United Kingdom Numerous – Romsey Chamber Music Pageant 2024 [1]: Sophia Jin (soprano), Thomas Guthrie (baritone), Imogen Whitehead (trumpet), Laura Rickard, Emma Roijackers, Luke Hsu (violin), José Nunes, Joseph Griffin, Coby Mendez (viola), Rainer Crosett, Lydia Hillerudh (cello), James Trowbridge (double bass), Johan Löfving (guitar), Jennifer Walsh, Michael Cohen-Weissert, Caspar Vos (piano). Houghton Lodge Gardens, Romsey Abbey, St. Mark’s Church, Ampfield, United Reformed Church, Romsey, 24-30.6.2024. (CK)
24.6.2024 – Bach, Britten
25.6.2024 – Tchaikovsky, Räisänen, Chausson, Janáček
26.6.2024 – Bach, Hindemith
27.6.2024 – Snape, Bray, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven
28.6.2024 – Schubert
28.6.2024 – Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Simpson, Janáček
28.6.2024 – Schoenberg
29.6.2024 – Household Live performance
29.6.2024 – Szymanowski, Alma Mahler, Higdon, Schumann
30.6.2024 – Beamish, Mills, Harding, Dodgson, Smyth, Maxwell Davies, Schumann
30.6.2024 – Scelsi, Purcell, Schubert, Korngold
Laura Rickard, founder and Inventive Director of the Romsey Chamber Music Pageant – now in its sixth 12 months – had devised a mouthwatering programme of music beneath the final title ‘Of Love and Insanity’. Some might need been forgiven for assuming that ‘Insanity’ referred to the opening live performance: a Midsummer morning cello recital at dawn by the river Check, within the lovely gardens of Houghton Lodge.
The live performance was however a sellout: by 6am 100 folks armed with picnic chairs had assembled, undeterred by the blanket of fog that robbed dawn of its splendour. There was splendour sufficient, in fact, in American cellist (and Romsey common) Rainer Crosett’s taking part in.
What higher method to start the day (and the Pageant) than the Prelude of Bach’s Cello Suite No.1?
Gently improvisatory, undulating, in Rainer’s arms it sounded as pure because the river flowing behind him, accompanied at a discreet distance by birdsong. His taking part in of the 5 dances that comply with the Prelude was equally considerate, marked by spontaneity and freedom: nothing was ever compelled. The concluding Gigue was a pleasure. At any time when I hear this suite sooner or later, I feel it should deliver this expertise to my reminiscence.
A heron flew previous alongside the river as Rainer launched into the Canto primo of Britten’s difficult Cello Suite No.1 (Britten provides three ‘Canto’ actions to Bach’s six-movement construction). After the quirky power of the Fuga got here the beautiful Lamento, angular, eloquent – a lot in order that Rainer appeared nearly to make his cello communicate: and because the sluggish, sonorous music unfolded pale sunshine got here by way of the lifting mist. This was taking part in of actual character: declamatory pizzicato within the Serenata, strongly accented rhythm within the Marcia, the Canto Terzo nearly like a distant trumpet. Then the calm, lovely Bordone, like a ghostly folks dance, faintly harking back to Sumer is icumen in, which turns up so memorably in Britten’s Spring Symphony. The ultimate scurrying Moto perpetuo buzzed just like the mosquito you may’t do away with; the ending was a tour de pressure.
If I describe Rainer’s taking part in as meditative, contemplative, it would recommend that it’s missing in hearth, which is emphatically not the case; it would mirror his complete absorption within the music he’s taking part in, or the impact his music-making has on me as I pay attention. Regardless of the motive, the magic descended (Candy Check run softly until I finish my track, as Spenser nearly wrote). After which, courtesy of the Houghton Lodge kitchen, it was time for the bacon butties.
There was one other very full home in Romsey Abbey for Tuesday’s lunchtime live performance. It was bookended by items by which the Pageant Artists had been joined by younger gamers from Hampshire Music Service: the primary, Tchaikovsky’s association of his Andante Cantabile for solo cello and strings, led by Lydia Hillerudh, sounded attractive within the Abbey acoustic; the final, the concluding Presto from Janáček’s youthful Suite for String Orchestra, sounded recent and thrilling, combining the open-air innocence of Dvořák with hints of his mature type – the angularity and assault of a few of the string writing regarded ahead (maybe I’m being fanciful right here) to Taras Bulba, forty years later.
The Tchaikovsky was adopted by Tomi Räisänen’s Midsommar(so)natten for 2 violins and tape: impressed by the movies of Ingmar Bergman, it very appropriately saved us on edge. The 2 violins (Luke Hsu and Emma Roijackers) performed principally col legno and pizzicato, whereas the tape provided a relentless tick-tock of tinkling bells, clock chimes and an array of gongs to create a naked and highly effective sonic panorama by way of which era, like Marvell’s winged chariot, remorselessly hurries us (And yonder all earlier than us lie/Deserts of huge eternity). The punning title maybe means that we must always not take the piece fully severely: because the composer (who revised the piece for this live performance, at Laura’s request) put it, ‘Possibly this piece is only a journey to the Nordic midsummer evening with its personal spells and rituals.’
