Reviews

“The Farrington Ensemble continue to surprise with their versatility and the quality of their performance; be it Gershwin, Ravel or Beethoven they give assured performances of the highest standard.”

Martin Denny, Director, Windsor Festival

"The four musicians are technically highly accomplished but they swamp their technical excellence with breathtaking dollops of musicianship, which prevent us from making the mistake of thinking them simply clever.
...The group’s terrifically imaginative playing was by turns uncompromisingly fiery and sulphurous, seductive and beautiful, sophisticated and recondite. Like all great performers they took the sort of risks in performance that it’s worth travelling many a mile to hear. The Stravinsky was the highlight; this giant-of-Twentieth-century-music’s compelling score was delivered with such unequivocal commitment, total understanding and passion, that it would be hard to conceive of it being played better. It was utterly breathtaking."

Charterhouse News

"…The concert was an undisputed success. In an interesting and somewhat unusual programme, the Farrington Ensemble acquitted themselves like masters.
…Leading light of the group has to be their extremely accomplished pianist Iain Farrington. He is a born chamber musician. His poised control of the ensemble said as much, as does his already formidable reputation as an accompanist. Composer and arranger, too, Iain must claim at least the creative responsibility for sending the audience away with smiles on their faces and hands sore with clapping, for they ended their concert quite brilliantly with his arrangement of Gershwin's 'Embraceable You' and 'I got Rhythm'. This group could get work as a swing band any day!"

Lyndhurst Times

“We had a wonderful evening's entertainment from four of the most delightful, most talented and musically accomplished young men it has been our pleasure to give a platform to at Stragglethorpe Hall. We just hope they will come again”.

Stragglethorpe Hall, Lincolnshire

"In the Kegelstatt trio, each instrument had the opportunity to shine separately through musical conversation, though the piano and clarinet dominated good humouredly the less showy cello.
Brahms' Clarinet Trio in A minor followed. The musicians responded with a most lively and sympathetic performance, exhibiting a range of colours and gradation of sound that amply called forth the romantic feel underlying Brahms' adherence to classical form.
....of particular interest was an elegy composed by Iain Farrington himself. This was no tear-stained cry of grief, but a cry of anger at the brutal events unfurling around the world, in which so many innocent lives are sacrificed to the destructive ideologies that stalk the globe. In the hands of Peter Sparks the clarinet wailed and sobbed with heart-rending poignancy, a painful tribute to the suffering of so many.
A lighter note brought the concert to an end as the trio threw themselves into a lively arrangement of three of George Gershwins most-loved songs.
It was a privilege to be entertained by three such lively and accomplished musicians with a programme so well constructed as to allow each of the three to display his considerable musicianship."

Blenheim Concerts, Chiswick

“…A wonderful concert with superlative playing, much appreciated by our audience. Playing of the highest standard of wonderful music - the artists communicated their own enjoyment to the appreciative audience”.

Farnborough Music Society

" …This particular combination is not an everyday one, and this led to some intriguingly unfamiliar repertoire. The performance of Mozart's 'Kegelstatt' Trio was elegant and poised, and it was evident immediately that the players enjoyed their music making together - as Mozart wished, they were playing for each other as much as for an audience.
…But the centrepiece of the recital was Kenneth Leighton's 'Fantasy on an American Hymn-Tune'. The Farrington Ensemble excelled themselves here, not only rising fully to the work's daunting technical demands, but also holding together its many disparate elements - jagged rhythms, violent outbursts, agonised cries, gently fluttering trills, and evocations of jazz - in a highly persuasive performance.
…A final two arrangements of songs by Gershwin were a well-earned dessert for both players and audience. Here was a chance to savour in particular the clear tone and crisp rhythms of pianist Iain Farrington, and also the excellent clarinet playing of Peter Sparks, whose skills clearly encompass the Benny Goodman end of the spectrum as well as the world of Mozart."

Hinckley Times