Beautifully-conceived 21st century works inspired by the visual arts

Three beautifully-conceived 21st century works inspired by the visual arts, culminating in a celebration of Balkan folk tunes herald the return of Ellie Consta’s pioneering Her Ensemble.

Inspired by the history of still-life paintings, Caroline Shaw’s piano quartet Thousandth Orange depicts tiny oblique revelations that time's filter can open up in a musical memory. Picasso, meanwhile is the starting point for Elena Kats-Chernin’s sax, marimba, and accordion enriched dive into love, death, and desire. These ideas streamline through Dobrinka Tabakova’s 2002 string trio which grapples with the idea of visualising sound itself.

Devoted to championing women’s voices, the ‘forward thinking ensemble’ (Gramophone) enlists two star soloists for its folk-gilded brush with the plastic arts. ‘A performer who can hypnotise a room’ (Arts Desk), saxophonist Jess Gillam ‘frankly rocks’ concedes the Huffington Post; while ‘superstar cellist’ (The Times), Laura van der Heijden ‘has everything within reach to become a cello diva’ (Trouw).