Steven Isserlis to play at York Chamber Music Festival in September

Joining festival patron Isserlis at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, will be Anthony Marwood and Irène Duval, violins, Eivind Ringstad, viola, and Ian Brown, piano.

The festival's artistic director, York-born cellist Tim Lowe, says: "I am very excited that our patron, the international megastar among musicians, cellist Steven Isserlis, is coming with his Friends to play a mouth-watering programme of unusual and more familiar music.

"I guarantee no-one in York has ever heard the stand-alone slow 2nd movement of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto, which was revived by Benjamin Britten. He wrote a small codetta into the piece and made it into an elegy to commemorate the tragic death of the renowned British horn player Dennis Brain, who was killed in a car crash in 1957. It was unearthed by Steven Isserlis in the Britten-Pears archives and made by Steven into this piano trio version."

The 7.30pm programme will open with Johannes Brahms's Scherzo, from the Sonatensatz in C minor, once part of a birthday present to the violinist Joseph Joachim. The first half will close with Gabriel Fauré's last composition, his only string quartet (in E minor). "It's an achingly beautiful reflection on his life," says Lowe. "Despite being deaf and nearing death, he shares with us a deep serenity in the face of his own bodily breakdown."

Post-interval, Isserlis, one of only two cellists in the Gramaphone Magazine Hall of Fame, and Brown will play Olivier Messiaen's Vocalise Etude No 151, Voix Élévees. "It's a beautiful 'high voice' study by Messiaen in which the cello sings," says Lowe. "It sings again in Ludwig van Beethoven's third Sonata in A major for Cello and Piano, wherein the voice and sonority of the cello take the idea of the cello sonata light years on from its few 18th century antecedents."

Lowe continues: "Chamber music of this calibre would grace concert halls anywhere in the world and we're excited that this concert is coming to York. Equally exciting, and with a stellar cast of internationally known players, are our two lunchtime recitals at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate. One of the country’s leading viola players, Sarah-Jane Bradley, and pianist John Lenehan will play a spine-tingling programme of viola masterpieces by Dvorak, Frank Bridge and the rarely heard viola sonata by Mendelssohn on September 21 at 1pm.

"Mendelssohn is the featured composer this year and on September 22 at 1pm, accompanied by John Lenehan, I'll play his beautiful Cello Variations and the first of Beethoven’s late-period cello sonatas in which deafness – like Fauré – left him alone to dream in a sonic world all his own. Beethoven takes us on an extraordinary journey almost within touching distance of his soul."

Violinists Martyn Jackson and Simon Blendiss will join Bradley, Lowe and Lenehan for two evening concerts designed to present "some of the greatest masterpieces of chamber music". "At the National Centre for Early Music, on September 21 at 7.30pm, we'll play string quartets by Haydn, Bridge and Mendelssohn, followed by piano trios by Hummel and Mendelssohn and Dvo?ák’s second Piano Quintet at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on September 22 at 7.30pm."

Artistic director Lowe was a chorister at York Minster and now leads the English Chamber Orchestra cellos, plays in the John Wilson Orchestra, gives recitals and is a teaching professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, as well as running York Chamber Music Festival.

"Come and join us for a long weekend of stunningly beautiful music played by some of the finest musicians on planet Earth," he says. "As part of our outreach plans, all the festival’s concerts and masterclasses for young musicians are open to under 18s for £1, and we've worked hard to keep tickets at £15 or £10 for the lunchtime recitals, while students can come for £5."

Tickets are on sale on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk

Charles Hutchinson

Tim playing during the recent performance of the Schubert string quintet at the York Festival of Ideas