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Michael Collins clarinet & Piatti String Quartet

Nathaniel Anderson-Frank and Michael Trainor violins
Tetsuumi Nagata viola
Jessie Ann Richardson cello

Reicha Clarinet Quintet in B flat Op 89
Schulhoff Quartet No 1
Bridge Three Idylls
Bliss Clarinet Quintet

Leading British clarinettist Michael Collins joins up with the Piatti Quartet, playing for Leamington Music for the third time. The first half of the concert stays with Czech music, but then the Festival theme switches to British music connected with the Great War. Sir Arthur Bliss’s Quintet, last heard in the Royal Pump Rooms in 2013, is one of his great works, as he remembers his brother who played the clarinet and was killed in the War.

Martin Kasík piano

Janáček In the Mists
Smetana Three Czech Dances
Dvořák Humoreske in G flat Op 101
Schulhoff Etudes de Jazz
Fiser Sonata No 8
Slavický Three Pieces

Martin Kasík is building a following here after concerts in the Stratford on Avon Music Festival, Music at Leamington Hastings and this return to the Royal Pump Rooms, the last concert being in 2014.

Ensemble 360

Juliette Bausor flute
Adrian Wilson oboe
Matthew Hunt clarinet
Katherine Lacy bass clarinet
Amy Harman bassoon
Martin Field contrabassoon
Naomi Atherton horn
Tim Horton piano

Reicha Wind Quintet in E flat Op 88 No 2
Janáček Mládí
Kabeláč Wind Sextet Op 8
Schulhoff BassNachtigall
Smetana Polkas
Martinů Sextet in E flat H174

Ensemble 360 members are regular visitors to the Festival Weekends and always bring programmes that mix familiar works with others waiting to be discovered by our audiences. There is another quintet by Reicha, a friend of Beethoven and later a teacher of Liszt, tomorrow and the Prague based Miloslav Kabeláč who lived 1908 to 1979 wrote his Sextet in 1940.

Concert sponsored by Presto Classical

The concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3

Jana Vonášková-Nováková violin & Martin Kasík piano

Smetana From My Homeland
Schulhoff Suite for Violin and Piano Op 1
Dvořák Mazurek Op 49
Suk Violin Solo from ‘Radúz and Mahulena’

Jana Vonášková-Nováková has played several times in Leamington and Martin Kasík comes for his third visit. Well known favourites bookend Schulhoff’s substantial work written in 1911 which has an alluring waltz movement and Suk’s solo written in 1900 for a play is simply ravishing. Another appetising lunchtime concert!

Guarneri Piano Trio

Čeněk Pavlík violin
Marek Jerie cello
Ivan Klánský piano
 

Smetana Trio in G minor Op 15
Suk Trio in C minor Op 2
Martinů Bergerettes
Dvořák Trio in B flat Op 21

The Guarneri Piano Trio has been together for over thirty years and their appearances in Leamington over the years have made them great favourites with our audiences. Their stunning interpretation of the Smetana piano trio has bowled our audiences over and what follows in this programme adds up to an evening of great expectation.

Concert generously supported by Michael and Halldora Blair

The concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3

Pražák String Quartet

Jana Vonášková and Vlastimil Holek violins
Josef Kluson viola
Michal Kanka cello

Suk Quartet No 1 in B flat Op 11
Smetana Quartet No 2 in D minor
Dvořák Quartet No 10 in E flat Op 51

In the first of four lunchtime concerts, the Pražák Quartet’s second concert in the Festival offers three late Romantic quartets written in a period of just over thirty years; the Dvorak in 1878-9, the Smetana in 1883 and the Suk in 1911. It promises to be fascinating and some aperitif!

Pražák String Quartet with Ivan Klánský piano

Jana Vonášková and Vlastimil Holek violins
Josef Kluson viola
Michal Kanka cello

Suk Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘Saint Wenceslas’ Op 35a
Smetana Quartet No 1 in E minor
Dvořák Piano Quintet in A Op 81

This leading Czech Quartet performs in Leamington for the first time, but the new leader, Jana Vonášková, has played in the Royal Pump Rooms several times in duos and a piano trio.  The Pražák is joined by Ivan Klánský of the Guarneri Piano Trio  for Antonin Dvorak’s popular Piano Quintet and the programme starts with an important work by his son in law Josef Suk, followed by the extra-ordinary first of the two quartets by Bedřich Smetana, regarded as the founder of Czech music.

Concert generously supported by Hugh Beale

The concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3