The Bourbaki Ensemble | Double Strings... and more!

Double Bourbaki – what more could you want? Tippett's Double Concerto, one of the great string works of the twentieth century, features jazzy syncopations, blues harmonies and Scottish folk tunes.

Leading contemporary British composer Anna Clyne's piece, in 15 separate parts, has been reviewed as "a fragile elegy… intertwining voices of lament bring to mind English Renaissance masterpieces of Thomas Tallis and John Dowland". It takes its title from lines of Vietnamese poetry:

Earth will keep you tight within her arms dear one So that tomorrow you will be transformed into flowers.

The Bourbaki Ensemble commissioned and premiered Chris Williams' piece in 2016: in 2020 it was awarded first prize in the competition Musica per Archi, Lviv, Ukraine. Passacaglia is an early string work by a composer who has more recently achieved great acclaim for her large and complex orchestral pieces. Colin Spiers' Anna, in 17 parts, is dedicated to the memory of the composer's maternal grandmother.