The Society
Welcome to the British Music Society of York website. The BMS organises chamber music concerts in York, six every year from October through to March. Concerts take place in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. You can buy tickets for individual concerts (or reserve them online for collection on the door), or alternatively why not join the society? Members gain entry to all six concerts at a considerable saving.
The next concert will be on Friday 19th February, given by the Barbirolli Quartet playing Beethoven, Britten and Brahms.
The BMS York promote these concerts in association with the University of York, whose support we gratefully acknowledge. The University also promote their own series of concerts - details are available at www.YorkConcerts.co.uk.
The 2009-2010 season
The 2009-2010 concert series, our 89th, offers the opportunity to see some wonderful performers, some of whom have thrilled us with their musicianship in previous seasons. We were most fortunate that the season began in October with an all-Schubert programme, wonderfully and memorably played by star pianist Imogen Cooper. In November the young Canteloube Trio performed a varied programme including delightful renditions of Gordon Jacob, Stravinsky, Milhaud and … Canteloube. In December the Frith Piano Quartet played Mozart's G minor piano quartet and the popular piano quartet by Schumann; they also gave a memorable performance of Martinů's Piano Quartet, their outstanding musicianship making the work's many beauties shine out in spite of its extreme technical difficulty.
The young pianist Tom Poster thrilled us in throwing off the extreme difficulty of Stravinsky's piano arrangement from Petrushka, and a performance of Chopin's third sonata that showed maturity well beyond his years. In February the Barbirolli Quartet bring us string quartets by Beethoven, Britten (his second, written to commemmorate Purcell) and Brahms. In March, violinist Thomas Gould and pianist John Reid play Schubert, Busoni and Beethoven's great Kreuzer sonata. Thomas played for us before as an outstandingly promising "youngster", and returns as a truly established performer.
Details of the individual concerts may be found by clicking here.
Next concert
Friday 19th February 2010 at 8 pm
In the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.
Formed originally in 2003 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the Barbirolli Quartet brings together a wealth of experience, its founding members each having performed widely in their native countries of Canada, Wales and Australia before coming to England to continue their studies. They are now based in London. In 2008 they were awarded Artists Fellowships at London's Guildhall School of Music, studying primarily with The Belcea Quartet, and were also selected by the European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO) for inclusion in the prestigious 'Rising Stars' series. The Times described them as "forthright, full-blooded musicians, afraid of nothing" and The Strad commented on their "superbly realised performance" with "precision of ensemble at formidable rates of energy".
They will play for us the fifth of Beethoven’s 1801 set of quartets - which demonstrate his complete mastery of the form developed by Haydn and Mozart - and Brahms’s delightful first quartet. In between they will perform Britten’s second quartet which ends with a brilliant, original and life-affirming chaconne, his tribute to Purcell’s 250th anniversary.
Thank you for your interest in the Society. You can find out about becoming a member, about our history, or about some of our previous seasons' concert programmes by using the navigation links at the top left of every page.