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The Night Shift at The George Tavern

Shadwell, The George Tavern

Monday 16 March 2026, 20:00

Book now

Music

Includes pieces by Gonoud, Handel, Hahn, Mozart, La Corrette, Panseron, Rossini, Rameau,
plus excerpts from Brahms, Verdi and Weber.

Price

£15 suggested price - or 'pay what you choose' (from £8 minimum)

It’s the orchestral hero you didn’t know we needed! Martin Lawrence explores why the low horn is more significant than you might have previously thought.

Welcome to the magical, plangent, ghostly world of the ‘cor basse’. From the alphorn to Brahms, operatic cameos to Mozart’s Horn Concertos, Martin and a string quartet, will guide you through the specialist art of low horn playing.

Throughout musical history, horn players have divided into two camps – high and low – because the range of the horn is so large that no one player could master the whole lot. Dauprat, in his large tutor book on the horn, went so far as to say that a ‘cor basse’ player could die if they attempted to play ‘cor alt’!

This difference has now become known as 1st and 2nd horn. As the OAE’s 2nd horn, Martin says he needs to point out that there is nothing historically that implies any inferiority for the low specialist! Indeed, many of the significant solo pieces over the years were written for cor basse, including two of Mozart’s horn concertos and Beethoven’s horn sonata, and the low player was considered the expert in the hand-horn technique used to fill in the gaps in the harmonic series in the lower register. We’ll take a plunge into the specialist lower crooks and what gives this range of instruments their own particular sound, utterly different from the modern horn.

Martin will be joined by Matthew Truscott and Nia Lewis (violins), Martin Kelly (viola) and Catherine Rimer (cello).

Save the low horn, save the world.

The Night Shift is our series of informal chamber music gigs – literally music for smaller rooms, in the home or other places where people socialise. They’re a chance to hear the members of the OAE playing music that they’re passionate about and bringing in a wide range of musical influences. So come along, grab a drink with friends (or meet some new ones) and enjoy the music.

There are two ticket price choices for The Night Shift. Our suggested price is £15 or you can ‘pay what you choose’ by entering your amount (with a £8 minimum up to as much as you like!).

Violinist Julia Kuhn and bass player Cecelia Bryggemyer playing in the playground at Acland burghley School

Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki conducts the OAE with singer Florian Stortz

OAE musicians run a workshop in a school classroom

Did you know you can support the OAE?

We are redefining what it means to be an orchestra in the 2020s. Support the OAE today.

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The Night Shift at The George Tavern

Shadwell, The George Tavern

Monday 16 March 2026, 20:00

Event detail

It’s the orchestral hero you didn’t know we needed! Martin Lawrence explores why the low horn is more significant than you might have previously thought.

Did you know you can support the OAE?

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