Sibelius premieres

Not only are the Buxton Festival giving us the UK premiere of Sibelius's opera The Maiden in the Tower (in a double bill with Rimsky Korsakov's Kashchei the Immortal opening on 9 July). But the Saccini Quartet will be giving the UK premiered of Sibelius's Moderato - Allegro in C# minor at their festival concert on 16 July (in a programme with Ireland's first string quartet and Brahms's Clarinet Quintet with Andrew Marriner). The Sibelius is an early work, dating from 1888-89, before the sequence of symphonies started. The one-movement quartet is a stormy, intense movement. Should be interesting.