Cobbett’s Legacy I: In the shadow of Brahms

The Forge, 3-7 Delancey Street, London, NW1 7NL

• Knussen: …upon one note…
• Hurlstone: Phantasie for string quartet in A minor
• Bridge: Phantasie for piano quartet in F-sharp minor
• Stanford: Fantasy for clarinet and string quartet in F
• Brahms: Clarinet Quintet

Tickets £12 (£10) from www.forgevenue.org

Walter Willson Cobbett (1847 – 1937) was a philanthropist of great importance during the so-called English Musical Renaissance. Through his sponsorship of emerging composers of the day, he helped to forge a British school of chamber composition inspired by that of the first Renaissance, from Bridge to Turnage and beyond. Cobbett’s Legacy explores the music sponsored by Cobbett – both famous and forgotten – across three concerts at The Forge.

When Cobbett set up his first competition for chamber composition in 1905, Brahms was the model for most composers working in Britain at the time. Cobbett’s competition was conceived to stimulate a distinct British school of composition based on the example of the first Renaissance and in particular, the single-movement viol fantasias of composers such as Purcell, Jenkins and Morley.