Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music - 29 June 2014

Catherine Bott celebrates ever-increasing ensembles - from duets to nonets.

This week, Catherine Bott delves into the world of chamber music and looks at how the addition of just one instrument can change a whole sound-world. 

This fascinating show is subtitled "Ever-increasing ensembles" – and Catherine starts with a piano duet by Mozart and builds up, one instrument at a time, to a nonet at the end of the programme. In between there's a sublime Dvorak trio and Borodin’s evergreen String Quartet No.2.  

Forces increase to five for Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet; there’s an operatic sextet; a Beethoven septet; and a Mendelssohn Octet.

And to finish: a nonet by Darius Milhaud.