Saint-Saens - Fantasie for violin and harp, Op. 124  
Caplet - Conte Fantastique for string quartet and harp
Ravel - Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet

Interval

Saint-Saens - Tarantelle for flute, clarinet and piano, Op. 6   
Mozart - Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581  

Catrin Finch - harp
Jack Liebeck - violin
Sara Trickey - violin
Meghan Cassidy - viola
Irena Morozova - viola
Benjamin Hughes - cello
Christian-Pierre La Marca - cello
Maximiliano Martin - clarinet
Clement Dufour - flute
Goldner String Quartet
Amandine Savary - piano

(N.B. Note earlier time)

Stephen Johnson
 

Slowly, cautiously perhaps, the classical music world is beginning to look again at some of the women composers it once marginalised or simply ignored. Stephen Johnson considers some of the more outstanding talents, and focuses on one woman composer who he feels achieved true greatness: Lili Boulanger, sister of the famous teacher Nadia Boulanger. Despite her painfully short life (she died at just 24), Boulanger managed in this short time to create not only exquisite songs, but some of the powerful and distinctive choral music written in the twentieth century. Though her message isn’t always a comfortable one, it is ultimately, Stephen argues, an important one - and by no means only for women.  

(N.B. Note earlier time)

Clara Schumann - Piano Trio in G minor, Op.17
Poulenc - Sonata for Flute and Piano

Tchaikovsky -  String Quartet No.1 in D major, Op.11

Goldner String Quartet
Trio Dali - piano trio
Clement Dufour - flute
Amandine Savary - piano

A first for Oxford May Music - not only the first time we have had a Jazz concert, but also the first time anything has been performed in perfect darkness. This will allow us to explore the effect of darkness on your senses and in particular your listening experience. In the first half of the evening, world experts Russell and Ron will explore some of consequences of darkness in the natural world. Sunlight is vital to life on Earth; not only does it enable plants to grow it also allows us to see.  But it does much more than this including, regulating our body clocks, sleep, seasonal rhythms and even alertness. However, many animals cope perfectly well with very little or even none of the sun’s rays.  We will examine the use made of sunlight by several animals, including humans, and compare life in this sunlit world to the realms inhabited by animals that live in the deep ocean beyond the sun’s reach.

Phronesis Jazz Trio

Professor Jo Dunkley
University of Oxford

By making detailed observations of the Universe, we have discovered that familiar atoms only make up a small fraction of everything that is out there. Most of it we don’t yet understand. We think that about a quarter of the universe is made of Dark Matter, a name we use to describe invisible matter that feels the effect of gravity, likely an undiscovered new type of particle. The other 70% is something we call Dark Energy, odd stuff that has the strange effect of making the expansion of the universe speed up. This talk will introduce these mysterious ingredients of space, and describe how their nature might be discovered using large international experiments.

Fanny Mendelssohn - String Quartet in E flat major
Beethoven - String Trio No.1 in E flat Major Op.3

Jack Liebeck - violin
Sara Trickey - violin
Meghan Cassidy - viola
Benjamin Hughes - cello
Christian-Pierre La Marca - cello

Victor Borge was a brilliant pianist and virtuoso comedian - “the funniest man in the world” (NY Times).  His extraordinary life is retold and his hilarious act re-imagined for the 21st century by his natural successor - star of BBC TV and radio, Rainer Hersch.  "Total sellout" (Edinburgh Fringe). “A tearstreamingly funny tribute”  (Scotsman).

Professor Angela Brueggemann
University of Oxford

Antibiotics are one of the greatest public health achievements and Oxford has played a central role in this success. Antibiotics like penicillin have been in use for >70 years and have saved countless lives. However, bacteria resistant to the effects of antibiotics were discovered shortly after penicillin was licensed and since then, the global prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has increased significantly. Infections caused by resistant bacteria can be difficult to treat, thus antibiotic resistance is a major threat to human health. The science behind the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance, and potential solutions to the problem, will be discussed.

Poulenc - Sonata for Four Hands
Stravinsky - "Petrushka"
Cecile Chaminade - 2 Romances

Interval

Ravel - Rhapsodie Espagnole
Rachmaninov - Six Pieces, Op. 11

Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva, four hands at piano

Rebecca Clarke - Sonata for Viola and Piano (1919) 
Dvorak - Bagatelles for 2 violins, Cello and Piano, Op. 47

Interval

Beethoven - String Quartet No.12 in E flat major, Op.127

Goldner String Quartet
Katya Apekisheva - piano
Jack Liebeck - violin
Dene Olding - violin
Gerard Causse - viola
Christian-Pierre La Marca - cello

Professor David Vines
University of Oxford

Why was there a financial crisis in 2008? Why has the world economy recovered so slowly since then? Is there another crisis just around the corner? And have the economic policies of austerity been a good idea, or have they made things worse? Professor Vines will present some answers to these questions, in a way which dispels the idea that economics is some kind of technical wizardry. 

Haydn - Piano Trio in G major, "Gypsy", HOB XV:25
Amy Beach - Piano Quintet in F# minor, Op. 67 

Interval

Dvorak - Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op.81

Trio Dali - piano trio
Katya Apekisheva - piano
Jack Liebeck - violin
Sara Trickey - violin
Dimity Hall - violin
Gerard Causse - viola
Julian Smiles - cello

Professor Tom Melham
University of Oxford

Computers and the software that animates them touch our lives in countless ways. They control our cars, trains and aeroplanes; realise modern systems of healthcare and power lifesaving medical devices; drive the mechanisms of vital public services; run our economy. They entertain us and – for many – are indispensable foundations of our social lives. Yet the design of computer systems remains error prone and vulnerable to malicious attack – with increasingly disastrous potential effect on society and individuals. Has our society passed the point of no return? And what can computer scientists do to protect us? 

The opening concert of Oxford May Music 2016 has something of the night about it...

Boccherini - String Quintet in C major  G.324 Op.30 No. 6 “Night Music on the Streets of Madrid”  
Borodin - String Quartet No. 2 in D 

Interval

Lili Boulanger  - "D’un soir triste" (piano trio)
Fanny Mendelssohn - Notturno in G minor (solo piano)
Chopin - Nocturnes       
Schoenberg - "Verklärte Nachte", Op. 4 - Sextet

Goldner String Quartet
Katya Apekisheva - piano
Gerard Causse - viola
Thomas Carroll - cello
Trio Dali - piano trio

Prof Jim Al-Khalili
University of Surrey

For almost a century, physicists and chemists have developed and learned to harness and apply the strange rules of quantum mechanics to explain the microscopic world of atoms and molecules and the elementary building blocks of our universe. But biologists have thus far not needed to learn about this powerful yet counterintuitive field. Now, experimental evidence and theoretical advances have pushed quantum biology to the forefront of research. This talk will shed light on some familiar phenomena in biology, from photosynthesis to smell, that seem to require quantum mechanics in order to be full understood.