1 Gringolts Quartet
Violinist Ilya Gringolts’s quartet regularly include contemporary music alongside their standard repertory. The staples this week come from Beethoven (the sixth of his Op 18 set) and Brahms (his Op 67), while Jörg Widmann supplies the 21st-century work. Starting his Third String Quartet (Jagdquartett) is the nagging rhythm that pervades the opening movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which turns into a hunt in which the prey is the quartet’s cellist.
2 Daniel Grimwood
Pianist Daniel Grimwood (pictured) has made his name with performances of high-Romantic 19th- and 20th-century works, often played on instruments from the era in which the music was written. His early-evening recital begins seasonally with Samuel Wesley’s Christmas Carol Rondo and also includes Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Then Grimwood moves into more familiar territory with a Chopin nocturne, one of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies and finally Rachmaninov’s massive Second Piano Sonata.
St Martin-In-The-Fields, WC2, Tue
3 Ensemble Claudiana, Roberta Invernizzi & Sonia Prina
The Wigmore Hall always manages to come up with an outstanding baroque vocalist to bring some sparkle to the period between Christmas and new year, and this time it’s got two of the very best. Soprano Roberta Invernizzi and contralto Sonia Prina are no strangers to a Wigmore audience, and this time they share a recital with Ensemble Claudiana that they’ve called Amore e Morte dell’Amore. With works by Monteverdi, Frescobaldi and Lotti, as well as Handel and Forqueray, it’s a programme with strong Venetian connections.
