Chineke! Septet

Sun 2025, 4pm

The Wardrobe

SOUND OUT LEEDS 24/25

Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen wrote NNENNA in 2018 in memory of Mgbafor Nnenna Inyama (1963–1986). The piece ends with an arrangement of the highlife song Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga, sometimes referred to as ‘Africa’s National Anthem’.

Much to his annoyance, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet was one of the most popular works during his lifetime, ‘that damn work! I wish it were burned!’. Thankfully this sublime work wasn’t burned, and went on to influence other great works of the wind/ string repertoire including nonets by Louis Spohr and Louise Farrenc, and Franz Schubert’s Octet.

Programme

Franz Berwald Grand Septet for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, double bass   

G.J. Jackson Wall of Clouds for solo clarinet

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson Blues Form for solo violin

Errollyn Wallen NNENNA for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass 

Beethoven Septet in E flat, Op 20 for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass