Wednesday 22 April 2026 7:30pm

A programme based around

Bach – Aria variata alla maniera italiana, BWV 989

Franck – Prélude, fugue et variation, op 18

Mozart – Larghetto and Allegretto from Quintet in E flat major, KV 542

Gershwin – An American in Paris

Calefax is a close-knit ensemble of five Dutch reed players who are the inventors of a new enre—the reed quintet which comprises oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. For 35 years they have been acclaimed for their virtuosity and their innovative stage presentation. They have built their own repertoire from commissions and their own brilliant arrangements of existing works and are open to the influence of world music, jazz and improvisation.

Their programme for Ilkley mixes influences from the baroque, classical, romantic and jazz eras with arrangements of keyboard pieces by Bach and César Franck, two movements from Mozart’s ground-breaking quintet for piano and winds and Gershwin’s tone poem which evokes all the gaiety of Paris filtered through homesickness for New York.