Felix Ensemble: Transfiguration

‘Transfiguration’
Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)
Brahms Sextet No. 2 in G

Led by Artistic Director Jane Gordon, the Felix Ensemble brings together Schoenberg’s extraordinary sextet with Brahms’s radiant Sextet No. 2. Written almost forty years apart, these two great works reveal contrasting musical worlds, yet both explore profound emotional transformation. From Brahms’s warmth and lyricism to Schoenberg’s intense and richly coloured sound world, the programme moves between intimacy and intensity, darkness and light.

Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (‘Transfigured Night’) is one of the great landmarks of 20th-century chamber music. Written in 1899 for string sextet, it is an extraordinary work of emotional and musical intensity, compressing the scale and drama of a symphonic work into six string instruments. Schoenberg’s rich, almost orchestral textures and daring harmonic language create music that can feel at once sensual, turbulent and deeply intimate. Inspired by a poem by Richard Dehmel, the work moves from darkness and conflict towards warmth and resolution, its final transformation reflected in music of extraordinary beauty. It remains one of Schoenberg’s most loved and widely performed works.

Brahms’s Sextet No. 2 in G major, written in 1864–65, is a work of remarkable warmth and lyricism, but beneath its seemingly genial surface lies a more personal and reflective character. Richly scored and full of intimate dialogue between the six instruments, it combines the expansive sound of an orchestral work with the conversational quality of chamber music. Its autumnal warmth makes a striking contrast with the intensity and harmonic daring of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.

Jane Gordon (violin)
Florence Cooke (violin)
Lorena Canto (viola)
Gordon Cervoni (viola)
Thomas Carroll (cello)
Kirsten Jenson (cello)

The Felix Ensemble is a dynamic chamber group directed by acclaimed violinist Jane Gordon. Bringing together some of Europe’s most prestigious soloists and chamber musicians, the ensemble boasts players of exceptional calibre, regularly heard on BBC Radio 3 and performing in the world’s finest concert halls, including Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, and Glyndebourne Opera. The musicians perform on moderna and period instruments. They hold principal positions in renowned orchestras such as the London Mozart Players, Aurora Orchestra, United Strings of Europe and Riot Ensemble, and are in high demand on the international stage, with busy touring and recording schedules across leading festivals and venues.