A leading British saxophone quartet that has attracted rave reviews from the classical music press is to perform in Rickmansworth on Wednesday, January 23.

The award-winning Ferio Saxophone Quartet will be playing music by Johann Sebastian Bach and contemporary French and Dutch composers.

The first half of the Three Rivers Music Society concert will feature transcriptions of Bach works that the quartet commissioned from Iain Farrington, a gifted pianist/arranger who played at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

In the second half of the concert the Ferios will perform music by two modern composers who have been unafraid to buck convention.

The first is Paris-born Hugo Reinhart who sometimes writes in the style of an 18th-century composer. His Quartet in F Minor, the work featured in this concert, draws inspiration from Mozart and Haydn.

The Ferios will also play a series of compositions inspired by world cities that they commissioned from ‘Guillermo Lago’ - the pseudonym of the Dutch musician Willem van Merwijk.

Van Merwijk is little known in the UK but his music is now being played around the world. In 2013 he wrote L’Entrata del Re for the coronation of King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands.

The Ferios’ debut CD for the Chandos label was praised by reviewers on Gramophone Magazine and Radio 3. Classical Music Magazine also said the quartet’s playing “is of the highest level”.

Tickets are £16 at the door, with reduced prices for members and free entry for under-25s, and a 20-minute pre-concert talk from 7pm.

Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth, Wednesday, January 23, 7.30pm. Details: www.trms.elgar.org

Photos: Michael Robert Williams