We focus on chamber music for wind and strings, with two works written by composers in their late twenties, full of bonhomie.

Beethoven’s Septet was his most popular work in his lifetime, so sought after that multiple arrangements were made, making it widely accessible. Beethoven himself arranged it as a trio for violin or clarinet, cello and piano.

By contrast, Holst’s captivating Sextet, discovered in the British Library archives a hundred years after its composition, is a fine recent addition to the genre.