The wonderful performers of the Northern Chords Festival – all well-known musicians in their solo careers – in a programme featuring two great piano quartets, Mozart’s dramatic quartet in G minor and Brahms’ passionate and autobiographical C minor quartet.

The concert begins with the hauntingly expressive first violin sonata by Gabriel Fauré composed in the 1870s.

FREE Pre-Concert Foyer Performance – Amare Duo, 5.45pm

Arthur Honegger Sonatina for Violin and Cello, H. 80 (1932)
Henri Duparc/ Victor Wilder (after Goethe) Romance de Mignon
Duo Amare Improvisation on Brahms’ Albumblatt für Clara Schumann
Bohuslav Martinů Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello, H. 157

Duo Amare’s programme explores the influences of Fauré and Brahms from this evening concert’s programme. Both Honegger and Martinu studied in Paris during the first part of the twentieth century, where they encountered the circles of the older Fauré, composer of tonight’s violin sonata. Their two duets date both date from around 1930 and show the new directions taken by the next generation of French-inspired composers.

Henri Duparc, on the other hand, was one of Faure’s contemporaries, and Duo Amare’s own arrangement of his touching setting of Goethe’s words alludes to the Goethe inspiration in Brahms’ C Minor Quartet. Pursuing the theme of Brahms’ inspiration, Duo Amare also contribute one of their own improvisations to the programme, choosing as the basis a simple melody written by Brahms for his beloved Clara Schumann.