The start of 2009 has been a very busy time for me. This week has been particularly mad with six concerts in six days with six different programmes (thank God all weeks are not like this!)! These concerts have included Faure, Bliss & Mendelssohn Quartets with the Frith Piano Quartet at Keele University, Glazunov & Boccherini String Quintets in Birmingham, a concert with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group & George Benjamin in Birmingham, not to mention three concerts with different programmes with CBSO. Next week Ben Frith and I will travel down to Suffolk for a recital which includes the Kapustin 3 pieces in jazz style for cello & piano (Elegy, Practically Waltz and Burlesque) alongside more common fair including Cesar Franck and Debussy Sonatas and shorter pieces by Saint Saens and Messiaen.

Other highlights (outside the C.B.S.O.) will include a concert including Strauss Metamorphosen and Shoenberg Verklate Nacht with the Innnovation Chamber Ensemble in Shropshire, a concert celebrating the young Rossini with three of his string sonatas (pretty good for a 13 year old!) another recital of French music with Ben Frith in Canterbury on Valentines Day where we will include Paul Tortelier’s Sonata Breve (Bucephale - all about Alexander the Great’s Horse) along with pieces by Franck, Debussy, Messiaen, Saint Saens and Paul Dukas. There follows a Dvorak Concerto at Pershore Abbey and a solo cello concert in the middle of March sees me playing a recital including Bach, Kodaly solo sonata alongside works by Britten, Lutoslawski and Ginastera written for Rostropovich to play for Paul Sacher’s 70^th birthday (Paul Sacher was a Swiss conductor and patron commissioning new works from some of the great composers of the 20^th century including Bartok, Richard Strauss (Metamorphosen), Lutoslawski, Britten…). A cello & organ concert in March will see James Parsons and I premiering a new work by Briggs with works by Faure, Ginastera and the wonderful sonata by Marcel Dupre at Leeds Town Hall.

The Frith Piano Quartet is having a very busy season with 28 concerts between September 08 - April 09. We have played on Radio 3 this season and have concerts from Ashford to Inverness. We have substantially increased our repertoire this season and the new additions now include the quartets of Walton, Mendelssohn (op.2 & op.3), Lekeu and a wonderful finds by Suk, Gordon Jacob and Martinu.