FOUR concerts are to be given by musicians of international standing during Purbeck Chamber Music Festival.

The festival runs from August 29 to 31 arising from concerts given by Natalie Clein and Friends as part of the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival. The concerts are held at venues across the area including the Tank Museum, Bovington, Durlston Country Park, Swanage and St George’s Church, Langton Matravers.

The line-up includes Ashley Wass, a pianist visiting Purbeck for the first time and a return visit from Swedish violinist Fredrik Paulsson, whose impassioned playing took St Mary’s by storm at last year’s festival.

Also performing are Barbara Doll, a Swiss string player who will be playing both violin and viola; Gareth Lubbe who apart from playing viola, also improvises with overtones which he will demonstrate during the weekend; Ellen Nisbeth, a remarkable musician and the first violist ever to win the Swedish Soloist competition in 2012.

Rising star and Russian cellist Niña Dolginsteva will also play.

Natalie Clein was born and brought up in Poole.

As a child, before she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1994, she played some of her earliest cello concerts in Purbeck churches.

This year the role of speaker is taken by Natalie’s sister the actress Louisa Clein, recognisable as the daughter of BBC’s Judge John Deed among many other roles.

The first of the four concerts includes Elgar’s Piano Quintet (1918), Sally Beamish’s Voices in Silence and readings from Carol Anne Duffy’s 1914: Poetry Remembers anthology, as part of a WWI commemorative concert in The Tank Museum, Bovington on August 29 at 7pm.

On day two Natalie Clein and Barbara Doll play Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 in G Major and the Violin Partita in D Minor, against a backdrop of sea and sky at Durlston Castle in Swanage on August 30 at 11am. Later that evening music lovers can hear Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A major Opus 26 and a rare live performance of Schoenberg’s String Sextet Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night) along with the sensual poem by the German modernist Richard Dehmel which the music depicts, read by Louisa Clein (St Georges Church, Langton Matravers, August 30, 7.30pm).

And the fourth and final concert includes Mozart’s String Quintet K516 in the dark key of G minor at St James Church, Kingston, August 31, at noon. Visitors can also come and listen to a masterclass for talented young Dorset cello students given by Natalie Clein in St Mary’s Church, Swanage, on September 1 at 2.30am.

Tickets are available from purbeckartweeks.co.uk and Swanage and Wareham Tourist Information Centres. For details visit purbeck-chambermusic.co.uk