The Joy of Six

Strauss: Sextet from Capriccio
Brahms: String Sextet Op.18
With players from the Royal Academy

The choice of instrumental grouping can make or break a composition; the string sextet, a notoriously difficult combination, takes on a forward-looking guise with Strauss in probably the most exquisite of all music designed to be played off-stage, while Brahms looks back to the baroque with his solutions: sonority is the key.

Six players from the Royal Academy of Music offer the live experience: Kiann Chow and Charlotte Skinner (violins), Rhoslyn Lawton and Ana Monteverde (violas), Amy Jolly and Romain Lapeyre (cellos).

This is a part of Professor Hogwood's 2011-12 series of lectures, The Making of a Masterpiece, in which he examines a number of acknowledged masterpieces, but each from a select angle only - their scoring, compactness, virtuosity, accessibility, memorability or other flavour.