Isis Ensemble

Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Psycho
Benjamin Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings
Interval
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
Dmitry Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op.110a (arr. Barshai from String Quartet No.8)
Béla Bartók: Romanian folk dances, Sz.56 arr. Willner for strings

The Isis Ensemble returns to Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall for an evening of masterworks from the last century.

Bernard Herrmann's iconic score for Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho revolutionised film music with its unprecedented use of string orchestra.

Britten's unique and enduring masterpiece Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings sets poems by Cotton, Tennyson, Blake, Jonson and Keats to evoke different aspects of night.

The First Chamber Symphony, Rudolph Barshai's arrangement for string orchestra of Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet, is thought to be the composer's musical self-portrait and his most devastatingly intense work.

'The Isis Ensemble created a sumptuous sound' (The Strad)

Isis Ensemble
Jacques Cohen conductor
John McMunn tenor
Katy Woolley horn
Susanne Stanzeleit leader