Ensemble 360 Blog

It is the day before our very first performance of 3 master pieces of the string quartet repertoire. Tomorrow we are playing Haydn Op76/3, Bartok 4 and Beethoven 59/2 in Barnsley, and the same programme at the crucible on Saturday. Preparing works like this is quite a mountain to clime I feel, and I keep thinking we need a lot more time and probably more wisdom and experience to be able to do them justice. But I guess every piece must have its first performance and you can't wait forever! And anyway I feel like this every time I go to perform a big piece for the first time. I should be used to it! I have to say there is nerves but there is also a huge amount of excitment. I know it will be tough,it demands deep concentration (a lot of counting in bartok!!!) and some phrases have to be played just right to have the desired effect. This little articulation, that small crescendo, feeling free enough for a little rubato but not too much or it will distort the tempo... and finding the right tempo...AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Well, so much for trying to stay calm...
Also it is a very physically demanding programme and because it is our first performance of it, we will probably be even more tense. But the music is so unbelievably amazing, every second of every movement of the three pieces is so perfectly written and has so much meaning... I feel very lucky and honored to be aloud to perform this music. And I am sure I will enjoy it, and I hope you will too! see you there...
xxx
Marie

Hi
We've been a bit lax with the blog recently to say the least. It almost makes us all seem like luddites who are scared to go within a mile of a computer, but this isn't the case. I, for one, just keep on forgetting.
Matt and I recorded a CD in September at Potton Hall in Suffolk. It includes Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber and the little known Norbert Burgmuller. The latter's Duo is a beautiful piece which shows the strong influence of Schumann; about as positive a recommendation as you can get in my opinion! It's unclear as yet when the disc will be released.
Last weekend I embarked on a very impulsive two-day trip to Vienna. An old school friend of mine was conducting two concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Konzerthaus. I wasn't even sure on the morning that I left that I would be leaving. It was quite an extraordinary trip marred only by a huge drunken posse on the ryanair flight to Bratislava! Although I have always had a problem the Vienna Phil's policy towards women (they have employed some now) and the quite startling lack of non-white faces, this orchestra is incredible. I don't think I had ever witnessed an orchestral concert where every single player looks as though they're enjoying themselves before, but this was certainly it. They have an amazing commitment to the music which I found inspirational.
Tim

Hello to those of you not on holiday.
I am on tour with my german orchestra, we have been in Tokyo and Yokohama, and are now in Montreal, and on Monday we will go to Chicago and New York. The programme is all Beethoven, and this weekend we will play a cycle of all the symphonies here in Montreal. It's been great fun so far, and here the weather is absolutely perfect- dry heat!! (sorry)
Anyhow, my post today is for all you Harry Potter fans. It's the 25th July, 4 days after the release of the 7th and final book. I had made sure that I could get a copy in Japan, and even organised someone to be at the shop when it opened (agents have their uses) as we were rehearsing at the time. Anyhow, there I was the next morning (sunday 22nd) reading the thing at a rate of knots at Narita airport when a colleague asked me when I thought I would finish the book. This was at 10 in the morning. I thought for a bit and realised I would probably finish it halfway through the flight- probably just after we crossed the International Date Line.
So with a big grin I replied "Oh, I'll probably finish reading it last night".
Which I did.
Hermione would be proud.
Matt

Hi everyone,

So, the summer is here (although unfortunately some days one cannot really feel it) and we are about to finish our second season. It seems to me like it went by so quickly...

Before I continue, I owe you all an apology for missing the last three days of the Festival...I had to go an play two chamber concerts in Germany and France that were scheduled before the festival...I was so gutted to leave...I really felt so empty suddenly without the shirts, atmosphere and buzz. But at least I was playing in Paris in the last two days of the Festival so I felt that I am supporting everyone by being there somehow....

Anyway, the Festival was so amazing I thought, and of course the theme of French music was right up my alley...I was especially happy with the response of the public to Varese's Density 21.5...it is always a question when programming modern music pieces since we are always afraid it will scare the public away....but judging from this experience, I am very optimistic!! Well done for everyone who ran the half marathon! I was so so sad for missing that as well as I am a jogger my self!

