A brilliantly varied programme of American and British chamber music from the innovative Sphinx Virtuosi ensemble: songs, spirituals, dances, and fiery finales.

Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, named after the Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, was one of the most versatile American composers of the 20th century. Classically trained, he was also fascinated by jazz and popular music, collaborating with Marvin Gaye and Harry Belafonte among many others. His critically lauded String Quartet No.1 is based on the spiritual Calvary, its melody layered and threaded through the piece with utmost brilliance.

William Grant Still’s Suite (originally for violin) was inspired by three sculptures created during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s: African Dancer, Mother and Child, and Gamin are animated and given the breath of life by Still’s bluesy rhythms and tender, singing melodies.  

On the other side of the Atlantic, we find Vaughan Williams’ elegant Rondo from his Suite of Six Short Pieces. But any notion of British reserve is surely dispelled in Bridge’s Phantasie, a glorious fusion of English, French and German sensuality written in 1910: Edwardian passion unleashed.

The programme also includes the UK premiere of stillness: two meditations by Cassie Kinoshi, one of contemporary music’s most innovative story-tellers. And it concludes with Florence Price’s Piano Quintet, written in the 1930s and rediscovered as recently as 2009. Full of graceful and lyrical invention, its dazzling third movement is a Juba, a dance from the plantations. 

Download programme notes.

Sphinx Virtuosi:
Nathan Amaral violin
Elena Urioste violin  
Celia Hatton viola 
Sterling Elliott cello 
Amiri Harewood piano