I Fagiolini
LEONARDO: SHAPING THE INVISIBLE
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Friday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 244806 or www.musicatoxford.com
Founded in Oxford by Robert Hollingworth in 1986, vocal phenomenon I Fagiolini returns for a special concert marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. Music by Tallis, Howells, Monteverdi and JS Bach will be interspersed by images of da Vinci’s work with commentary by Leonardo expert Professor Martin Kemp. The concert also features a new commission by Adrian Williams and poet Gillian Clarke.
Witney Music Society
TOBY HUGHES/DANIEL KING SMITH
High Street Methodist Church, Witney
Friday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.witneymusicsociety.org.uk
Rising star Toby Hughes, a prize-winning double bass player, is joined by internationally-acclaimed pianist Daniel King Smith for this recital.
It includes Desenclos Aria et Rondo, Bottesini Elegy, Montag Sonata in E minor, and two Brahms pieces, Rhapsody Op.79 and Brahms Sonata No.1 in E minor Op.38.
Instruments of Time and Truth/Choir of The Queen’s College
QUEEN’S COLLEGE CHAPEL TERCENTENARY CONCERT
The Queen’s College Chapel
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.queenschoir.com
Oxford’s professional baroque orchestra teams up with the Choir of The Queen’s College to mark the tercentenary of the chapel, which was consecrated by the Archbishop of York, Sir William Dawes, in 1719. This suitably celebratory programme includes Bach’s Magnificat and Brandenburg Concerto No.5 and Handel’s Zadok the Priest, Organ Concerto in A Op.7 No.2 and My Heart is Inditing. With Steven Farr (harpsichord and organ) and conductor Owen Rees.
Oxford Sinfonia/OUP Choir
FAURE REQUIEM
St Barnabas Church, Jericho
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: https://m.facebook.com/OUPChoir
Malcolm Pearce conducts the OUP Choir in a lovely selection of choral works, including Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, Mendelssohn Hear My Prayer, Stanford Magnificat and Nun Dimittis in B flat, and Fauré’s sublime Requiem.With Georgina Malcolm (soprano), Samantha Oxborough (mezzo), Maximilian Lawrie (tenor) and Frazer Scott (bass), accompanied by the Oxford Sinfonia.
St Giles Orchestra
AUTUMN CONCERT
Cornerstone, Didcot
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01235 515144 or www.cornerstone-arts.org
The Oxford-based St Giles Orchestra makes its annual trip to Didcot’s Cornerstone with a concert that will take the audience on a virtual journey around the world, from England (Butterworth and Elgar) to the thrill of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, ‘From the New World’, and other evocative music from Czechoslovakia (Smetana) and Finland (Sibelius). Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
Oxford Coffee Concerts
GIUSEPPE GUARRERA, PIANO
Holywell Music Room
Sunday, 11.15am
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Emerging talent Giuseppe Guarrera, a recent graduate of the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, is already a prize-winning pianist and a YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust) artist. In this exciting programme, he performs J.S. Bach Chaconne (Partita No.2 in D minor BWV 1004), a selection of Chopin preludes, three movements from Ravel’s Miroirs and Prokofiev Sonata No.7 in B flat Op.83, ‘Stalingrad’.
SJE Arts
ALEXANDER TARAS DE SINA, PIANO
St John the Evangelist
Sunday, 4pm
Tickets: www.sje-oxford.org
Having started learning the piano at the age of three and made his Carnegie Hall debut two years later, there was never any doubt that Alexander Taras de Sina was going to be a star of the classical music world. Now with numerous awards under his belt, he makes his Oxford debut with a programme that ties in with Remembrance Sunday by exploring the themes of love, loss and longing. His programme includes works by Bach, Boulez, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner and Liszt, interspersed by readings of his own poetry.
Music in Adderbury
CONSONE STRING QUARTET
St Mary’s Church, Adderbury
Sunday, 7pm
Tickets: 01865 305305 or ticketsoxford.com
Formed in 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music, the Consone String Quartet, recipient of two prizes and selected as BBC New Generation Artists for the 2019/21 season, comes to Adderbury to perform string quartets by Boccerini, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. Their debut CD, released earlier this year and featuring works by Mendelssohn and Haydn, was described by The Strad as “a musical, emotional, stylistic and technical bullseye”. With Agata Daraskaite (violin), Magdalena Loth-Hill (violin), Elitsa Bogdanova (viola) and George Ross (cello).
NICOLA LISLE
