大象传媒

Wigmore Soloists is a group of starry musicians originally formed just before the pandemic and lockdown. They first performed online but now, in happier times, they present their programmes as a communal experience, tonight with a programme bookended by jolly septets.

Beethoven's Septet was premiered in Vienna in 1800. But much to his chagrin, and despite the next three decades of exacting effort and continual ground-breaking musical innovation, the affable and witty Septet stubbornly remained Beethoven's most popular work. Its then unusual combination of solo wind and strings was a direct model for the Swedish composer Franz Berwald whose own equally easy-going and good-humoured Septet premiered in Stockholm in 1818. In Vienna at the other end of the century, Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio was composed very much in the shadow of Brahms and with the hope of his approval, which it duly received. Perhaps, whether unconsciously or not, the older composer was flattered by the pronounced similarities to his own music.

Recorded last week at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Franz Berwald: Septet in B flat
Alexander von Zemlinsky: Clarinet Trio in D minor, Op. 3

8.30 pm
Interval music (from CD)
Beethoven: 7 Bagatelles, Op. 33
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano)

8.50 pm
Beethoven: Septet in E flat, Op. 20

Michael Collins (clarinet)
Robin O'Neill (bassoon)
Alberto Men茅ndez Escribano (horn)
Isabelle van Keulen (violin)
Adrien La Marca (viola)
Torleif Thed茅en (cello)
Tim Gibbs double (double bass)
Michael McHale (piano)