Season's greetings to a promise of plenty

Having been hugely impressed by the Serbian pianist, Aleksandar Madzar, when taking the third prize in the 1996 Leeds International Piano Competition, his visit to the city next month, as part of the International Chamber Music Season, is most welcome.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Oct 2010, 13:03 BST
Updated 1st Oct 2010, 13:04 BST

The series transports us to Vienna to sample the delights of music from two centuries, the six programmes – opening next Tuesday with the Schubert Ensemble of London – offering an innovative mix of works.

They bring Schubert's "Trout" Quintet and a movement from an abandoned Piano Quartet written in his student days by Gustav Mahler. Those two works surround the sumptuousness in the Piano Quintet from Erich Korngold.

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He is now enjoying a renaissance, the Brodsky Quartet linking his gorgeous String Quartet with works by Schubert and Beethoven (December 7).

Sadly, Alexander Zemlinsky is still out in the cold, so snap up the chance of hearing his Trio for Clarinet, cello and piano in the second visit of the Schubert Ensemble (January 18), and his Six Songs as part of their final concert of the season with Susan Bickley as soloist (March 8).

Berg's Piano Sonata will not cause many concerns in Mazdar's recital dominated by sonatas from Beethoven and Schubert (November 9).

Certainly don't miss Schoenberg's Transfigured Night, one of the last great chamber works of the Romantic era. It shares an evening with the Sextet from Strauss's opera, Capriccio, and a Mozart String Quintet performed by the Aronowitz Ensemble (February 15)

Leeds International Chamber Music Season, The Venue, 0113 224 3801.