101st Season 2025-2026
25 October - Fitzroy Quartet
15 November - New London Chamber Ensemble
17 January - Marmen Quartet
21 February - Rossetti Ensemble
14 March - London Handel Players
THIS SEASON'S CONCERTS 2025 - 2026
For details of our previous concerts, please see the Concert Archive tab under the About ICMS page.
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
25 October 2025 at 7:30pm
Fitzroy Quartet
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
Described by leading music critic Barry Millington as “engaging and responsive”, the award-winning Fitzroy Quartet (www.fitzroyquartet.com) were formed in 2015 by four students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where they were coached by members of the Endellion Quartet.
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Their programme for us comprises Haydn’s best-known quartet together with a highly contrasted pair of 20th-century masterpieces by Bartók and Debussy and a “jaunty, seven-minute curtain raiser” by the acclaimed American composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery. This is the first of two ICMS concerts this season to include a string quartet by Bartók (marking the 80th anniversary of his death in 1945), the other being the Marmen Quartet’s return visit on 17 January.
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
25 October 2025 at 7:30pm
Fitzroy Quartet
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
Described by leading music critic Barry Millington as “engaging and responsive”, the award-winning Fitzroy Quartet (www.fitzroyquartet.com) were formed in 2015 by four students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where they were coached by members of the Endellion Quartet.
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Their programme for us comprises Haydn’s best-known quartet together with a highly contrasted pair of 20th-century masterpieces by Bartók and Debussy and a “jaunty, seven-minute curtain raiser” by the acclaimed American composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery. This is the first of two ICMS concerts this season to include a string quartet by Bartók (marking the 80th anniversary of his death in 1945), the other being the Marmen Quartet’s return visit on 17 January.
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
25 October 2025 at 7:30pm
Fitzroy Quartet
Haydn String Quartet in C major, Op. 76/3 ('Emperor')
Bartók String Quartet No. 3
Jessie Montgomery Strum
Debussy String Quartet
Described by leading music critic Barry Millington as “engaging and responsive”, the award-winning Fitzroy Quartet (www.fitzroyquartet.com) were formed in 2015 by four students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where they were coached by members of the Endellion Quartet.
​​
Their programme for us comprises Haydn’s best-known quartet together with a highly contrasted pair of 20th-century masterpieces by Bartók and Debussy and a “jaunty, seven-minute curtain raiser” by the acclaimed American composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery. This is the first of two ICMS concerts this season to include a string quartet by Bartók (marking the 80th anniversary of his death in 1945), the other being the Marmen Quartet’s return visit on 17 January.
15 November 2025 at 7:30pm
New London Chamber Ensemble
Michael Dussek piano
Milhaud La Cheminée du roi René
Nielsen Fantasies
Beethoven Quintet for Piano & Winds, Op. 16
Nielsen Canto Serioso & Wind Quintet
Poulenc Sextet
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This concert centres around the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) and includes one of his best-known works, the Wind Quintet. Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc were both members of ‘Les Six’, an informal group of mostly French composers writing in the so-called Neoclassical style that was fashionable in the 1920’s and 30’s. Beethoven’s delightful Quintet for Piano and Winds may have been inspired by Mozart’s (K. 452) for the same forces and in the same key.
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The New London Chamber Ensemble (newlondonchamberensemble.co.uk) describe themselves as “a wind quintet with a difference” and recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Over the years they have collaborated with many eminent musicians, and for this concert are joined by the pianist and accompanist Michael Dussek.
17 January 2026 at 7:30pm
Marmen Quartet
Haydn String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 76/4 (‘Sunrise’)
Bartók String Quartet No. 2
Cassandra Miller Leaving
Beethoven String Quartet in F major, Op. 135
We are delighted to welcome back the Marmen Quartet (marmenquartet.com), who opened our 2022-23 season with a programme that juxtaposed Haydn and Beethoven with Webern and John Cage. Formed in 2013 at the Royal College of Music in London and mentored for a time by the late Peter Cropper of Lindsay Quartet fame (and an Old Ipswichian), the group have recently released their debut recording – two quartets by Ligeti plus Bartók’s No. 4.
Their concert for us this season will once again include quartets by Haydn and Beethoven, Op. 135 being the last major work Beethoven completed before his death. In between we shall hear Bartók’s innovative and semi-autobiographical Second Quartet, and a short piece written in 2011 by the Canadian-British composer Cassandra Miller.
21 February 2026 at 7:30pm
Rossetti Ensemble
Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478
Ravel Mother Goose Suite (arr. John Lenehan)
d'Indy Piano Quartet
One of the first piano quartets ever written, Mozart’s K. 478 still ranks among the finest examples of the genre. Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite was originally composed for piano duet, so a transcription of it for three stringed instruments and piano is not as outlandish as it may sound! Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931) became a pupil of Franck on the strength of his early, but nowadays rarely-heard, Piano Quartet and went on to become one of France’s most influential teachers whose own students included Honegger, Milhaud, Satie and even Cole Porter.
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The Rossetti Ensemble (www.rossettiensemble.online) was established only in 2018, but its members are all established musicians with illustrious careers as chamber musicians, soloists and more. They will shortly be recording the piano quartets of d’Indy and Chausson for the Naxos label.
14 March 2026 at 7:30pm
London Handel Players
Telemann Concerto for Recorder & Viola da Gamba Leclair Violin Concerto in F major, Op. 7/4
J. S. Bach Concerto for 3 Violins, BWV 1064R
Telemann Viola Concerto
Vivaldi Concerto for Sopranino Recorder, RV 443
J. S. Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, BWV 1050.2
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The London Handel Players (www.londonhandelplayers.co.uk) are a world-class ensemble bringing together leading period-instrument specialists in the field of Baroque chamber music. Closely associated with the music of George Frideric Handel, they also explore the work of his contemporaries to present a vast repertoire of gems from the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Their programme for us consists entirely of solo concertos and ‘concerti grossi’, showcasing not only the talents of the players themselves but also the variety of styles and instrumental combinations employed in such works by Baroque composers. It ends with one of the greatest of them all – J. S. Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto for harpsichord, flute and violin soloists.