Sirens is inspired by the half-woman, half-bird creatures of Greek mythology who lured sailors to their doom with their enchanting songs and irresistible voices. Set in three parts, Sirens unveils three such imagined songs to evoke the temptation for the beguiled victims who would crash their ships on rocky shores. Sirens is dedicated to Ben Goldscheider.

©   Anna Clyne

Click here to read more about Anna’s inspirations

Commissioned by London Mozart Players, Arctic Philharmonic, Ben Goldscheider (with funds from the Marchus Trust), Omega Ensemble and Zürcher Kammerorchester

In 1939 Britten and Peter Pears went to live in America. Pears had been there twice before, and Britten felt that he too should experience the country. They were both pacifists and perhaps also hoped that they would feel more comfortable in the less conservative atmosphere of the New World. Britten, however, never really felt settled, and his homesickness increased when he chanced to read a poem, “The Borough” by the Suffolk poet George Crabbe. He decided then that he wanted only to return to England and write an opera based on the poem. This, of course, was to be Peter Grimes. It was some time before they could get a crossing across the Atlantic, and when they returned in 1942 Britten was affected by a sort of writers’ block and fell ill. Work on the opera did not progress but while suffering in hospital with measles, Britten started to compose this Serenade.  It was inspired by the twenty-two year old Dennis Brain, the brilliant leader of the horn section of RAF orchestra, whom Britten constantly consulted about the horn part.

The work is a song cycle for tenor accompanied by solo horn and small string orchestra, a setting of a selection of six poems by British poets on the subject of night, including both its calm and its sinister aspects. The prologue and epilogue which frame the songs are both performed by the horn alone. The epilogue is to sound from afar, and there is no part for the horn in the final song, the sonnet (No.7), so as to allow the player to move off-stage. The piece has become a central work in both tenor and horn repertoire. Britten’s lifelong companion Peter Pears was soloist in the first performances, at the Wigmore Hall in London on October 15, 1943 with Dennis Brain playing the horn. Britten, and Pears recorded the piece with Brain and the Boyd Neel Orchestra in October 1944, and again in a famous recording for Decca in 1963, when Barry Tuckwell took the horn part (Dennis Brain had tragically been killed in a car crash in 1957).

It is a troubled, uneasy piece with beautiful writing for horn. The strings are agitated. The subject matter of the poems often reflects a mood of morbid pessimism – the Pastoral opening tells of a sun that is setting, the Nocturne repeats its dying refrain, the Elegy speaks of sickness and destruction, the Dirge tells of the journey of departing dead, a dies irae, almost a funeral march with its insistent rhythm… The Hymn asks the moon for respite from troubles of the day, and Keats’ final Sonnet is a plea to be spared and for forgiveness. The hushed solo horn ending movingly seals this sad and haunting work.

©   Richard Butler

Mendelssohn composed his Symphony No. 1 at the age of fifteen within four weeks in March 1824. A year earlier he had completed the last of twelve symphonies for strings, and he gave his latest symphony originally the number thirteen. It was, however, in every respect a work on a scale much larger than that of the earlier dozen, scored not only for strings, but also for a full woodwind section, brass and timpani, and so he changed the title to ‘Symphony No. 1.’

Considering that Mendelssohn had composed this symphony within a month, it seems surprising that it was not performed in public before February 1827. The first performance took place in Leipzig, and Mendelssohn himself conducted the first British performance two years later in London. About this concert he wrote the next day to his family: “… for the first reading, the rehearsal went well, with vigour and it pleased everyone. The success at the concert last night was greater than I could have imagined.” He dedicated the symphony to the, as yet not Royal, Philharmonic Society.

Mendelssohn had completed the work on 31 March 1824. On 7 May of the same year Beethoven, by then totally deaf, directed the first performance of his Ninth Symphony in Vienna.  Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 (‘Hymn of Praise’) with a vocal finale was obviously influenced by the Choral Symphony, but his Symphony No. 1 owes much more of its inspiration to Beethoven’s earlier symphonies, such as the Second which has exactly the same orchestration.

There is no slow movement in this symphony. The Menuetto, really a Scherzo, is marked Allegro molto like the first movement, and the finale is, if possible, even faster, notably in the closing section (più stretto) where the minor mode changes to major. However, musical tempi are relative. The Andante with its gentle pulse and soft sound (except in a short fortissimo section) provides a contrast to the other three dramatic movements, and this is further enhanced by the romantic eloquence of the woodwind, used by Mendelssohn so effectively in this movement.

© Stefan de Haan

Violin 1
Simon Blendis
Nicoline Kraamwinkel
Anna de Bruin
Ronald Long
Imogen East
Momoko Arima

Violin 2
Gemma Sharples
Cecily Ward
Jeremy Metcalfe
Jayne Spencer
Kirra Thomas

Viola
Miguel Sobrinho
George White
Christopher Beckett
Bridget Carey

Cello
Leo Popplewell
Sarah Butcher
Ben Chappell

Double Bass
Catherine Elliott
Cathy Colwell

Flute 
Harry Winstanley
Nicolas Bricht

Oboe
Christopher O’Neal
Katie Clemmow

Clarinet 
Tim Lines
Lewis Graham

Bassoon 
Meyrick Alexander
Rosemary Cow

Horn 
Jonathan Williams
Martin Grainger

Trumpet 
Anthony Thompson
Peter Wright

Timpani
Benedict Hoffnung

“A young singer to watch” (The Times), British tenor Laurence Kilsby is rapidly gaining international recognition for his vivid stage presence, expressive musicianship, and wide-ranging repertoire. 

 In the 2025/26 season, Laurence makes his Glyndebourne Festival debut as the Novice in Billy Budd, sings Lurcanio in Ariodante at Opéra de Versailles, and returns to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo. He performs the Matthäus-Passion with the Concertgebouworkest and Klaus Mäkelä, tours the UK with Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings alongside Sinfonia of London and John Wilson, and makes his US concert debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in Beethoven Symphony No. 9 conducted by Raphaël Pichon. 

Continuing his regular collaboration with Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion, Laurence joins them for a tour of the Matthäus-Passion and performances at the Adelaide Festival. He also tours Handel’s Theodora with Jupiter Ensemble, and appears in recital with pianist Ella O’Neill at both Madrid’s Fundación Juan March and the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris. His debut album with O’Neill, AWAKENINGS, was released last season.  

Recent highlights include appearances at the Opéra national de Paris, Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra Comique, and the Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals, as well as performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.  

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and ABRSM Vocal Scholar at the Royal College of Music, Laurence was a member of the Opéra national de Paris studio in 2022/23. He won First Prize at both the Wigmore Hall / Bollinger International Song Competition (2022) and the Cesti Competition (Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik), and was earlier awarded the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers. 

Simon joined LMP as leader in 2014. He was a member of the Schubert Ensemble for twenty-three years, from 1995 until the group retired in 2018, leaving a legacy of over 80 commissions, 25 CD recordings and a large library of live performances on YouTube.

Simon is in demand as a guest-leader and has appeared in this role with most of the UK‘s major orchestras. He has also appeared as a guest-director with orchestras such as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Ensemble. Since 1999 he has shared the position of leader of Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, with whom he has recorded Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons for the Warner label. As a soloist he has appeared with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the RPO and the CBSO.

During the Coronavirus lockdowns Simon spent time researching the light music legacy of legendary violinist Max Jaffa. The resulting CD of 25 lost or forgotten gems from this archive, entitled Love is Like a Violin, was released in July 2022 to critical acclaim, and has already garnered over 4 million streams.

Increasingly sought after as a teacher, Simon is a professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.