This work was commissioned by English Serenata and received its first performance in May 1987. The sextet is dedicated to the memory of Howard Walker, clarinettist and founder member of English Serenata, following his tragic death in a car accident.
Woolfenden’s Prelude, In Memoriam and Finale for wind sextet could be a useful companion piece for Janacek’s Mladi for the same combination of wind quintet and bass clarinet. This is in a more serious vein than the Suite Française and contains music of great emotional power as well as passages of energetic flow.
