The Sacconi Quartet with Robert Plane (clarinet) and Alec Frank Gemmill (horn)

The Sacconi Quartet are regular and very much appreciated visitors to Music at St Peter’s. For their concert this year they bring two distinguished wind players for a very attractive programme.

Mozart’s Horn Quintet was written, like his horn concerti, for the virtuoso player Josef Leutgeb, and is full of gentle and amiable music; unlike the standard string quartet this uses two violas, and the resulting sonority emphasizes the mellow middle range of the horn and viola.

Brahms had retired from composing when he heard the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, and was so impressed by his playing that he wrote this quintet, a trio and two sonatas for him.

John Ireland composed his sextet in 1898, inspired by hearing Mühlfeld play the Brahms clarinet quintet.