ABSTRACT
The Cheltenham Festival provided for Wood a number of important premieres at the start of his career: the string Quartet in B♭, String Quartet No. 1 and the Quintet all received their first performances under the Festival's auspices. In the late 1990s, under the directorship of the composer Michael Berkeley, the Festival was the location of two further premieres: the Clarinet Trio and Srenade and Eegy (1999), a Festival commission. The Clarinet Trio Op. 40 was commissioned by the Trio Gemelli, who gave the first performance at the Cheltenham Festival in July 1997. Wood notes in the score that the opening movement 'concentrates on the members of the trio as solo instrumentalists'. The Serenade and Elegy for string quartet and string orchestra, written in memory of his daughter Jenny and dedicated to Wood's family, was first performed by the London Mozart Players with the Chilingirian String Quartet – their second Wood premiere in six years.
