Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro - piano
Alexander Sitkovetsky - violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Jack Liebeck - violin
Benjamin Roskams - violin
Simon Oswell - viola
Louise Williams - viola
Thomas Carroll - cello
Gemma Rosefield - cello

Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18           
Mozart: Piano Trio in C, K548

Interval

Korngold: Piano Quintet in E Major, Op. 15                    
 

Tonight’s concert is the product of three young men. Brahms’ String Sextet No 1 and Korngold’s Piano Quintet were written by composers in their twenties, who went on to long and distinguished careers. The other, Mozart’s Piano Trio K548, was written when the composer had just passed thirty. He, however, was near the end of a career of concentrated creativity unparalleled in music.

Every one of the trillions of cells in the human body are surrounded by a membrane that contains an enormous variety of transmembrane proteins. These proteins mediate the interactions of a cell with the outside world including other cells, the blood and the immune system. Transmembrane proteins also permit small molecules, nutrients and as well as many pathogens to selectively traverse the otherwise impermeable membrane barriers. Hence the protein composition of a cell’s outer membrane must be carefully and dynamically regulated if cells are to survive i.e the right amounts of the right proteins must be in the right membrane at the right time. Cells achieve this control by moving the transmembrane proteins to compartments inside the cell in small transport vesicles formed by ‘pinching off’ a small portion of the parent membrane. That these transport processes are fundamental is reflected by the fact that ~30% of mammalian proteins are either components of this transport machinery or its cargo.

All transport vesicles are built in a similar way as they need to carry out the same functions – hence they can be considered as the ‘white vans’ of the cell: they look similar and go everywhere, delivering all manner of cargo. The focus of this talk will be on the architecture and function of these ‘white vans’, which is of fundamental biological as well as medical importance. I hope to show you that, by visualising these structures at atomic resolution, which we have done using data collected at the Diamond Light Source near Didcot, we are now able to understand how fundamental processes inside the cell work.

Alexander Sitkovetsky - violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Jack Liebeck - violin

Leclair: Sonata for two violins in C Major, Op. 3 no. 3
D. Scarlatti arr. D Worswick: Sonata in A Major, L. 345
Wieniawski: Etude-Caprice No. 1 in G Minor
D. Scarlatti arr. D Worswick:  Sonata in A Major, L. 495
Handel-Halvorsen, arr. X. Sanz for two violins, Passacaglia

Three of our festival violinists take turns to play scintillating duos from Leclair, Domenico Scarlatti, Wieniawksi and the famous arrangement of a Handel theme by Halvorsen for violin and cello, here arranged for two violins.

Purcell - Sonata in 4 parts
A collection of grounds: T. Baltzar – John Come Kiss me; H. Purcell: 2 in 1 upon a ground; 
C. Simpson - Divisions for solo viol
J. Blow - Trio sonata in A major
G.F. Handel - Trio Sonata in B minor

INTERVAL

M. Locke - Suite from Tripla Concordia
H. Purcell - Suite for solo harpsichord
Handel - Trio Sonata in E minor
F. Barsanti - A Collection of Scots Airs

Our traditional Sunday night Baroque concert. Tonight, old friends of the Festival Florilegium perform a rich treasure-trove of Baroque masterpieces played on combinations of recorder, flute, violin, viola da gamba, theorbo, guitar and harpsichord.

For several decades scientists around the globe have worked hard towards the their dream of finding gravitational waves, tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time, which were first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. In February 2016 the long waiting had an end when the first observation of gravitational waves in the LIGO gravitational wave detectors made headlines around the world. Scientist had found the signature of two black holes which collided 1.4 billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away. This was the first time we could listen to the sound of the Universe, - Einstein's Symphony! 

Stefan will report on long-lasting quest for finding gravitational waves, discuss all the additional signals found over the past year and will bring the sounds of several black hole inspirals for you to listen to. In the second part of the talk Stefan will give answers to questions like: Why did so many telescopes on the Earth and in space point at the same part of the sky in August 2017 in what was arguably the largest coordinated effort in astronomy ever. What were all of them looking for and what did they see? If you race gamma ray flash against a gravitational wave, who will win? How can we measure the age of the Universe? What is the origin of the gold from which the Nobel prize medals are made? What can we expect from the new era of so-called 'multi-messenger' astronomy? 

Craig Ogden - guitar
Jack Liebeck - violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Boris Kucharsky - violin
Benjamin Roskams - violin/viola
Simon Oswell - viola
Thomas Carroll - cello

Armand Coeck: Constellations for solo guitar                   
Peter Hope: Divertimento for guitar quartet                  
Boccherini:  Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D Major, "Fandango"         
Matthew Hindson: "Rush" for guitar quintet            
Albeniz - Sevilla and Torre Bermeja for solo guitar
Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango Bordello, 1900 and Cafe, 1930 for violin and guitar            

A fascinating mix of the Baroque and the modern, all involving the guitar. We hear Boccherini’s “Fandango” Quintet, and, via Astor Piazzolla, come up to date with pieces by Armand Coeck, Peter Hope and Matthew Hinson.

