Brahms and Tchaikovsky

Brahms String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 18
Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70

Carmine Lauri violin
Anna-Liisa Bezrodny violin
Jon Thorne viola
Jonathan Barritt viola
Mats Lidström cello
Jane Salmon cello

Members of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra come together for an exhilarating evening of supersized chamber music, guaranteed to set the pulse racing. Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence is a work of turbulent anguish masquerading as one of utter joie de vivre, in which a thick-set ensemble dances its way around a tune the composer noted down during an otherwise fruitless trip to the Tuscan capital. Brahms’s own sextet for strings is an early work that combines Mozart’s charm, Beethoven’s exuberance, Mendelssohn’s momentum and Brahms’s own luxuriance – and to quite magnificent effect.