‘That damn work! I wish it were burned!’

A joyous frolic through German folk hero Till Eulenspiegel’s merriest of pranks in Franz Hasenöhrl’s reduction for five instruments of the orchestral original.

Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen wrote NNENNA in 2018 in memory of Mgbafor Nnenna Inyama (1963–1986). The piece ends with an arrangement of the highlife song Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga, sometimes referred to as ‘Africa’s National Anthem’.

Much to his annoyance, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet was one of the most popular works during his lifetime, ‘that damn work! I wish it were burned!’.

Thankfully this sublime work wasn’t burned, and went on to influence other great works of the wind/string repertoire including nonets by Louis Spohr and Louise Farrenc, and Franz Schubert’s Octet.