After that, as Marie wrote already we had our Beethoven recording. It is never really easy to describe how well those recordings go...so I won't even try....

As for now, I just came back from Germany where I played a project with Claudia in a chamber orchestra where we first met! It is always so amazing playing with her...
So, in the beginning of July Claudia and I are going to teach in a special festival in the Alps in Austria all dedicated to coaching chamber music for amateur musicians where we are going to play some concerts as well with the rest of the faculty members. Right after that I am off to the Netherlands to another chamber music festival where I am playing one concert for winds and strings where the main piece of the concert will be....how not Spohr Nonet!!
From the Netherlands I will be joining the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Barenboim in Salzburg where this year the orchestra is the resident orchestra of the famous Salzburg Festival. We will be touring for a month and a half (!?!!?!) in Europe which will probably be great fun but also so exhausting and I will miss Claudia a lot....

When this is over I will be going back home but also in Israel I will be playing in the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival for a week and then hopefully I will have some time off!!!!!!!!!

So this is how my summer is going to look...not much time off but loads of music!!
I will see you all back in Sheffield in October!

All my love,

Guy xxxx

That was from Matt...

Last night I stood up on a Japanese stage and declared that I was against sexual harassment, in japanese. It was a marvellous experience, and it got a huge laugh.
Sometimes when in Japan, I get the feeling that the country only exists when I'm here- it is such an entertaining place to visit with so much that is beautiful, bizarre and unbelievable that somehow thinking of it functioning during my 'normal' life seems unlikely.
I am in Kyoto with the Bläsersolisten der Deutscherkammerphilharmonie, or The Wind Octet from my orchestra to give it a sensible name. We are playing wind octet arrangements of the Marriage of Figaro to accompany a troupe of Japanese Kyogen actors. Kyogen is an ancient form of comic theatre that was put into the more solemn 'Noh' theatre with the express purpose of making the audience laugh. It is highly stylised, not far off farce or ealing comedy. The Troupe who have devised this play, which updates(!) the action to modern Kyoto, has been doing Kyogen for some 200 years and it's members are all from one family, the Shigeyama family. These are some of the biogs.

Sennojo Shigeyama

Born in Kyoto in 1923. The Shigeyama family has been doing Kyogen theater since arounc 1800, the middle of the Edo period. His father Sensaku Shigeyama III is the designated Human National Treasure. Sennojo debuted in 1925 at the age of two and a half years and was given the name of Sennojo Shigeyama II.

Akira Shigeyama

Born in 1952 as first boy of the Sennojo Shigeyama II. Has performed in various places and occasions not only at the Noh performing theater but also at the temple festivals, tourist demonstrations, amateur-Kyogen recitals, high schools, and the weddings.
In spite of westernized influence in Japanese daily life, with the powerful leadership of Akira's grandfather Sensaku III, his uncle Sensaku IV, and his father Sennojo, Shigeyama Kyogen, known as its charm to bring people's attentions back to this authentic performing art, has been attracting particularly young generations.
As being the 13th generation of Shigeyama family of kyogen actor, Akira Shigeyama is known in his versatility of both traditional and modern plays.

Doji Shigeyama
Born in 1983 as the first son of Akira Shigeyama.
Received Kyogen technique through training with his father Akira and his grandfather, Sennojo Shigeyama II.


I hope you noticed the line 'his father is the designated human treasure'!
The Grandfather (top,aged 84) has had a number of wives, and the current one is about 30. An amazing actor, he appears as the count in our play.
The other two pictured, father and son, play Barbarina and Cherubino respectively. Cherubino starts the whole thing off by running on wearing a kimono and a pair of feathery angel wings and screeching like a seagull. He also finishes the action off by revealing a picture of Mozart to which all the assembled company bow. When he hides in drag during the wedding scene, it struck me that there he was, a man playing a woman who plays a boy dressed as a girl.
Figaro is played by the young star of the family, already divorced and following a romantic career that matches his grandfather's, he is very cool and something of a national star.
All of the troupe are male, apart from two young women of the family who operate a puppet that plays the countess.

