Ensemble 360

A programme of
COPLAND Vitebsk for piano trio
BERNSTEIN Clarinet Sonata
SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No.2 in A Op.68

Members of Ensemble 360 perform works by Copland, Bernstein and Shostakovich as part of Love and War Music in the Round’s Festival of World Class Chamber Music. Copland's Vitebsk is an early work, a piano trio that depicts the harshness of life in a Jewish village, drawing on quarter-tones as well as folk material, with results that are often stark and austere.

Leonard Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata was also his first important work. It was written in 1941 during a holiday in Florida, and it combines a gentle pastoral style in the first movement with an exciting second movement inspired by the Cuban music that he heard over the radio during his stay in Florida. Shostakovich wrote his string quartet in 1944 at a time when the Soviet victory over the Nazis had seemed certain. It uses folk-like melodies and rhythms that suggest klezmer.