It is a privilege to welcome the outstanding Esbjerg Ensemble to perform two contrasting concerts at this year’s Festival. The first contains four exquisite chamber works culminating in Beethoven’s glorious Septet in E flat major. The second features a larger group of fifteen players performing specially commissioned arrangements of two monumental symphonic works by Mussorgsky and Mahler.
The Esbjerg Ensemble was the first professional chamber ensemble in Denmark, founded in 1967. Its mission then was the same as it is today: to perform classical chamber music at the highest level - locally, nationally and internationally. The ensemble is universally praised for its stylish interpretations and its innovative and versatile programming.
The ensemble has a core membership of ten virtuoso players - a wind quintet, a string quartet and percussion - who are hand-selected from all around the world. Guest musicians are specially invited to extend the line-up when programmes demand, for example, piano or double bass.
The group performs around eighty concerts a year, six to eight of which are broadcast on Danish Radio, and there is a strong programme of inspirational education work. Esbjerg Ensemble acts as a key ambassador for important composers from Denmark, and we will be treated to some extremely fine Danish music in the group’s Grinton concert.
These two concerts promise to be real Festival highlights, so please come and hear them if you can:
Monday 27 May, 19:30, St. Andrew’s Church in Grinton: Chamber music by Nielsen, Beethoven and others.
Tuesday 28 May, 19:30, Influence Church in Richmond: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Mahler’s 10th Symphony.