Britten Sinfonia at Lunch

Our final lunchtime concert features Britten Sinfonia’s brilliant brass section in a programme spanning 400 years, from the courtly dance music of late-16th-century English composer Anthony Holborne, via Matthew Locke’s majestic music for brass instruments, probably written for Charles II’s coronation in 1661, to a brand new work by early-21st-century Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski. Britten Sinfonia’s Principal Flautist, Michael Cox, shows off his virtuosic skills in Oliver Knussen’s Masks, an unusual and technically demanding work that is effectively a ‘dialogue’ for solo flute. The title of Janacek’s Capriccio gives a hint of the piece’s character. Written for piano (left hand alone) and wind/brass septet, it is a capricious, quirky piece, blending folk-like tunes and Romantic melodies within a 20th-century harmonic framework.

Britten Sinfonia

Tickets £7.50 60plus/students/unwaged/under 16s £5