This is one of our favourite programmes, both to play and for our audiences.  In his quintet, Mozart basks in an unusually wide range of moods and textures, bringing enormous richness from his themes.  Philip Venables’ short prelude is a thought-provoking, reverent exploration of the opening few bars of the Mozart.  Darker, yearning autumn colours in the Brahms Quintet make a sublime contrast.

The Guardian said, about a recent performance at Wigmore Hall:  “Brahms’s extraordinary Clarinet Quintet…was performed after the interval, in an intense performance that rightly hovered between yearning and bitterness. The clarinettist, Mark van de Wiel, was immaculate in his negotiation of the thin line between suavity and strident anger on which the work depends.”

Venables – K, a prelude to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.
Mozart – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A major, “Stadler”, K.581
Brahms – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor, Op. 115.

Total time: 75 minutes, 5 players.