Birmingham Conservatoire is the venue for a packed programme of chamber music next week, beginning on Monday.
Birthday-anniversary celebrants Mozart and Shostakovich are the catalysts for this mini-festival masterminded by John Humphreys, but they are by no means the only composers represented.
Schubert, for example, contributes his A minor String Quartet to Monday evening's concert from the Alberni String Quartet, who also perform Mozart's G major Quartet K387 and Shostakovich's Quartet no.10 (Adrian Boult Hall, 7.30pm).
Among Tuesday's events is a screening of the biographical Shostakovich film Testimony, introduced by playwright David Rudkin (7pm, with a performance of the composer's Quartet no.6 by the Apollo Quartet at 6pm).
And Wednesday evening's "Liederabend", devised by Simon Nicholls, combines songs and correspondence by Mozart and Shostakovich (8pm, with complimentary glass of wine).
There is also a full roster of lunchtime and daytime events for this Chamber MusicFest which runs until next Friday (all details on 0121 303 2323).
Other events at Birmingham Conservatoire this week include Wednesday's commuter concert from recorder tutor Ross Winters and keyboard and composition tutor Richard Leigh Harris, entitled "Separation and Synthesis: French and Italian Baroque Music" (6pm, admission a mere £1.00). And tonight brings more baroque music with a varied programme from the Conservatoire's own Capelle Baroque Orchestra, with harpsichordist Martin Perkins directing works by Bach, Vivaldi, Arne, Vitali and Schmelzer, the last-named composer's Fechtschule suite depicting a fencing duel (7.30pm, details on above telephone number).
The Bromsgrove Festival continues with tomorrow night's intriguing Mozart tribute from the English Serenata. One of Gabrielle ByamGrounds' stimulating musical documentaries, "Growing Up with Genius" depicts Mozart's early life and works, tracing the tours he made around Europe before eventually settling in Vienna (The Artrix, 7.45pm).
Saturday brings the exciting O Duo percussion duet to Bromsgrove, in partnership with Johannes Moller and another YMP prizewinner, flautist Ieva Rutentale. The wide-ranging programme encompasses Bach, Chopin and Ravel, Astor Piazzolla and Peteris Vasks, and many other composers (The Artrix, 7.45pm).
Then the festival moves slightly out of Bromsgrove. Dodford Church is the venue for Sunday's programme from the Royal Shakespeare Company-based Avon Ensemble, again with a strong Mozart input (5pm), and on Wednesday the charming St John the Baptist Church in the grounds of Hagley Hall hosts the Chilingirian Quartet in a programme of Mozart, Shostakovich and Schubert (7.45pm, all Bromsgrove Festival details on 01527 876504).
Two choral concerts on Saturday continue this year's Mozart celebrations. Adrian Lucas conducts the City of Birmingham Choir in the sumptuous Vesperae solennes de confessore, with its gorgeous "Laudate Dominum" for soprano solo and chorus.
The programme also includes Haydn's dramatic Nelson Mass, as well as showcasing the CBSO alone in Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra (the very first work Simon Rattle conducted as principal conductor of the orchestra, for a BBC Pebble Mill recording in 1980). This Symphony Hall concert begins at 7pm (0121 780 3333).
Mozart's Solemn Vespers can also be heard in Lichfield Cathedral on Saturday, when the Lichfield Cathedral Special Choir combines it with the composer's poignantly incomplete Mass in C minor (7.30pm, details on 01543 264674).
And not to forget Shostakovich in this centenary year of his birth, Warwick Music Live presents the Fitzwilliam Quartet at Leamington's Holy Trinity Church tomorrow evening in a programme featuring the composer's Quartets nos. 7, 13 and 9, plus his unfinished Quartet movement op.113, premiered as recently as last year (7.30pm, details on 01926 776438).
