Ashburton Chamber Music Festival - concert 1

This new festival brings a group of world-class musicians to live in a small town in South Devon for a week, performing formal concerts, open rehearsals, plus house parties where the audience chooses what is played, and the musicians perform the high-wire act of sight-reading it without rehearsal!

We start with an irresistibly virtuosic display by Johann Halvorsen based on a theme of Handel which has the violin and cello trying to out-do one another as the piece gets increasingly out of hand. Next, what many consider Bach’s greatest and most profound work, the D minor Partita for solo violin that includes the famous Chaconne. Then some steamy music from Brazilian composer Villa Lobos for flute and cello, the aptly named 'Jet Whistle and then a contemporary work for string trio and saxophone featuring Andy Williamson on the sax. The concert ends with Mozart’s infectiously joyful quartet for flute and strings in C major.