The Divine Gift

We explore the polar opposites of Innocence and Experience this evening in Schubert‘s effervescent Trout quintet, and the burning passion of Franck‘s famous sonata. Between those extremes, Bach and Biber suggest the first human steps in the garden of Eden, watched over by Sofia Gubaidulina‘s Angel; and our distinguished composer-in-residence Thomas Adès sketches musical portraits of Shakespeare’s shipwrecked courtiers, lost in a kind of Eden – the island setting of Adès’s opera based on The Tempest.

J. S. Bach Prelude in C Major from Well-Tempered Clavier
Biber Passacaglia for solo violin
Gubaidulina An angel
Franck Violin sonata
Adès Court Studies from The Tempest
Schubert Trout quintet

Artists: Alena Baeva, Reto Bieri, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm, Julius Drake, Irina Zahharenkova, Luciana Mancini, Priya Mitchell, Dirk Mommertz, Annette Walther

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.

“a musical miracle” – Daily Telegraph; “world-class by any standards” Time Out

With this year’s special 25th anniversary festival we hope to create 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.