordon Jacob, Clare Grundman, Gounod among others and concluded with three energetic Klezmer Triptych traditional pieces arranged by Mike Curtis. The audience insisted on an encore and were delighted with a reprise of The Blaydon Races.

Rob Blanken and Jen Flatman both play in several professional ensembles and the Petersfield Orchestra. Both are scheduled to play in the March 2026 Petersfield Musical Festival concert and recitals. Naomi Rides and Spenser Bundy play with the Havant Chamber Orchestra. All four are music teachers and soloists performing nationally and internationally as well as in Hampshire on a regular basis.

Michael Buckley