Tickets available from the Portsmouth Guildhall: +44(0)23 9284 3023

£18 full price, £16 concessions: book all six concerts and get a 20% discount – £86.40 for the whole season (£76.80 concs). Prices include booking fee and restoration levy.

All concerts start at 7.30pm at the Portsmouth Guildhall. Seating is unreserved with doors open from 7.00pm.

For further information, contact music@port.ac.uk or +44(0)23 9284 3023

More information on Music in the Round national touring is available online.

Now in its sixteenth season, the Portsmouth Chamber Music Series brings world-class musicians to the city. In partnership with Music in the Round and the Portsmouth Cultural Trust, we present the finest music in informal surroundings where you are never more than a few metres from the performers. The coming year marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, and so you will see most of the concerts include a nod in that direction. A 20% discount is available to those who book the whole series.

Colin Jagger, Director of Music, University of Portsmouth

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

Hagai Shaham violin, Raphael Wallfisch cello, Arnon Erez piano

BEETHOVEN Trio in G, Op. 1 No. 2

BRAHMS Trio in C minor, Op. 101

GRIEG Andante con moto

BEETHOVEN Trio in D, Op. 70 No. 1 'Ghost’

The Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch was founded in 2009 and comprises three of the finest international instrumentalists performing today. In addition to regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall, they have given concerts in Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Israel and Canada.

Beethoven was in his early 20s when he composed his Op. 1 set, but already all the hallmarks of a truly great composer are apparent. The ‘Ghost’ trio, so-called for its ‘ghostly’ slow movement, was composed when he was 37. Brahms’ C minor trio is a late work, and he crystallises the form with four movements of huge emotional variety lasting just 20 minutes.

‘This was an evening of first rate music making... the performances were exceptionally fine.’

Date: Monday 30 September 2019, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Esme Quartet

Wonhee Bae & Yuna Ha violins, Jiwon Kim viola, Ye-eun Heo cello

BRIDGE Novelletten, H. 44

BEETHOVEN Quartet in F, Op. 18 No. 1

WEBERN Langsamer Satz

MENDELSSOHN Quartet in F minor, Op. 80

The Esme Quartet was formed in 2016 and comprises four Korean musicians who were studying together in Cologne. In 2018 they won the Wigmore Hall quartet competition where they gave a breathtaking performance of Beethoven’s Op. 59/2. Here they give us his first numbered quartet which, like the early piano trios, displays an incredibly assured sense of style. Bridge’s delightful miniatures date from 1904, and the achingly beautiful Webern piece from a year later. Mendelssohn’s profound final quartet was composed just a few months before he died, possibly in response to the death of his sister.

‘But it was the Esmé’s monumental Schubert Quartet in G, D. 887, that was the Michelin-starred meal.’

Date: Monday 28 October 2019, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Ensemble 360

Benjamin Nabarro vln, Ruth Gibson vla, Gemma Rosefield vc, Laurène Durantel, db

Tim Horton pf

HAYDN Piano Trio in E-flat, Hob.XV/29

HUMMEL Quintet in E-flat minor, Op. 87

SCHUBERT Quintet in A, D. 667 ‘The Trout’

Music in the Round’s resident ‘Ensemble 360’ is a supremely talented and versatile group of eleven musicians based in Sheffield. Sometimes they play as a full ensemble, and sometimes as a smaller group, as here. Their programme brings together three composers who all overlapped with Beethoven in Vienna. Hummel’s quintet shows the influence of both Haydn and Beethoven, but is in no way derivative, and features a piano part which shows just what an accomplished pianist Hummel was. The Schubert needs no introduction as one of the all-time favourites of the chamber music repertoire.‘The emotional chemistry here was manifestly unusual… pure magic.’

Date: Monday 27 January 2020, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Trio Martinů

Pavel Šafařík violin, Jaroslav Matějka cello, Petr Jiříkovský piano

MARTINŮ Trio No 2 in D minor, H. 327

SMETANA Trio in G minor, Op. 15

BEETHOVEN Trio in B-flat, Op. 97 'Archduke'

Martinů is widely regarded as one of the most influential Czech composers of the 20th century, and yet his fame with the wider public is still unjustly limited. His two late piano trios are incredible works, and the Trio Martinů gave us No. 3 when they last performed here in April 2016, so it is great now to have a chance to hear No. 2. Noble and profound in equal measure, Beethoven’s ‘Archduke’ trio is one of the last works of what has come to be regarded as his middle period.

‘Each player is of the highest quality technically and artistically, and the rapport between them is perfect.’

Date: Monday 24 February 2020, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Pražák Quartet

Jana Vonášková & Vlastimil Holek violins, Josef Kluson viola, Michal Kanka cello

DVOŘÁK Quartet Movement in F, B. 120

BEETHOVEN Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74 ‘Harp’

BEETHOVEN Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

The Pražák Quartet was formed in Prague in 1972, and quickly established itself as one of the leading quartets in the world, touring all over Europe, North America, and Asia. They have also recorded extensively, with over 30 award-winning CDs to their name. In 2015, they chose a new leader, Jana Vonášková, a graduate of the Royal College of Music.

The last decade of Beethoven’s life is surely the most remarkable period of creative outpouring by any composer. From solo piano to chamber music to the symphonic and choral, he composed works which were revolutionary in their time, and which remain revolutionary today. The Op. 131 quartet is perhaps the greatest of all of these.

‘There is a freshness to the playing, a sense of excitement that you would associate with first exposure to and enrapture with a great work.’

Date: Monday 23 March 2020, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Martin Roscoe

HAYDN Andante with Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII/6

MOZART Rondo in A minor, K. 511

BEETHOVEN Sonata in A-flat, Op. 110

SCHUBERT Sonata in C minor, D. 958

Martin Roscoe is well-known to Portsmouth audiences both through solo piano recitals and through partnerships most notably with the late Peter Cropper who was the inspiration behind this series.

His programme includes another extraordinary work from that last decade of Beethoven’s life, paired with a Schubert sonata composed 18 months after Beethoven’s death, and just a couple of months before Schubert himself died. It is one of a set of three composed in September 1828 along with the great C major string quintet.

‘…the pacing, the expressive energy, the understanding of form, the tension, absolutely wonderful.’

Date: Monday 4 May 2020, 7.30pm

Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Telephone: +44(0)23 9284 3023

E-mail: music@port.ac.uk

Tickets available from the Portsmouth Guildhall: +44(0)23 9284 3023

£18 full price, £16 concessions: book all six concerts and get a 20% discount – £86.40 for the whole season (£76.80 concs). Prices include booking fee and restoration levy.

All concerts start at 7.30pm at the Portsmouth Guildhall. Seating is unreserved with doors open from 7.00pm.

For further information, contact music@port.ac.uk or +44(0)23 9284 3023

More information on Music in the Round national touring is available online.