Galliard Ensemble ©Stan Papior
Galliard Ensemble ©Stan Papior
(Event 9: Fri 10 Oct 2025 8.00pm Little Missenden Church)
Kathryn Thomas flute Owen Dennis oboe Katherine Spencer clarinet Richard Bayliss horn Helen Storey bassoon
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Fantasie in F minor, K594 (arr. WF Meyer)
Cecilia McDowall Subject to the weather
Carl Nielsen Wind Quintet op43
Samuel Barber Summer Music op31
John Tavener Little Missenden Calm
Percy Grainger Lisbon
Amy Beach Pastorale
Malcolm Arnold Three Shanties op4
Programme Notes will be available here and free at concert
The Galliard’s programme is anchored by Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet – “the subtlest and finest ever written” according to the composer and scholar Robert Simpson – conjuring an amazing variety of sonorities and blends from the players. Nielsen provided his own description of the work in a programme note for the first performance in 1922: “The quintet for winds …has attempted to render the characters of the various instruments. At one moment they are all talking at once, at another they are quite alone.” This is nowhere more evident than in the magnificent set of 11 variations based on one of the composer’s own simple but haunting chorales and which form the work’s last movement.
The rest of the programme shows us exactly what a wind quintet can do, from effortlessly evoking Samuel Barber’s and Amy Beach’s countryside peace to delighting us with some typically idiosyncratic treatments of folk song and sea shanties by Percy Grainger and Malcolm Arnold (all great fun) and – as the cherry on the cake – a Festival commission by John Tavener originally played here in 1984.
Former BBC New Generation Artists, the Galliard Ensemble is established as one of Britain’s leading chamber groups, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Birtwistle. Now in its 30th year, the ensemble has performed in many of the world’s leading venues and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead and at the BBC Proms. They’re also frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
The Ensemble is known for its virtuosic, entertaining and distinctive performance style and its recordings have been widely praised. The Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and BBC Radio 3 have all selected a Galliard Ensemble CD as “outstanding” or as Critics’ Choice.
“Top calibre performers shining the beam of their musicality on an unequivocal masterpiece” Barry Millington, London Evening Standard
Online booking is managed by TicketSource. This event may be booked from the Tickets link on this page but, when booking for multiple events, it may be more convenient to use our Little Missenden Festival page on TicketSource.
Fri 10 Oct 2025 8.00pm
Little Missenden Church
£30, £22, £12
Online booking is managed by TicketSource. This event may be booked from the Tickets link on this page but, when booking for multiple events, it may be more convenient to use our Little Missenden Festival page on TicketSource.