We are joined (the musicians) by a very rotund and friendly Tzuzumi player. The Tzuzumi is a drum that is made from the skin of an unborn foal. Really. The one used last night has a brass structure that is around 400 years old, and the foal was not born around 100 years ago. The pitch of the drum is variable, and played while making vocal noises combining grunting and yodleing. Our Tzuzumi player seems very good, and joins in with us to the delight of the audience.

Anyhow, the story follows the one you all know, and we play arias and ensemble numbers at the appropriate moments. At the moment where the count is persuaded to give up his sexually predatory 'Droits de Seigneur' we rise and shout 'Tonosan Appare Ban Ban Sai' (long live the count, aproximately) and then 'Sekuhara han tai ban ban sai' (we are against sexual harassment). The audience, as I said, loved it.

Hi!
May is over..... It was a little bit of a mountain of a month of all of us, but I think everything has gone pretty well. First the festival. As expected, it was a marathon in itself (and to think that some people actually ran the half marathon after that!!!) and an amazing experience. This year we had been a little bit more clever in programming, we had actually performed some of the pieces befre the festival s that when it came to playing them in the studio, we knew a little more what we were doing. I've love every minute of our theme of french music (well... it's home after all!). I know some people in the audience had been slightly septical about it prior the festival, but i think (I hope!!!) that doubts were put to rest. I though there were so many gems to be found, so many unknown pieces and composers... It was really really exciting to be able to descover them ourselves and share them with an audience that was just as curious as we were. Looking back on now two crucible may festivals, I find that it is not so much about performance (of course, we are all nervous and want to do the best we can) but about discovery and sharing. It is very special.
I have to say, particularly special for me was playing the quartet for the end of time. I had only performed it once before in Barnsley, and both were incredible experiences (although I knew slightly more what was happening to me the second time around!!!)
I find this piece completely and utterly different to any other I have ever played. It seems that you cannot be completely in control of the music, it is in control of you. And I think it is also very different to listen to, but having never heard it live, you'll have to tell me if I'm wrong!
After the festival we had a few days off when I flew to Paris to visit my boyfriend. Unfortunately I was quite ill during those days (I guess my body was saying: enough!!!) and he had to nurse me (which was quite nice for me!!!) and then we had a couple days rehearsing in sheffield and off we went to Potton hall to record beethoven septet and serenade. (I had a slightly easier time since I'm not in the serenade: flute, violin, viola)
As always, it is impossible to say whether it went well. But we had allowed 2 and a half days for the septet and we finished in 2!!! (ummm... is that a good thing...) The atmsphere was nice though, there were smiles all around (for most of the time) and it seems that we went through the takes quite smoothly. On the third day before catching my train I poped oven to the recording studio and heard a few minutes of the serenade. It felt slightly wrong me being done and Guy Sara and Martin still working hard but I have t say what I heard sounded great!
So I took my train and now I'm in Paris again (not sick this time) resting and learning the quartet repertoire we have preogrammed for next year. Brahms quartet, Shubert G major, stravinsky, Haydn... it's all really exciting and a little scary right now but I'm sure it will be better when we start rehearsing.
Until then, bye, and see you all soon!
xxx
Marie

There is something sacred about the Wigmore Hall. I am not sure if it is because of the fact that it is the epicentre of chamber music in Britain, or because of the religious-looking painting on the ceiling of the recess of the stage, or the generally church-like feel of the hall, but when entering, one is immediately struck by the feeling that it is a place of worship and maybe passing of judgments. Nowhere else (with the possible exception for the Crucible Studio!) is the audience so knowledgeable, and the chance of a critic being present is high. The date for our concert had been ominously present in our diaries, getting ever closer, and now, finally, the time had come for Ensemble 360´s Wigmore debut… 

The whole group had met up the day before in London after quite a long period of not having played together. We got down to work with our old friend the Spohr Nonet, this time with the welcome participation of the brilliant guest-bassoonist Peter Wheelan. I am not sure if it is youthful arrogance, but after having played it so many times, and recorded it, it feels like we have squeezed almost all the juice out of that piece, charming as it is. But if we could make one final effort, it would be for the Wigmore… 

After a relatively brief rehearsal, we dispersed, in high spirit but with a lot of anticipation for the next day (and dreading having to get up so early!). 

