Wednesday 14 May 2025 7:30pm

George Walker  –  Lyric for Strings
Korngold  –  Suite for two violins, cello and piano left hand, op 23
Amy Beach  –  Piano quintet in F sharp minor, op 67

Kaleidoscope, hailed by the Times for its ‘exhilarating performances’, was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster (piano) and Elena Urioste (violin), who met through the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. 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. It brings together many of today’s most inspirational musicians. At Ilkley Tom and Elena are joined by Savitri Grier (violin), Rosalind Ventris (viola) and Laura van der Heijden (cello).

Their programme combines music from America by George Walker, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, and Amy Beach, the first successful female American
composer. Walker’s Lyric for strings emerged from his first string quartet and Beach’s piano quintet pays a distinctive homage to that of her inspiration, Brahms. Between these two we
are introduced to Erich Korngold’s suite for piano quintet dedicated to the left-handed pianist, Paul Wittgenstein.