Classical Preview: Cropper passes on the baton at Sheffield

The ebullient young man, and his colleagues in the Lindsay String Quartet, took the audience, year on year, on journeys in to music, every seat in the Crucible Studio's sold weeks in advance as listeners hung on every word of his lucid unscripted introductions.

From those heady days was born the national touring organisation, Music in The Round, sending some of the nation's finest musicians on a pilgrimage of expanding chamber music audiences,

But now Cropper has decided to retire as the Artistic Director, and will pass the task to a new and younger generation.

He will be on stage for the final night of the May Festival with Ensemble 360, the group he has founded to offer Sheffield a more wide-ranging repertoire than was possible in his early days.

It seems so appropriate that the festival has turned full circle and we return to where we came in with programmes built on the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

Twenty-two events, lunchtime and evening, are packed into ten days, with members of Ensemble 360 appearing in many different configurations, the whole event staged as a celebration of their return to the newly upgraded Crucible Studio, its most perfect acoustic to enjoy chamber music.

The festival will also feature famous guests including the Ludwig String Trio, pianist, Melvyn Tan, and the highly rated Doric String Quartet..

May Festival, Sheffield Crucible Studio, May 7 - 16. www.musicintheround.co.uk