Frederick Waxman & Figure are Side by Side again, with Baroque music alongside the new including a commission from Isabella Gellis

Frederick Waxman and Figure

Frederick Waxman and his ensemble Figure are back at Smith Square Hall on 9 April 2026 with another of their Side by Side events presenting Baroque and contemporary music for strings. There will be Baroque masterpieces including the fifth of Handel's Concerto Grossos Op. 6, his great set of 12 that took Corelli's Opus 6 as its model. Alongside this there will be Heinrich Biber's Battalia, his remarkable battle depiction that is full of unconventional (for the time) techniques, plus music by Muffat and Wassenaer.

Alongside these are contemporary pieces, both new and classics. In the latter category music comes Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte (written in 2011 and revised in 2014) inspired by a Haydn string quartet and Oliver Leith's Honey Siren, written for 12 Ensemble in 2019 and inspired by the sound of sirens (as the composer puts it "I was thinking about sirens; the wailing kind, not the bird women singing on rocks"). Alongside these are two new pieces. Joanna Ward's Sweet Romance was commissioned by Figure in 2025, and a specially commissioned world premiere by Jacob Druckman Prize winner Isabella Gellis. [back in 2024, I chatted to Isabella Gellis about her new opera, The Devil's Den: see my interview]

Full details from the Smith Square website