Radically Historical Performance

A unique ensemble style.

Engaging and provocative performances built on the evidence of recordings from the early 1900s.

Our vision is a radical ‘historical performance’ that casts classical music in a completely new light.

Music-making at its most stimulating, vulnerable, and involving.

The Florian Ensemble offers an independent and experimental perspective on classical music.

Supported by in-depth study of recordings made by the Czech (formerly Bohemian) Quartet in the late 1920s, their playing consistently goes beyond assumed horizons of musical imagination and interaction.

Coupled with the elite standards of modern ‘historical performance’ on gut strings, their approach lays foundations for new ways of experiencing old music in the 21st Century.

Musicians

Projects

A chance for string players of all levels to explore chamber music with us in a friendly and welcoming setting.

Affordable weekend courses include small group coaching, string orchestra, technique workshops and much more! They are generally held twice a year in London - click the link to find out more.

Full string orchestra at work on chamber music course

Chamber Music Courses

Second violinist Joy with primary school class acting out their musical story

Creating Musical Stories

From 2018-2020 we ran workshops with 10 primary schools in Cornwall. The children came up with amazing stories in response to music by Haydn, Janacek and Britten.

Browse these pages to be reminded of the extraordinary richness of a child’s musical imagination!

Intimate concert in living room by Florian Ensemble, with audience sat close by on sofas and chairs

Florian: Up Close
House Concerts

Florian: Up Close is our series of intimate house concerts: more intense, more live, more sociable than a conventional classical performance, these events are a chance to experience visceral music-making with ‘no filter’. Our successful first season was held in London in Autumn 2019.

If you are interested in hosting or attending a future event in the UK, you can let us know here!

Historical Discoveries

Read all about our extensive research into the Czech String Quartet’s 1928 recordings!

New insights are released weekly: fascinating explanations alongside audio and score examples.

Sign up to receive them as they become available!

Featured
#53: Timing, feel, and context

We found it useful to reverse the basic metaphor of #52, to think less of the viola being early (in b.18), and more as if the other parts had been artificially expanding time until that moment. This recalibration meant that the viola could adopt a much more ‘neutral’ manner. This example was extremely effective in showing how far the surrounding context determined whether a particular inflection was experienced as being more ‘actively’ rushed, or whether it was more passive – and thus allowed to ‘roll’ more easily. We felt that the original recording was more inclined towards the latter here, and that it had a ‘just so’ quality which we had missed when the viola’s entry was conceived as more interventionist (i.e. ‘intentionally early’).

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#52: Function and timing in final imitative entry

The passage b.14-21 offered a useful case study in this distinction between ‘having time’ and ‘taking time’. In b.18 the viola has the final entry of a short gesture that has already been passed around the whole group in exact repetition, and so combines restatement and continuation through another ‘dovetail’ (#21). In our own style, we would generally de-emphasise the final entry in situations like these: a listener has already witnessed it enough for an ‘overt’ characterisation to be redundant or nonsensical.

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#51: ‘Make time’ but retain movement

Another quality that is resistant to parametric explanation was something we experienced as their ability to ‘make enough time’ for gestural and imaginative content to be clearly projected, but while retaining a feeling of forward motion. This was brought into stark relief by comparing the Czechs’ playing with our versions. Once we became aware of this, their aptitude seemed almost magical…

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 Contact us

  • To enquire about booking concerts, talks or other engagements, please write to us at florianensemble@gmail.com.

  • We would love to know what you think of our performance and our work! Please get in touch with any creative questions or ideas (florianensemble@gmail.com).