What’s on at Saffron Hall in Essex this November

The Saffron Hall audience will be treated to a mesmerising programme from a duo praised for the “electrifying intimacy” of their playing later this month.

Pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy will perform pieces by Stravinsky, Desyatnikov and Schubert at the Saffron Walden venue on Sunday November 24 (3.30pm).

Two pianists at one instrument in the concert hall is a thrilling sight and sound. The musical balance, responsiveness and even the physical choreography of two minds and four hands working as one is extraordinary to witness.

Plunging straight into Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is an audacious, arresting opening from the pair. Hearing it on piano does not diminish its power, but seems to compress its savage energy and tauten the eerie tension.

Trompe-l’œil by Ukrainian Desyatnikov dances to a different tune, his duo like an aural snow globe of dances given a vigorous shake.

Schubert, as always, confounds our expectations. Fantasie in F Minor is no salon-music bauble, but a profound unbroken conversation between equals that draws us close to eavesdrop its hushed, whispered truths.

The month’s entertainment at the complex gets under way with a performance by Foden’s Brass Band on Saturday November 2 (7.30pm).

From Sandbach in Cheshire and charting its heritage back to 1902 and the Foden’s motor works, Foden’s is currently ranked the world’s number one brass band.

It has also won the National Championships three times in the last five years under musical director Michael Fowles having developed a reputation for brilliant and precise ensemble and an unwavering beauty and richness of sound.

The band brings a typically entertaining mix of brass band originals, medleys and arrangements of popular classics, as well as works written for the group, and has star soloists.

The Jess Gillam Ensemble will play the film music of Michael Nyman, dreamscapes by Debussy and Nadia Boulanger and music from the baroque concerto repertoire on Sunday November 3 (3.30pm).

Accompanied by a hand-picked all-star band of musicians who share her bold, open-minded approach, saxophonist Gillam effortlessly switches styles and eras, leading us in a whirlwind tour of her musical world.

Full of warmth, energy, mellifluous sound and astonishing virtuosity, it promises to be an evening rich in promise from an outstanding natural communicator.

The Julian Bliss Septet will pay tribute to American clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman at a concert on Saturday November 9 (7.30pm).

Bliss is one of the most versatile and talented clarinettists around and, like Goodman, a master at switching seamlessly between jazz and classical worlds.

Here the septet will feature classic standards made famous by Goodman and his Rhythm Makers in the 1930s, including I Would Do Most Anything For You, Don’t Be Stompin’ That Way and Al Jolson’s Avalon.

There will also be some unforgettable George Gershwin hits such as Summertime and I Got Rhythm.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos will be performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Saturday November 16 (7.30pm).

No solo-virtuoso-versus-the-band displays allowed here as the pieces are a triumph of teamwork. The soloists are drawn from within the orchestra itself, often in the unlikeliest of combinations.

The soft recorders and whirling solo violin of No. 4 contrast with the strident supergroup of trumpet, woodwind and violin in No. 2.

In No. 6, the spotlight falls on a pair of mellow, sweet-toned violas working in tandem while No. 3 is no less than a concerto for nine solo strings, a dizzying tag-team display that hurls the material from one end of the sonic spectrum to the other and back again.

The pioneering quartet Sō Percussion will perform a genre-defying concert with composer, violinist and vocalist Caroline Shaw on Friday November 29 (7pm).

Their jointly-written Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part is a collection of songs that enriches both of their musical and spiritual homelands and propagates something thrillingly new.

They draw on shared cultural passions from James Joyce to ABBA’s Lay All Your Love On Me, the sacred harp tradition to medieval plainchant.

The resulting sonic adventure is an engaging blend of intricate precision and freewheeling spontaneity, taut interlocking rhythms and ruminative spirituality.