About

Join Henry Chandler and John Paul Ekins for an intimate recital featuring a vibrant programme spanning classical to 20th-century masterworks.

This programme begins with Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, a work full of freshness and nature, the aria-like Adagio seen by some as a precursor to the Scene by the Brook in the Pastoral Symphony. We continue with Messiaen’s Thème et Variations which was a wedding gift to his wife. Colourful harmonies and birdsong motifs carry us towards an explosive conclusion. The second half opens with Clara Schumann’s Romances, three short, intimate works written whilst on a concert tour with her husband Robert. We end with Prokofiev’s First Sonata, written during the First World War. Opening with the sound of “wind in a graveyard”, the work features haunting textures and push both instruments to their absolute extremes.