Harmony Beyond Music is a series of chamber music concerts exploring themes of equality and diversity, featuring music from Bach to the present day, performed by Reiko Fujisawa and friends, and introduced by Peter Quantrill.

This concert is entitled “Overshadowed Voices”.

Born in Guadeloupe to an African slave, Joseph Bologne became a champion fencer and virtuoso violinist at the court of King Louis XVI. Hélène de Montgeroult saved her aristocratic head from the revolutionary block by improvising on the Marseillaise, and went on to become the first female piano professor of the Paris Converservatoire. Grażyna Bacewicz put down her violin and dedicated her life to composition in postwar Poland. Their music is as rich and individual as their life stories.

Programme

Joseph de Boulogne: String Quartet op. 1 no. 5 in G minor

Hélène de Montgeroult: Piano Etudes nos. 55, 62, 97, 101, 107

Haydn: String Quartet op.55 no.1

Interval

Grazyna Bacewicz: Piano Quintet no. 1