Albrecht Mayer & Friends by Britten, Mozart, Servais, A., Moeran, Fra (2023/2023), Usher Hall, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Featuring works by Mozart, Benjamin Britten and Ernest John Moeran, this programme of chamber music stars oboist Albrecht Mayer. Mayer is principal oboe with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and an internationally renowned chamber musician. Mayer will be joined by, among others, Berlin-based violinist Diana Tishchenko. Tishchenko was announced as a Rising Star of the European Concert Hall Organisation in 2022/23 and is a regular soloist with top international orchestras, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Vienna Symphony . The concert is bookended by two ‘fantasy’ quartets, both composed for the great oboist Léon Goossens. Britten wrote his Phantasy Quartet when he was 18, inspired by the free-flowing 16th-century fantasia style. Moeran’s Fantasy Quartet includes references to Norfolk folk tunes. Both composers would have known Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, K370, also written with a virtuoso oboist in mind. The programme is completed by Britten’s moving Elegy for solo viola, and some lively variations on ‘God Save the King’. These were co-written by violinist Joseph Ghys and Adrien François Servais, once known as ‘the Paganini of the cello’.