The Galliard Ensemble, Wind Quintet
Kathryn Thomas – flute
Katherine Spencer – clarinet
Helen Simons – bassoon
Owen Dennis – oboe
Richard Bayliss – horn
‘Pure pleasure… This in short is wind quintet playing of great distinction… From this admirably recorded disc you also get a very good idea of how enjoyable the Galliard’s public concerts must be. Strongly recommended.’
Gramophone Magazine
As former BBC New Generation Artists, the Galliard Ensemble has become one of Britain’s leading chamber groups, with repertoire running from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Schoenberg. Soon to celebrate their 20th anniversary, they play regularly in many of Britain’s prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Bridgewater Hall, at festivals throughout Europe, with appearances at the BBC Proms, also at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Bath, Brighton and Harrogate festivals, the MAFRA Festival for the British Council and the Castello Branco and Porto Festivals in Portugal. They regularly give masterclasses and lectures to the top British music academies.
The Galliard Ensemble has a lively, entertaining and distinctive performance style that has thrilled audiences in Britain and abroad. The ensemble’s CDs have been selected by the Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and BBC Radio 3 in their critics’ choices of outstanding releases.
Committed to bringing music to a wider audience, the Galliard Ensemble has undertaken educational concerts with Live Music Now! and has enjoyed performing in many schools, family concerts, workshops and demonstrations. With a strong interest in contemporary composition, in addition to working with Paul Patterson, Gyorgy Ligeti and Richard Rodney Bennett, the Galliard Ensemble has worked with Sir Harrison Birtwistle on his quintet Five Distances for their performance at the BBC Proms.
Among other engagements, 2010 saw the ensemble return to the Presteigne Festival where they played five new commissions written for the Galliard Ensemble by five leading British composers. They also completed a highly successful tour of Scotland. 2011 promises to be a busy year again for the Galliard Ensemble and includes recording their forthcoming CD for the Deux-Elles label.
Some reviews:
Five wind players at the peak of their powers reflected the galliard’s five steps, or sinkapace, and their dynamic performance of the lively syncopations of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles delighted everyone. Having worked with Ligeti as students, their insight into his avant-garde experimentation with folk rhythms and tonality produced a definitive reading. Nielsen’s Quintet was at the heart of their recital, and they superbly communicated his deep understanding of the potential of each instrument and his playful references to the musical personalities of his Copenhagen wind-players. Samuel Barber’s impressionistic Summer Music also showcases virtuosity, and we were rewarded with impressive individual and ensemble depictions of sunlit languor and love”
South Wales Evening Post (The Gower Festival)
The variations movement was splendidly controlled… Also impressive was their intonation and conductorless unanimity.
Richard Morrison, The Times (Mozart Serenade at St Lukes, EC1)
Top calibre performers shining the beam of their musicality on an unequivocal masterpiece.
Barry Millington, London Evening Standard (Mozart Serenade at St Lukes, EC1)
The Galliard Ensemble gave a distinguished recital of music for wind quintet. Its programme centred on the 20th century, when the combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn enjoyed a renaissance, but an adaptation of Mozart’s B flat major Adagio K411 (originally for clarinets and basset-horns) caught the music’s solemn serenity. Elsewhere, in Ibert’s Trois Pieces Breves, Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles and Nielsen’s Quintet, it was the Galliard’s vivacity, polish and well-harnessed energy that gave the recital such a boost. There was keen rapport here in music that is basically good-natured but makes diverse demands, and the Galliard’s way with it was wily and winning” (BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert)
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph
One of the 10 chamber groups in the world to keep an eye on.
Classic CD
The Galliard Ensemble are like angels sent from heaven. What more could a composer want than to have his music performed so superbly by such a talented group of young musicians of incredible sensitivity and musicianship.
Paul Patterson
Outstanding musicians of their generation.
Neil Black OBE