The next day we found out that the piano would be on stage for the Spohr as well, contrary to what we had been told, so we would have to squeeze a bit. 

The rehearsal went very smoothly, with mostly cheerful faces all around. The moment had inexorably gotten closer and closer, and, now, finally, after an hour’s break we walked on to the Mother of all Stages, to find the hall completely full, and the row of our friends and supporters happily cheering in the middle. The clear, bright light of the spring sky was streaming down through the windows in the ceiling and gave the whole situation a slightly surreal ambience (we are not particularly used to playing in daylight!). 

It was a long and pretty exhausting programme we performed, with the Dvorak Piano Quintet to finish of. It is an absolute masterpiece, but a long masterpiece, and by the end one’s thoughts run the risk of straying to completely unrelated topics. But we managed, and we enjoyed (almost) every second of playing in the extraordinary acoustics. After finishing with the final bombastic chord of the quintet, we were greeted with appreciative applause. (When I was standing there on the stage looking out at the stalls, I almost burst out laughing since the image looked exactly like a scene from Scorsese´s The King of Comedy which I had been watching a day earlier, when Robert de Niro is practising his monologues in front of a wallpaper-sized picture of a laughing audience.) 

In perhaps the greenest of all Green Rooms, we received our supporters and members of the audience. The sherry flowed, laughters all around, and one could read a sense of relief on all the faces of the Ensemble members. 

Pollyanna from the record company had shown up and before we all went to our own business, we had a short meeting with her outlining the future recording projects of the group. 

Wigmore Hall concerts, meetings with recording companies, eh? Who would have thought it two years ago… 

Martin

Some of us are running the Sheffield Half Marathon on 20 May (the day after the May Festival!) to help support Music in the Community and the Lindsay Foundation. Show your support by clicking the link below to donate.

Hello all.
We have been extremely lax in updating this blog recently so it's possible no one will read this! In our defence this is for a positive reason. The first three months of this year have been our busiest time yet.
Outside of Sheffield and the ensemble I've been giving more concerts with the cellist Adrian Brendel; in Oswestry and Spain to be precise. As well as being musically rewarding this is always a good laugh, something that is not entirely due to our mutual love of real ale and ten-pin bowling.
Most of my time has been taken up with learning repertoire for the May Festival. It's at this time of year that I wish my brain had about 50 per cent more capacity. At least Guy and my decision to postpone learning Boulez's flute Sonatina to an unspecified future date has eased the pressure slightly. It has been fascinating exploring the different styles within French music however. I hope that the thousands who read this blog will join us in May!
Tim

Hi all,

Just to say thanks to all the young musicians that wrote the beautiful pieces last Tuesday in Poweplus, it was such a great fun to premiere around 40 pieces that night!!

Another thanks is to the young players that played last Saturday in the Young Performers Platform - you were all very inspiring and I learnt a lot from you...it was such a great experience and I hope you enjoyed it as well....
X
Guy 

Hi everyone,
Sorry for being away from the blog for some time...I know it is very late to wish you all a very happy new year, but better late than never...
I hope you had great holidays. I really enjoyed my second Christmas ever, celebrating with Claudia's family in London. Right before that I was very priviledged to play in Carnegie Hall in New York with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Barenboim as part of a USA tour that we had. Such an experience!

It's finally a free day for me today since the beginning of the year...as you might know, we had a crazy month which was a great fun and also quite exhausting... I guess the "highlight" of this month for me started with our concert in Tickhill (the quartet and myself), playing Haydn London Trio, Beethoven Serenade (which we are about to record in our Beethoven cd in May - looking forward!) and then quartets by Kurtag and Beethoven.

I came back home around 11:30pm and figured out that since I had to wake up at 3am it would be better to stay awake and have a "white night" (do you say it in English?? or maybe it is just a Hebrew expression for a no sleep night....)

