Kings Place Music Foundation is proud to be lead commissioner of Alchymia, a new work for clarinet quintet from Thomas Adès, and to present the world premiere, performed for its dedicatees, clarinettist Mark Simpson and the Diotima Quartet. The new work will be framed by Schubert’s effervescent Sixth Quartet and Brahms’s own sublime masterwork for clarinet and strings.

Mark Simpson is one of the leading musicians of his generation, both as a clarinettist and composer. In this concert he collaborates with the acclaimed Diotima Quartet. The in-demand ensemble has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Pierre Boulez (who revised his Livre pour Quatuor for them) and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new work, including by composers Thomas Ades, Toshio Hosokawa, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Rebecca Saunders and Tristan Murail.

This concert forms part of Mark Simpson’s three-concert residency at Kings Place in the 21/22 season, which includes a Luminate event (TBC Dec 2021) and a London Chamber Music Sundays event on Sun 20 Feb 2022.

Commission supported by Parabola Foundation