Hellensmusic Festival 2026

A late afternoon with two hidden treasures of the French turn-of-the-century repertoire and one of the most celebrated figures of German Romanticism. Florent Schmitt studied at the Paris Conservatoire alongside figures such as Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet, and was among the most frequently performed French composers in the first decades of the twentieth century. His Sonatine en Trio is a window into an elegant yet playful and idiosyncratic style, reminiscent of Ravel and French modernism. Mélanie Bonis too walked the halls of the Conservatoire, before the clash between her conservative upbringing and her musical aspirations forced her into a double life. Her Suite en Trio was composed in 1903, at a time when the secret birth of an illegitimate child with the poet Amédée Landély Hettich left her both grief-stricken and fully committed to her music. Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 leads us further back into the nineteenth century, but it too bears traces of a broken heart, with a reference to a lost love woven into the melodic fabric of the piece. The work is permeated by contrasts and innovative harmonic language, beneath which lies a sense of austerity and resignation that would become an undercurrent in many of the composer’s later works.

Charlotte Scott (violin), Maya Iwabuchi (violin), Adrien Boisseau (viola), Bruno Delepelaire (cello), Michael Cox (flute), Matthew Hunt (Clarinet) Julien Quentin (piano) and Hellensmusic Masterclass Students.

PROGRAMME Hellensmusic Young Artists Spotlight F. Schmitt - M. Bonis - J. Brahms