Cobbett’s Legacy III: Modern Britain

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

• Benjamin: Fantasia VII
• Britten: Phantasy  for oboe quartet (oboe: Nicholas Daniel)
• Turnage: This Silence
• Adès: Piano quintet (piano: Emmanuelle Fleurot)

Tickets £12 (£10) (to include tea/coffee) from www.forgevenue.org

Composition masterclass: 2pm – 5pm
Free entry to the masterclass with a ticket to the morning concert. £3 entry for masterclass only

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.

Did Cobbett’s work succeed in ushering a school of uniquely British chamber music? The later years of the Cobbett Prize encompassed Le Fanu’s serialist Variations as well as an early work of Turnage, now withdrawn. Although Adès’ quintet was not a prizewinner, it stands in a curious relationship to Cobbett’s ideals. Structured along the classical lines to which  Cobbett’s original competition sought to offer an alternative, it nevertheless conjures an entirely unique world unlike any other.