The Bloomsbury Players return with a programme showcasing Dvorak’s double bass quintet on gut strings and in its original 5-movement version (including the extraordinary Intermezzo that was removed). They pair this with Rossini’s first Sonata a quattro, composed when he was only twelve years old, and Fanny Mendelssohn’s rhapsodic and poignant string quartet.

We are grateful to the Continuo Foundation for supporting this concert.

Programme

Gioachino Rossini - Sonata a quattro, no.1 in G major

Fanny Mendelssohn - String Quartet in Eb major

~~~ Interval ~~~

Antonín Dvořák - String Quartet in G major, op.77 (including Intermezzo)

~ The Bloomsbury Players - Sijie Chen & Will McGahon (violins), Hannah Shaw (viola), Orlando Jopling (‘cello), Alexander Jones (double bass) ~

Leighton House was the home and studio of the Victorian artist Sir Frederic Leighton, designed by the architect George Aitchison. Lord Leighton was passionate about music, holding an annual house concert

at which musicians of international renown would perform, with the most prominent figures of the day in attendance. Performers included Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, and audience members included Queen Victoria, John Everett Millais and Robert Browning.

Tickets: £30/40 (Under 30s £18) including access to the museum

Vermeer Season Pass available

Doors open at 6.30

Duration: approx. 1 hr 45 mins (including a short interval)

Bloomsbury Players

The Bloomsbury Players was formed to explore the rich chamber music repertoire from the classical to late romantic periods and beyond, that is less commonly performed on period instruments and with a historical approach. Renowned players within the fields of both period and 'modern' performance, they bring a sense of discovery to their fresh interpretations, re-creating the sound worlds that might have existed when these pieces were first composed.

Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen

Chinese-born British violinist Sijie Chen moved to the UK when she was five years old. While studying in the UK, US and Germany, she was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. She now enjoys a varied career performing on modern and period violins.

As a chamber musician, Sijie has collaborated with artists including Nicola Benedetti, Roderick Williams, Alina Ibragimova and many other wonderful musicians and friends; at the Edinburgh International Festival, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Roman River Festival and other festivals worldwide. She leads the Bloomsbury Players and Wild Arts Ensemble, and is the Artistic Director of Vermeer Chamber Concerts.

Sijie is the co-leader of the London Mozart Players. She tours with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and is a member of the Academy of Ancient Music. She also guests with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, United Strings of Europe, and on period instruments with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the English Concert, La Nuova Musica.

Will McGahon

Will McGahon is an energetic violinist enjoying a varied musical career as a historical performer, chamber musician and orchestral player, performing in the UK and across Europe. 

Will enjoys regularly playing with some of the UK’s leading historical orchestras, including Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot and The Hanover Band. He is also a freelancer in some of the UK’s finest ensembles such as Scottish Chamber Orchestra, United Strings of Europe and Manchester Collective. 

Will is a member of the Bloomsbury Players and the Wild Arts Ensemble.

Hannah Shaw

Hannah Shaw graduated from Juilliard and has lived in the USA, the Netherlands and Edinburgh, before relocating to London. She is a member of the Bloomsbury Players and enjoys playing baroque and classical viola with Arcangelo, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Mozartists, Le Foyer des Artistes, and Anima Eterna Brugge; and she also regularly performs as a guest in a various chamber orchestras, including O/Modernt, 12 Ensemble, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Mozart Players, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.

Orlando Jopling

Orlando studied with Alexander Baillie, William Pleeth and Raphael Wallfisch, and took masterclasses with David Takeno, Paul Tortelier, Stephen Isserlis and Ralph Kirschbaum. 

Chamber music has always been a central part of his life, collaborating with Anthony Marwood, Elena Urioste, Ben Goldscheider, Sijie Chen, Mark Padmore, Tim Ridout, Felicity Lott, Tom Poster, Simon Blendis, the London Sinfonietta, Rebecca Gilliver, Ben Gilmore, Endymion Ensemble, Lawrence Power, Piers Lane, Nika Goriç, Tim Hugh, Boris Giltburg, James Gilchrist and Benjamin Grosvenor. 

Orlando is the Founder and Artistic Director of Wild Arts, bringing world-class performers and performances to intimate settings across the UK; working with schools and young artists to foster future talent; and last but not least, doing all of this in a sustainable, one-planet living way.

Alexander Jones

Alexander Jones is a member of O/Modernt and Assistant Principal of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Born in Manchester, Alexander began learning the double bass with Gethin Griffith at the age of seven, and has since studied with Ronan Dunne, Tom Goodman, Graham Mitchell, Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, Dominic Seldis, and has partaken in masterclasses with Edicson Ruiz, Sławomir Grenda, Jiří Hudec and Božo Paradžik. He undertook his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge and his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was generously supported by the Christopher Hogwood Scholarship and a Munster Trust Derek Butler Award.

Alexander has appeared as Guest Principal of the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, Ulster and Royal Scottish National orchestras, and, a keen advocate for historically informed performance, has also appeared as Guest Principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort, and The English Concert. As a soloist, he has performed at the Grafenegg Festival, recorded for Divine Art, and has premiered works by David Matthews, Robin Stevens, Jane Wells, and Robin Holloway. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with a number of ensembles and has performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and the BBC Proms.

Away from the double bass, Alexander is a keen composer and academic. Following his success as BBC Young Composer of the Year in 2016, his music has been performed at the BBC Proms by members of the Aurora and BBC Symphony orchestras, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In 2020, he won the Society for Music Analysis’ Undergraduate Prize for “outstanding contribution in this field”; subsequently, his writings have been published and are held by the Arnold Schönberg Center (Vienna) and the Antonín Dvořák Museum (Prague). When away from music, Alexander loves to cook, swim, and hike.