Day One.
I’ve been to a
marvellous concert …
When I quit
spending half my year in less-than-welcoming Germany and Europe, with their
lavishly-available supply of (state subsidised) opera and concert performances, and returned to dwell
in the southern hemisphere, I had perforce to give up the rich musical life I
had been leading. But each year, for the last three, I have allowed myself one
treat. A visit to lovely Stradbroke Island, off the Queensland coast, for their
three-day chamber music festival.
‘Straddie’ might
be a small island, a small country community, but there is nothing ‘small’
about the festival. Over the ten years of its existence, under the aegis of
violinist Rachel Smith, it has developed into a full-sized event with half a
dozen concerts featuring an outstanding team of international soloists – almost,
now, precisely the same ones each year, for everyone wants to come back to
Straddie!
Sophie Rowell and
Rachel Smith (violins), Caroline Henbest (viola), Eric de Wit and Louise King
(cellos), Paul Hankinson (piano) were joined this year by two further pianists
(Louisa Breen, Stephen Emmerson), guitarist Karin Schaupp and the young
clarinettist, William Stafford. Each and every one impeccable. On the evidence
of today’s concert number one, this could be the best festival yet! For not
only does this event score by its participants, but also by its planning.
Without going into the wilds, the programmes – eschewing the over-familiar --
feature music which … well, let’s just say, I’m moderately well musically
educated, but the five pieces which made up tonight’s programme were all new to
me.
We started off
with Haydn’s trio no 41 in E flat minor. (Smith, de Wit, Hankinson). I do love
music that is made to delight and please rather than to amaze. And this is of
that genre. Melody not fireworks. Beauty not skills. Scarcely an ornament in
sight. Just music. I could fondly imagine myself relaxing opulently in an C18th
salon listening to this. The piece is almost a sonata for piano and violin, the
cello just giving depth and emphasis, but the instruments here blended so
beautifully that, at times, I couldn’t tell whether the full, warm lower notes
were coming from the cello or the keyboard. Lovely stuff. Just purely lovely
stuff.
The third piece
was four Schumann Märchenerzählungen.
Fairy stories. A sweet selection of tunes after the Sturm und Drang of the
cello piece. And, oh joy, written for piano (Emmerson), viola (Henbest) and
clarinet (Stafford).Why, oh why, didn’t/don’t more folk write for this
combination? The first two pieces were a melodious dancing joy, but I don’t
know which fairytale no 4 was illustrating: the Jolly Green Giant in his ten
league boots! Ah well, contrast is the salt and pepper of existence! And the
pieces were lively and enjoyable.
After an interval,
under the stars, and a glass of
chardonnay to the sound of the softly breaking waves, we returned for part two.
A little (93 bars)
introductory quintet from Mozart … pretty, frilly, characteristic, dance music
… and then we launched into the Big Number of the night. Szymanowski’s violin
(Rowell) and piano (Breen) piece entitled Mythes.
Szymanowski seems to have been following me around for a few years, and it’s
probably lèse-majesté to admit that while the Gorecki I listened to in Jersey
is engraved on my eardrums, I remember nothing of his compatriot’s music. I
guess it’s personal preference. For this piece is the utter antithesis of the
Haydn. As in the days of Paganini, de Beriot, Wieniawski et al, it is written
almost entirely to show off the technique of the player(s). Which it duly does.
Miss Rowell took on the dragon and slayed him with a thousand strokes of her
bow. And the audience (and I) were spellbound. She and Miss Breen got the
biggest applause of the night. But I say that, advisedly, the applause was, in
my book, for the performance rather than the music.
The evening came
to an end with more chardonnay and a huge Festival Tenth Birthday Cake under
more stars, by more waves, before we all toddled home to get a good sleep
before the early start tomorrow …de Falla, Albéniz, Poulenc and Boccherini with
breakfast, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms after lunch … before the ambulant Mr
Piano gets into his chariot to head to Dunwich for the last day’s concerts …
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