The musical excessive level of the live performance was Chausson’s Poème, in a model for violin, string quartet and piano, performed with impassioned eloquence by Laura, accompanied by Emma Roijackers and Luke Hsu (violins), José Nunes (viola) and Lydia Hillerudh (cello); the piano (Michael Cohen-Weissert) was used sparingly, enriching the feel at key moments. It’s a marvellous piece, Turgenev-inspired, unashamedly Romantic: and though Chausson himself didn’t get out of the nineteenth century alive, the music’s lushness appeared nearly to whet our urge for food for Verklärte Nacht later within the week.
I didn’t get to Wednesday’s Masterclass in St. Mark’s Church, Ampfield, although I heard somebody describe Luke Hsu’s work on the Hindemith Sonata for solo violin as ‘unforgettable’. On Thursday the Pageant moved to its dwelling, Romsey’s United Reformed Church, for ‘Love is merely a insanity’, a programme behind which the shade of Shakespeare hovered: faintly, maybe, in the primary work – Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, Op.18 No.1 (Beethoven instructed a good friend that when composing the sluggish motion he had the scene within the burial vault in Romeo and Juliet in thoughts). Luke Hsu and Emma Roijackers (violins), José Nunes (viola) and Lydia Hillerudh (cello) performed this motion with sustained poignancy, some lovely tender taking part in and wonderful dynamic contrasts: with this stage of focus the dramatic pauses had been electrifying. and the encompassing actions had all of the Haydnesque power and attraction you possibly can want for. There’s something in regards to the music-making of all these gamers – their whole-body dedication, their evident pleasure in taking part in collectively – that makes me take heed to them with a everlasting smile on my face.
Shakespeare was extra overtly current within the previous items. Erin Snape’s Mrs Siddons for string quartet and tape set Judi Dench’s voice (‘Out, damned spot’) and the screaming of a kid towards reside string sounds – lyrical one second, like an Elizabethan consort the following, fading away in violin harmonics: the impact is disturbing, however the tone is assured – the composer, nonetheless in her early twenties, made a robust impression in lower than three minutes. Charlotte Bray’s That Crazed Smile for piano trio is about twice as lengthy; it evokes the dream-like, spellbound state of the lovers in A Midsummer Night time’s Dream in woozy atonal piano sounds, flecks and dabs on violin and cello – unusually attractive (I believed, somewhat improperly, of a wedding between Webern and Ravel, then of perfumed Szymanowski as Laura’s violin took flight). After a busy part the place the pianist hammers fortissimo chords from the intense ends of his compass the music fades from listening to on a repeated phrase… dreamlike certainly.
We had been again on acquainted, much less spellbound territory with a rousing association (by Vladimir Mendelssohn) of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, carried out by Emma and Laura (violins), José (viola), Rainer and Lydia (cellos), James Trowbridge (double bass) and Michael Cohen-Weissert (piano). They made an impressive job of it: the one factor missing was a pair of cymbals.
Transient I should be about Thomas Guthrie’s exceptional efficiency of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin on Friday lunchtime, accompanied by Laura and Luke (violins), José (viola), Lydia (cello), James (double bass) and Johan Löfving, whose guitar added an aptly serenade-like timbre to the ensemble. Thomas is a crusader for casual efficiency, ‘supposed to deliver folks collectively in actual life conditions to really feel related, imbued with a way of belonging and shared moments, and embraced by love, humour and human heat’. Along with his lovely voice and his partaking method he personifies this method: obstacles tumble as he makes use of no matter he wants to inform the story. There was even a cover of leaves: it was the double bass participant’s occasional responsibility to make them rustle gently. Guthrie made one thing significant for each young and old out of Schubert’s song-sequence a couple of boy who drowns himself for unrequited love: the gallery was filled with Romsey Abbey Major Faculty youngsters, and so they loved each second.
One other tragic love story impressed Janáček’s first String Quartet, ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’, the primary work in Friday night’s live performance, which I missed; I can think about the depth achieved by these younger gamers on this harrowing work. I used to be additionally sorry to overlook Luke and Michael’s efficiency of Mark Simpson’s passionate An Essay of Love: I’ve compensated myself with watching the dedicatees, Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, taking part in it on YouTube (strongly really helpful). I used to be there, although, for the late night efficiency of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht in its authentic type for string sextet, carried out by Laura and Emma (violins), José Nunes and Joseph Griffin (violas), Rainer and Lydia (cellos). It was a superb concept to have an English translation of Richard Dehmel’s poem learn (superbly, by Rainer) earlier than the efficiency.
I’ve heard this piece performed for seamless fantastic thing about sound: however these gamers had been having none of that. They dug in, taking us deep into the lacerating nightmare of the lady’s guilt; and when transfiguration got here it was not spiritualised, however nonetheless bodily, quick, passionate. I keep in mind my brother saying, as we got here out from a efficiency of a equally highly effective Expressionist piece, that he felt as if somebody had caught a picket spoon in his unconscious and stirred it spherical. It was like that.
(To be concluded in a separate assessment)
Chris Kettle
