The latest Portsmouth Chamber Music season is here.
portsmouth chamber series –
presented by music in the round & The guildhall trust
Join Music in the Round for friendly and welcoming classical music concerts from some of the world’s finest musicians, including the brilliant Ensemble 360 and special guests.
You’ll be sitting just metres away from world-class musicians, performing spine-tingling music with their heart and soul, in the Guildhall’s intimate concert space where the audience surround the performers on all sides.
Intimate Epics: Beethoven & Janacek – Fibonacci Quartet
6th October 2025 – BOOK NOW
With a glittering array of prizes and accolades, this young quartet have rapidly made a name as one of the most exciting European quartets working today. Through three great string quartets, they will showcase their staggering range and committed artistry. Janáček’s ‘Intimate Letters’ is a rich late work of love and longing, and this programme is crowned by Beethoven’s towering final achievement blending a lightness of touch with the depth of a lifetime of music: both intimate and epic.
HAYDN String Quartet Op.33 No.4 (16’)
JANÁČEK String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (26’)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C sharp minor Op.131 (40’)
Death & The Maiden – Dudok Quartet
17th November 2025 – BOOK NOW
Described as “quite simply revelatory” (The Irish Times) and “stylish, open-minded and adventurous” (The Guardian), the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has made its name as playful, inventive interpreters of the string quartet repertoire. Coached by Peter Cropper (first violin of the Lindsay String Quartet and founder of Music in the Round) in the early years of their collaboration, they have since gone from strength to strength. Presenting Schubert’s extraordinary and profound ‘Death and the Maiden’ String Quartet alongside their own arrangement of a 17th century Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo, and Kaija Saariaho’s modern masterpiece, Terra Memoria (‘Earth Memory’), this concert promises to thrill, intrigue and delight.
SAARIAHO Terra Memoria (18’)
GESUALDO Moro, lasso, al mio duolo (4’)
MUSSORGSKY Songs and Dances of Death (selection) (10’)
LISZT Via Crucis (selection) (10’)
SCHUBERT String Quartet No.14 in D minor ‘Death & the Maiden’ (35’)
The Lark Ascending – Ensemble 360
19th January 2026 – BOOK NOW
The violin soars melodiously above the rest of the quartet in a gorgeous arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ most popular work The Lark Ascending, which concludes this concert of English music for strings and clarinet. Fantasies from the Baroque gems of Purcell’s Three-part Fantasias (arranged for string trio) and Imogen Holst’s Phantasy String Quartet are among the works to sit alongside this perennial favourite.
HOLST Phantasy String Quartet (10′)
BRITTEN Three Divertimenti for String Quartet (10′)
HOLBROOKE Ellean Shona (4′)
HOWELLS Phantasy String Quartet (13′)
PURCELL Three-part Fantasias (8′)
HARRISON Clarinet Quintet (12′)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (arr. Gerigk) The Lark Ascending (15’)
Quartet for Heart & Breath – Lotte Bettes-Dean mezzo-soprano & Phaedra Ensemble
23rd February 2026 – BOOK NOW
Music by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry opens this concert of sumptuous, 21st century compositions for string quartet, performed by Phaedra Ensemble with Lotte Betts-Dean, a vocalist praised by The Guardian for her “unmissable, urgent musicality”. Following its collaboration with American composer Meredith Monk, performer and Godmother of the New York experimental music scene, Phaedra Ensemble performs the composer’s only string quartet, String Songs. Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean then joins the quartet to present works by Kate Whitley and John Tavener, as well as Cassandra Miller’s modern masterpiece Thanksong, a tender reflection on Beethoven’s late Quartet in A minor (Op.132).
RICHARD REED PARRY Quartet for Heart and Breath (6’)
KATE WHITLEY Six Charlotte Mew Settings (16’)
JOHN TAVENER The World (10’)
MEREDITH MONK String Songs (20’)
CASSANDRA MILLER Thanksong (12’)
Sitar with Tabla & String Quintet – Jasdeep Singh Degun sitar with Harkiret Singh Bahra tabla & Ensemble 360
23rd March 2026 – BOOK NOW
A composer and virtuoso of the sitar with a classical string quintet makes for a spellbinding pairing. Ensemble 360 celebrates its 20th birthday with a gift to us – boundary-breaking new music created collaboratively. Jasdeep Singh Degun is no stranger to forming alliances in the music world. He was composer and co-music director for Opera North’s 2022 award-winning production of Orpheus, weaving a tapestry from the European and Indian traditions. ‘It’s really not a matter of different worlds meeting’, he reflects. ‘It’s just me: as much as I’m immersed in Indian classical music, I’m a product of this country; I’m a British composer.’ Both innovator and custodian of tradition, composer and performer, with a debut album made with the legendary Nitin Sawnhey released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, he is reshaping the musical landscape.
DEGUN Alaap + Veer for sitar, tabla and string quintet (9′)
DEGUN Abbhā for sitar, tabla and string quintet (5′)
STRAVINSKY II. Excentrique from ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet’ (2′)
DVORAK (arr. Nabarro) Indian Lament for string quintet (4′)
DEGUN Rageshri for sitar, tabla and string quintet (11′)
STRAVINSKY I. Danse from ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet’ (1′)
DEGUN Arya MII for sitar, tabla and string quintet (13′)
STRAVINSKY III. Cantique from ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet’ (4′)
DEGUN Lament for sitar, tabla and string quintet (7′)
Series Discount
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