MALVERN Concert Club’s final concert of the season on April 28 was given by Emma Johnson ‘and Friends’, these comprising the Carducci Quartet and three other outstanding British musicians, all of whom studied at Cambridge. The first piece was Weber’s effervescent Clarinet Quintet Op.34, a work packed with memorable tunes tempered by occasional moments of Romantic angst. Emma Johnson made much of the virtuosity of the piece and the Carducci Quartet accompanied beautifully. The second piece was Mozart’s mellow Quintet for French Horn and Strings K.407, performed by the celebrated hornist Alec Frank-Gemmill and a quartet of violin, two violas and cello. The Carducci’s second violinist, Michele Fleming, did a splendid job as second viola. Frank-Gemmill creates absorbing performances with no gestures or display of any kind, relying on his immaculate sense of timing, balance, intonation and phrasing. Here was real chamber music, the strings equal partners with the horn.

The Schubert Octet (D. 803) was equally enthralling, whether in the exuberant concertante passages or in those intricate duets and trios of strings and woodwind that demand virtuosity of a different kind. Each of the musicians responded imaginatively, to Schubert’s endlessly inventive writing and to each other as creative musicians. Emma Johnson was an exemplary leader of her wind section (clarinet, bassoon and horn), while the whole ensemble responded to her vivacious musical personality. The packed audience in the Forum Theatre became utterly absorbed.

PETER JOHNSON