The Nottingham Chamber Music Festival is an annual series of concerts put together by a team of dedicated volunteers, bringing classical music artists to some of our city’s most beautiful and historical spaces. For the closing concert of the 2025 edition, the festival worked with the Nottingham Park Residents Association to host string quartet, The Le Page Ensemble, in the stunning surroundings of the Park Tunnel. A special one-of-a-kind concert not to be missed, we went along to experience this cave-dwelling performance first-hand…
Having previously lived on Canning Circus, pretty much halfway between the two entrances to the Park Estate off Derby Road, I’m ashamed to admit that I only found out about the Park Tunnel in late 2024 – something which would have been much more beneficial to know during COVID lockdown when looking for nearby walking routes. Originally built in 1855 to allow horse-drawn carriages through, the cavernous tunnel is a breathtaking hidden gem that it seems a lot of locals still don’t know is there. Well-preserved and still used today to access The Park Estate from Derby Road, it makes for a picturesque path through the heart of our city. But for this evening the Park Tunnel has a new purpose – tonight, it is a music venue.
Upon arrival to the Tunnel for tonight’s performance, there are rows of chairs stretching most of the way down the long cave. Towards the back, the hosts have even set-up a pop-up bar for the evening, serving beer, champagne (by the glass or by the bottle), as well as soft drinks.
With work tomorrow, it’s just a glass of champagne for tonight, as we then take our seats with the rest of tonight’s congregation. It’s important to note as well that tonight’s performance is for a good cause, with the proceeds going to a fundraising campaign to enhance the wildlife and biodiversity of the Park Estate. So, hats off to all those buying the bottles of bubbly!
After a brief welcome from Nottingham Chamber Music Festival founder Carmen Flores, the Le Page Ensemble take their place in front of the audience. Making up the Ensemble are David Le Page and Jenny Sacha on Violin, Rose Redgrave on Viola and Clare O’Connell on Cello, with Le Page the founder of the group back in 2010 having began playing violin since the age of just seven years old. However, the four of them are all highly accomplished musicians in their own right, having performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls all over the world. I venture to guess though, perhaps this might be their first performance in an old Victorian tunnel in Nottingham.
From the moment their bows touch the strings of their instruments, the whole evening is just magical. The cave creates the perfect natural acoustics for the performance, as a backdrop of birds flying, wild greenery and a warm summer night’s sky light up the far end of the tunnel behind the Le Page Ensemble. Their setlist is pitch perfect too, from the classical to the modern, to old favourites and world premieres.
Early on, they treat us to work from Philip Glass and Bach, before their own arrangement of Velvet Underground’s Venus In Furs. There’s also space for two pieces created especially for the event, Le Page’s own Tunnel Vision and also Cuniculum by songwriter SuRie.
The quartet save the best run for last, though, with a mesmerising cover of Kraftwerk’s iconic Das Model, which makes way for a playful rendition of two of Dmitri Shostakovich’s movements from 1931, one Adagio and one Allegretto.
It’s then into Bach’s iconic Toccata and Fugue (BWV 565), before they close out on a delicate arrangement of David Bowie’s Heroes. The hour performance simply flies by, with the audience firmly on their feet in rapturous applause after the final string is plucked.
Overall, a wonderfully memorable closing night of the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival for 2025, with the aura of the Park Tunnel adding a mystical dimension to the Le Page Ensemble’s captivating performance. Here’s hoping we get more live music in this wonderful space in the near future!
Tunnel Vision was the closing concert of the 2025 Nottingham Chamber Music Festival on Sunday, 13th
July 2025.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
