• St Saviour’s Church (map)
  • Warwick Avenue, Little Venice, London W9 2PT

Tickets: £12/£10 (under-18s)

Pre-concert talk with BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny, 6.45pm.

The Berkeley Ensemble open the weekend with a new work by Toby Young alongside Beethoven’s ever-popular Septet and Howard Ferguson’s brooding and dramatic Octet.

Toby YoungSing Each Song Twice (world première)
Howard Ferguson – Octet, op. 4
Franz SchubertQuartettsatz D703
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven – Septet

Approximate finish 9.30pm

After the concert special guest Fenella Humphreys gives a late-night solo violin recital a 5-minute walk away in an unusual canal-side venue with Bach’s Chaconne and a London premiere by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

About the Berkeley Ensemble

Hailed as ‘an instinctive collective’ (The Strad) the Berkeley Ensemble  takes its name from two British composers of the last hundred years, father and son Sir Lennox and Michael Berkeley. It was formed in 2008 by members of Southbank Sinfonia, Britain’s young professional orchestra, with the aim of exploring the wealth of little-known twentieth and twenty-first century British chamber music alongside more established repertoire. It now enjoys a busy concert schedule performing throughout the UK and abroad, and is also much in demand for its inspiring work in education.

The ensemble’s flexible configuration and collaborative spirit has led to performances with leading musicians including Sir Thomas Allen, Richard Sisson, Gabriel Prokofiev and Nicholas Daniel. The group enthusiastically champions new music and has worked with composers John Casken and Robin Holloway. It was proud to premiere its first commission, Michael Berkeley’s Clarion Call and Gallop, in 2013 and featured the piece on its debut recording. Released in March 2014, the album was praised by Gramophone for ‘the vibrancy of the Berkeley Ensemble’s performance even compared with Dennis Brain and friends in [the Ferguson Octet’s] first recording.’

The ensemble is rapidly building a reputation for innovative and thought-provoking programming and in spring 2014 received official recognition with a Help Musicians UK Emerging Excellence award.  Equally at home on the summer festival circuit and in the concert hall, the group has performed at the Latitude and Greenbelt festivals.

Taking its music to new audiences, most importantly through education work, is central to the ensemble’s activities. Its work in this area includes self-directed projects in addition to collaborations with Southbank Sinfonia, Merton Music Foundation and Pan Concerts for Children. The ensemble regularly coaches students in chamber performance at the University of York, is ensemble-in-residence at Queen Elizabeth School in Cumbria and Ibstock Place School in London and runs an annual residential chamber music course in Somerset.