Sinfonietta Britten, Vaughan-Williams & More

KNUSSEN Cantata for Oboe and String Trio (11')
RAVEL Piano Trio in A Minor (28')
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Piano Quintet in C minor (40')
BRITTEN Sinfonietta (15')

This sumptuous exploration of an intricate musical family tree unpacks the influence of some of the 20th century’s greatest composers upon one another. The shimmering colours of Ravel’s exquisite Piano Trio, which drew on eclectic sources including Basque folk dance and Malaysian verse-forms, was highly influential in helping that most English of composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, to find his own musical voice. While Benjamin Britten, whose student Oliver Knussen opens this concert, wrestled with and resisted the legacy of Vaughan Williams throughout his life, his echoes can be heard, not least in this early taut and twitchy work that brings this programme to a swaggering conclusion.