Villiers Quartet: Late Schubert IV

Villiers Quartet are back at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building on Thursday 29 October, opening the final part of their three-year Late Schubert series. It's a long night of chamber music—two and a half hours without an interval—and they've brought in two guests to expand the sound: pianist Alexander McNamee and double bassist Emily Chambers.

The programme starts with Rebecca Clarke's Poem (Adagio) for string quartet, written in 1926, followed by Haydn's String Quartet in Bb major, op. 76/iv 'Sunrise', from 1797. Then comes William Alwyn's String Quartet No. 9 'Romeo & Juliet', a 1931 piece inspired by Romeo's death scene in Act 5 Scene 1 of Shakespeare's play; the Villiers Quartet first recorded it back in 2020. The main event is Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 'Trout', from 1819, and the evening rounds off with the quartet's own transcriptions of folksongs from England, Ireland and Wales.

The venue is the JdP Music Building at St Hilda's College, Cowley Place, OX4 1DY. It's become a bit of a hub for chamber music and jazz projects linked to the Oxford University Orchestra and the OUJO, as well as a regular rehearsal space. Before the music starts, there's a pre-concert talk by Dr Peter Copley.

Doors open at 6:30pm, the talk is at 6:45pm, and the concert itself begins at 7:30pm. Tickets are £39, £30 or £7.