Phil is a retired A-level English teacher who is now able to devote his life to things he really wants to do with his time. These include, but are not limited to: writing short fiction, singing, creating programme notes for his choir’s concerts, volunteering, cooking, reading, and attending all home games at his beloved Manchester City. Alongside these is listening to classical music (live, on disc and on the radio), a lifetime’s love of which was sparked at the age of 11 when he discovered Haydn.
The temporary loss of their first violin holds no fears for the Doric Quartet in this richly satisfying concert of playful Haydn and driven Beethoven at the Bradfield Festival.
Sheffield Chamber Music Festival goes on tour, but Ensemble 360’s string players are right at home in the unique “in the round” setting of St Martin’s Church, Stoney Middleton.
The Ligeti Quartet’s new album of music by Anna Meredith features at their launch event at The Leadmill, Sheffield, but a performance of Ligeti’s First String Quartet steals the limelight.
The Marmen Quartet returns to Sheffield, the site of some of the quartet’s formative experiences, in this sometimes uneven concert of Mozart, Janáček and Beethoven.
Autumn colours of late Brahms illuminated this November evening in the company of Ensemble 360, before the concert concludes with Dohnányi at his most subversive.
A generous helping of the pastoral and an overlooked early masterpiece demonstrate the range of Vaughan Williams, along with a work by his mentor, Maurice Ravel.
An almost perfect evening of keyboard works in which God and the Devil share the best tunes, in portraits of heroism, love, faith and devilish seduction.
One of the fathers of the wind quintet, a sextet for a unique instrumental line-up and Beethoven as we rarely hear him: an evening of surprises in Sheffield.
The accumulated experience of over 160 years of quartet playing is revealed in an intensity of passion undimmed by the passage of time in this exhilarating concert by the Brodskys.
