Between Heaven and Earth – Iconic Chamber Works by Mozart and Beethoven

As last year, we are delighted to welcome another of the world’s great string quartets, the Belcea quartet, to open this year’s festival. The famous introduction to Mozart’s ‘Dissonance‘ quartet seems like the darkest corner of an empty universe, before brilliant light floods in to banish the darkness. Yet in all the exhilarating sparkle, Mozart gives us tantalising glimpses of anxiety and loss. The Belceas are joined by the inspirational clarinettist Reto Bieri for Mozart’s infinitely tender Clarinet quintet, and our distinguished composer-in-residence Thomas Adès contributes his radiant O Albion, a work harking back to late-Beethoven. Naturally, therefore, we end with Beethoven’s last quartet, swinging from rough comedy, to soul-searching song, to a celestial playfulness.

Mozart ‘Dissonance’ quartet in C major, K465
Mozart Clarinet quintet in A major, K581
Adès O Albion
Beethoven String quartet in F major, op135

Every year the Oxford Chamber Music Festival brings together some of the most exciting classical musicians in Europe to live and play together for a week. Creative sparks fly as the players exchange musical partners and tackle the widest variety of sound-worlds.

“World-class” Time Out

With this year’s special 25th anniversary festival we hope to evoke a musical Eden in an increasingly troubled world. We celebrate in sound the glories of nature’s garden; explore the music of innocence and of human desire; and offer works which suggest the drama of the Fall, and the journey back to a state of spiritual grace.