The reason for waking up so early was not to watch a match from the Australian Open Tennis Championship (I wish...), but to catch a train to Manchester Airport and then a flight to Duesseldorf where I had a concert that evening with Elena Bashkirova on piano and friends from the Jerusalem International Chamber music festival at the beautiful Schumann Hall. So after rehearsing in the morning with red eyes,meeting Claudia afternoon (she has concerts in Germany for two and a half weeks...) and performing in the evening, we were invited for a 4 courses meal in a fantastic italian restaurant, such a treat! it was worth the travel and the hard work....

Right after that I played a week with the Manchester Camerata, performing Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Shostakovich's first cello concerto with Natalie Clein and Beethoven's 4th symphony all conducted by Dougie Boyd. It was so nice to join forces again with Ben Hudson and Naomi Atherton, both members of the orchestra and to finish the week with a concert in the great Bridgewater Hall and recording the Beethoven symphony. I had such a lovely time!!

So, back to rehearse tomorrow...
Hope to see you all very soon.
Take care,
Guy

well, I know, i is a little late for happy new years...But I hope everyone is well!
I've just come back from that very same Barnsley concert Tim was dashing off to in his last entry. It's been quite a break through there tonight: we had the largest audience we've had so far in Barnsley. Exciting!!!! Quite a few new faces along with the usuals of the series... it was so nice. And if ever we kept a book with quotes from comments from members of our audiences there was a lovely one tonight: "it was like going to heaven without having to die"
We also sold a few calendars for the Lindsay foundation, which unfortuntely haven't been going too well so... The perfect evening!

I am really excited because we've just heard that our quartet CD(3 Mendelssohn quartets) might just be available for our next concert in the crucible studio on the 16th Jan. They are due to arrive in London on Monday and we are hoping, the post being on our side, that they will arrive in Sheffield on Tuesday. It would be the perfect concert to lanch our first quartet disc since we are playing 2 of the pieces that feature on it. Fingers crossed!!!

I am also excited because tomorrow is the 13th which means we are almost half way through January, the craziest month we've had so far... then we can get some sleep!!!
Good night for now
xxx
Marie

Hello to everyone.
I hope the holidays were fun. I had my family over in Sheffield for Christmas, including my seven month old niece. Very sweet!!
Now we're back in the thick of things. The quartet and I gave a concert at the Royal Northern College in Manchester last night; Borodin and Janacek quartets and the Dvorak Quintet, which was fun. For me it was quite a nostalgia trip. When I was at Chetham's (years ago!!) I used to play concertos with the school orchestra in that very hall. Although it was very scary at the time, now I find a lovely, friendly place to play.
I have to dash to Barnsley now for the Elgar Quintet. What more do you want from life?!
Tim

Happy New Year to you all. There seems to have been a significant gap between entries here. Oops and sorry.
We have all started the new year with a bang, hitting the ground running and already 4 concerts done. We were in Keswick last night (rained ALL day, so no scenery, sob) which is rather a long way. We squashed 5 of us and Marie's Cello into my car on the way back as Don headed off to Glasgow for some folk music recordings today. January is looking very busy for us all, which is good(!), but it means we have no free days until the 28th. A daunting prospect. We have lots of exciting things to look forward to- Ligeti, Caplet, Brahms, Bartok, and lots of performances of "Snap Snap" with Polly.
Matt

Hi all readers!

Just a quick advert for 2 fab concerts on Friday December 1st.
Yes 2! Aswell as the evening 'English' concert of music by Purcell, Britten, Holst and Elgar, at 12.45pm we have a recital from our new Bassist Laurene.
It would be great to have a big Sheffield welcome and I promise you've never heard Bass playing like it! Laurene has recently left her Sausages in Toulouse to come and live in Sheffield...come and hear why we are so excited about it...you've really got nothing Toulouse!

Adrian

We (The Elias Quartet) have been learning some new pieces in the last couple of weeks, and in preparation for an important concert like the one coming up in the Studio, we always try to play new repertoire in as many different circumstances as possible. This is to find out what mistakes we are likely to make in stressful situations, and, by recording ourselves, to get a chance to evaluate the musical choices we have made. And it is good for the nerves on the big night to know that we have been able to get through the piece at least once in concert. 

