This November, the Fidelio Trio Winter Chamber Music Festival returns for a weekend of exceptional music and new discoveries. Presented by GlasDrum and curated by the internationally acclaimed ‘virtuosic Fidelio Trio’ (Sunday Times), this year’s festival features world premieres, new works by Irish composers, exciting collaborations and fresh perspectives on the chamber music repertoire — from Ravel, Schubert, Beethoven and Fauré to Schoenberg, Steve Reich, Donnacha Dennehy, Deirdre McKay, Evis Sammoutis and Frank Lyons.

Across three days, the Fidelio Trio are joined by an exceptional line-up of guest artists including acclaimed tenor Mark Padmore, violinist Elizabeth Cooney and violist Fiona Bonds, in a programme that moves effortlessly between beloved masterpieces, landmark 20th-century works and new music.

The festival opens on Friday the 27th of November with Transfigurations, bringing together music of transformation and reinvention. Donnacha Dennehy’s Bulb (commissioned by the Fidelio Trio with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland) has been described by the composer as “an artificial vandalism on the natural phenomenon” - the phenomenon being the overtone series. The shifting textures and energy of Bulb is set against Ravel’s exquisite Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite), heard in an arrangement for piano trio. A new work titled To the Edge by Northern Irish composer Frank Lyons will be featured, followed by Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), in an intimate arrangement by Eduard Steuermann. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, Schoenberg’s richly expressive work traces a journey from darkness towards transformation and light, inspired by the poetry of Richard Dehmel.

On Saturday, 28th of November, audiences are invited to a free lunchtime concert in the beautiful gallery space at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. To celebrate renowned composer Steve Reich in the year of his 90th birthday, this concert features Different Trains, one of Reich’s most celebrated works. The piece draws on the composer’s childhood memories of travelling by train across America during the Second World War, juxtaposed with the very different experience of European Jews travelling by train to concentration camps. Recorded speech, train sounds and a tightly woven string texture combine to create a work that is at once deeply personal and historically resonant.

Continuing the festival and Fidelio Trio’s tradition of providing professional development to artists, Saturday afternoon offers young performers the opportunity to participate in an immersive study day. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of leading French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel, this study afternoon presents a side-by-side opportunity for upcoming pianists and string players perform movements from Ravel’s iconic piano trio and sit in with members of Fidelio Trio exploring and rehearsing this music. This workshop is offered in collaboration with TU Dublin.

That evening we move back to the beautiful surrounds of the 18th-century Library at Belvedere House, DCU, for a special film screening of Rěves de Jeux Mécaniques, offering a cinematic encounter with the imaginative world of music. Produced by OnJam TV, the film features a performance with animation of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello performed by Darragh Morgan and Tim Gill. The main evening concert then brings together a programme in a concert titled ‘Teachers and Students’. Ravel’s Piano Trio opens the programme, followed by a previous Winter Chamber Music Festival commission; The Owl by Irish composer Deirdre McKay. The Fidelio Trio are joined by acclaimed London tenor Mark Padmore for McKay’s The Owl, followed by a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge. Drawing on poetry by A. E. Housman, this remarkable work moves between nostalgia and the enduring power of the natural landscape. The evening concludes with Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, a work of extraordinary invention. With Mark Padmore, Elizabeth Cooney and Fiona Bonds joining the Fidelio Trio, the concert brings together a stellar group of performers.

The weekend concludes on Sunday the 29th of November with Twilight in Vienna, pairing the intimacy of Schubert and Beethoven with the world premiere of leading Cypriot composer and Eastman Professor Evis Sammoutis’ Λήδρα – Ledra. The new work offers a contemporary voice within a programme rooted in the chamber music traditions of Vienna. The festival concludes with one of Schubert’s late great chamber works, his Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major. With its expansive lyricism and extraordinary melodic invention, it provides a fitting close to an exceptional weekend of chamber music.

This festival is an unmissable opportunity to experience world-class live performances in an intimate setting, right in the heart of Dublin. Whether you are a lifelong chamber music lover or simply curious to hear something new, join us for a weekend where great music, new ideas and exiting collaborations meet. Book your tickets now!

Tickets available from eventbrite.ie. Full programme available at this link.

The Fidelio Trio Winter Chamber Music Festival is brought to you by GlasDrum in partnership with Music at DCU, with funding from the Arts Council Festivals Investment Scheme. The event is supported by RTÉ Supporting the Arts, and the Saturday lunchtime concert at the National Botanic Gardens by the Office of Public Works.