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Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective

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Tue 8 November 2022

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Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Featuring Elena Urioste, Tom Poster, Laura van der Heijden, Melissa White, Rosalind Ventris

Roman River Music and the Mercury are delighted to present the world-renowned Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, one of the most exciting classical groups around at the moment, for a captivating and uplifting programme featuring music by Florence Price, Gabriel Fauré, George Walker and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Four of Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective’s favourite works for strings and piano make up this brilliant and varied programme. Fanny Mendelssohn’s sparkling Piano Quartet is a rarely heard gem with a staggeringly virtuosic piano part; Kaleidoscope’s recent recording of the work was named by Gramophone as one of the best classical recordings of 2022 so far. Fauré’s First Piano Quintet is a desert island piece for Kaleidoscope’s pianist Tom Poster, drawing us into an enchanted world of half-light and sensuous harmony. Two American works complete the programme: George Walker’s beloved Lyric for Strings has been described as a sunnier counterpart to Barber’s Adagio, while Florence Price’s glorious music is finally beginning to achieve the recognition it deserves – her Piano Quintet has proved a huge hit with audiences, effortlessly drawing influences from African-American spirituals and dance forms into a work still rooted in the great romantic tradition.

Programme:
Fanny Mendelssohn – Piano Quartet in A flat major [18′]
Gabriel Fauré – Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 89 [28′]
George Walker – Lyric for Strings [6′]
Florence Price – Piano Quintet in A minor [24′]

The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, hailed for its “exhilarating performances” (The Times), was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. Kaleidoscope’s flexible roster features many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser-known gems of the repertoire.

In 2020, Kaleidoscope was appointed Associate Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, where the group makes multiple appearances each season, and was invited to give the Hall’s 120th birthday concert in May 2021. Kaleidoscope broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3.

Kaleidoscope’s debut recording for Chandos Records, American Quintets, features music by Amy Beach, Florence Price, and Samuel Barber. It received glowing reviews, was awarded Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, and immediately led to an invitation to record a series of albums for the label.

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Tom Poster

Piano

Artistic Director and co-founder of Kaleidoscope. Has been described as “a marvel, [who] can play anything in any style” (The Herald), “mercurially brilliant” (The Strad), and as having “a beautiful tone that you can sink into like a pile of cushions” (BBC Music).

Elena Urioste

Violin

Co-director and co-founder of Kaleidoscope. Has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including at the BBC Proms.

Laura van der Heijden

Cello

Winner in 2012 – at the age of just 15 – of the BBC Young Musician competition. Has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and frequently performs with the world famous Brodsky Quartet as well as with Kaleidoscope.

Melissa White

Violin

Has enchanted audiences and critics around the world as both a soloist and a chamber musician and is a founding member of New York–based Harlem Quartet.

Rosalind Ventris

Viola

Praised for her ‘beguiling’ and ‘characterful’ playing (Gramophone), she leads an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. She is one of the Artistic Directors of the Cowbridge Music Festival in Wales and Director of Musical Performance and Performance Studies at the University of Oxford.

The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective continue to go from strength to strength. Their explorations of neglected repertoire from marginalised groups are not merely a much-needed contribution to the redressing of imbalances in familiarity and reputation – though they are certainly that – but they are also, quite simply, brilliant music-making.

Presto Music

The music’s youthful joie de vivre is matched by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective’s warmth, enthusiasm and finesse – qualities all the more heightened since the ensemble made the recording just after the music-starved Covid-19 lockdown. Elena Urioste is an ever-eloquent first violin, Tom Poster’s silvery pianism glistens and flows as if effortless, and all of their colleagues match them with spontaneous, collegial and well balanced playing, making the whole more than the sum of its already excellent parts.

BBC Music Magazine