Danny Driver - piano

Brahms: Four Piano Pieces Op 119
Liszt: La Lugubre Gondola I & II, Nuages Gris
Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke Op 11

Interval

Ailish Tynan - soprano
James Baillieu - piano
Jack Liebeck - violin

Mahler: "Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald"
           - "Ablösung im Sommer"  
           - "Scheiden und Meiden"
           - "Ging heut' Morgen übers Feld"
R. Strauss: "Morgen"                                                    
R. Strauss: Vier Letze Leider, Op. Post.              

The last decades of the 19th century and the first of the 20th mark the last flowering of romanticism. We journey through German romanticism with late piano pieces by Liszt and Brahms. Via four delightful songs by Gustav Mahler, we arrive at Richard Strauss’s wonderful songs “Morgen” and the “Four Last Songs”. The shape of things to come is illustrated by Schoenberg’s Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11.
                    

When the spooks of MI5 discovered that there had been a British spy in the Atomic Bomb Manhattan Project, at first they couldn't decide if it was Rudolf Peierls – the father of the bomb, who first realised how to build the weapon, or Klaus Fuchs, his colleague, who lived in the Peierls’ household like a son. What information did Fuchs pass to the USSR; what evidence was there; why did he do it and why did he confess? And why, soon after Fuchs’ arrest, did his colleague Bruno Pontecorvo defect to the USSR as the Cold War threatened to turn hot? For the first time a scientist has examined previously unseen documents and unravelled a surprising tale – of love and betrayal, of duplicity, and of questionable behaviour by the Establishment – and discovered that an Abingdon School Music teacher was a mole for MI5. The lecture is based on Frank Close's book “Half Life – Bruno Pontecorvo, physicist or spy”, and his upcoming book “Trinity”.

Daniel Grimwood - piano
Jack Liebeck - violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Benjamin Roskams - violin
Simon Oswell – viola
Louise Williams - viola
Thomas Carroll - cello
Gemma Rosefield - cello

Mozart: String Quintet in C Major,  K515
Bernstein: Piano Trio
Debussy: Piano Trio in G Major
 

Our afternoon tonic starts with Mozart’s expansive string quintet, K515, followed by two effervescent piano trios, early works from Leonard Bernstein and Claude Debussy.

Julian Bliss - clarinet
Jack Liebeck - violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Boris Kucharsky - violin
Simon Oswell - viola
Louise Williams - viola
Thomas Carroll - cello
Gemma Rosefield - cello
Enno Senft - double bass
Daniel Grimwood - piano

Prokofiev – Overture on Hebrew Themes in C Minor, Op. 34      
Baermann – Adagio for Clarinet and Strings   
Dvořák - String Quintet No.2 in G Major, Op.77 

Interval

Glazunov – Oriental Reverie for Clarinet Quintet, Op. 14
Weber - Clarinet Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 34 
Spohr – Fantasy and Variations for Clarinet and Strings,  Op. 81     
 

A great variety of pieces for the clarinet and various other instruments by Prokofiev, Baermann, Glazunov, Weber and Spohr. Star clarinettist Julian Bliss has a well-earned rest during Dvorak’s wonderful String Quintet.

The Anthropocene, the concept that the Earth has moved into a novel geological epoch characterised by human domination of the planetary system, is an increasingly prevalent concept in academic and in wider culture. I explore and review the origins of and history of the concept, and the arguments around its geological formalisation and starting date. I examine perspectives and critiques of the concept from the Earth system sciences, ecological and geological sciences, and from the social sciences and humanities, exploring its role as a cultural zeitgeist and ideological provocation. I conclude by offering a personal perspective on the concept of the Anthropocene and its usefulness

Silver-Garburg Duo
Jack Liebeck- violin
Alexandra Raikhlina - violin
Simon Oswell – viola
Thomas Carroll - cello

Mendelssohn: Octet Op. 20 – arr. for four hands at piano and string quartet

Interval

Schubert: Sonata in B-flat major,  D617, for four hands at piano       
Schubert: Fantasie in D minor, D940, for four hands at piano 

             
Schubert wrote some of the greatest music for four hands at piano. Tonight we hear two excellent examples. The Mendelssohn Octet is a perennial favourite and has been heard at the Festival before – but never in this arrangement, for string quartet and four hands at piano.  

With a growing population with changing demands, competition for the global land resource is increasing. We need to feed a projected population of ~12 billion by 2100, and might also need to deliver land-based greenhouse gas removal for climate change mitigation. Managing these conflicts is a major global challenge. I will discuss some of the main challenges, synergies, trade-offs and possible solutions.