The Glasshouse

Royal Northern Sinfonia

Beethoven Sextet in Eb major
Helen Grime Into the Faded Air

Britten Movement for Wind Sextet
Brahms String Sextet No.2 in G major

Royal Northern Sinfonia are proud to present The Joy of Six at Middlesbrough Town Hall, celebrating all things sextet!

We start the night off with one of Beethoven’s early chamber works, the Sextet in Eb Major. The RNS horn section will be first in the spotlight, as the piece is well-known for its two virtuosic (and notoriously tricky!) horn parts, alongside a string quartet. Helen Grime’s Into the Faded Air will quickly transport us back into the twenty-first century, its second movement features a dramatic duet for two violas before launching into the final movement full of rhythmic intensity and pizzicati (plucking of strings).

Benjamin Britten’s Movement for Wind Sextet was the only piece he wrote for wind instruments alone, at the tender age of 16! It’s written for the unusual combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, and bassoon, giving the wind players of RNS an opportunity to shine. To finish off the Joy of Six, we turn to a hero of Britten’s, Johannes Brahms. His String Sextet No.2 in G Major is full of sweeping romantic melodies, including a concealed reference to soprano Agathe von Siebold, her first name being spelled out in the second theme of the first movement.