Fortunately for us we have The Pub... 

Every month or so, members of the ensemble gather in the pub The Rising Sun to give a very informal concert, where we try out new and old repertoire to a relaxed audience. They, as well as we, are equipped with the obligatory pint of beer. 

Tonight, we had within the ensemble expressed our wish to perform Borodin’s 2^nd string quartet and Janacek’s 1^st, and it would be our very first performance ever. After a long day of rehearsal, sandwiched between our recording sessions of Spohr’s nonet (last week) and his septet (this week), we headed for an Indian restaurant near the pub do have a quick dinner before the concert. Over dinner we found some time to make up programs for next year’s quartet concerts in the studio. 

When we got to the pub, the concert room (there are two spaces; one for the “concert” and one for the guests who just wants to…drink!) was almost full, and Tim was playing away at the piano to a captivated audience. We unpacked our instruments in the dart alcove, and, after Tim had finished, we set up on the improvised stage. It is always interesting and a bit scary to find out, during a first performance, if the musical ideas we have come up with really work. In the special circumstance of playing a concert in front of an audience, things can sound laboured or strange, even if they felt great in the rehearsal room. A certain choice of bowing can turn out to not work because of the different acoustics of the hall, an unfortunately placed page turn that doesn’t matter so much during a rehearsal can sound like a whiplash in a concert situation. 

We got through both Borodin and Janacek without too many accidents, and we got it recorded on my Minidisc. And we got many encouraging smiles and comments from the audience, the stuff that make all the hard labour worthwhile. Now we have to go back to the drawing board... 

After the play through, our own piano wizard Tim took some requests from the audience. I requested Schubert’s F-minor impromptu, and was fortunate enough to witness some of the best music ever written played exquisitely in a setting arguably not unlike the one it might have been composed for. And if you add a pint of Moonshine to all that, things can hardly get much better! 

Several pints later, I decided to walk home. Without really knowing where I was, and a bit tipsy, I decided to trust Sheffield’s topography, and headed downhill, downhill… 
Martin.

Hello all.
This has nothing to do with the Ensemble, music or Sheffield, but I think it's good to nail my colours to the mast so there's no backing out. I've given up smoking!!!!! Surprisingly easy despite the odd strong desire to break crockery.
On a totally different subject Marie and I played in the British embassy in The Hague last week at more or less 24 hours notice. It was good fun if a little strange to be thrust into such company so suddenly; the problem is, you have to behave well!
I hope everyone is enjoying the new season and, of course, the new CD. To be honest I can barely bring myself to listen to it. It's a bit like listening to one's own voice.
Tim

Hello there! Its been a busy few days! On Wed we all played in York. It was our first concert there as part of our residency at the University...maybe some of you caught it as it was broadcast live over the internet. It was a great venue and audience and we're all very excited to be part of the establishment!
On Thursday the 4tet played in Kettle's yard in Cambridge, a start to a residency we have there this year. We love playing there and look forward to out next trip on Feb 1st.
Then onto Barnsley on Fri, again just the 4tet. Is it just me or do the cakes just get better and better there?! They know the way to a musicians heart......
Fri was also my birthday. Yes I'm afraid I'm another year older. To cheer me up we headed to the Folk Festival in Sheffield and managed to catch Spiers and Boden, a great duo, who we are lucky enough to be having in the Crucible Studio on the 12th March...get it in your diaries now! Not to be missed!
Saturday was a day of rehearsal (and recovery) and then on Sunday we took the coach to Bowness on Windemere with some of the Friends of Music in the Round for our first "Around the Country" concert of the year. It was a beautiful day and some of us managed to fit in a boat trip up lake Windemere which was amazing on the way back as the sun was setting and the moon came out. A great time was had by all. Thanks to Tracy for organising it all so well.
The 4tet has also been busy editing our Mendelssohn 4tet cd. It will have Op 13, 80 and 81 on it and is due to be released in Jan/Feb. We're thinking of ideas for the cover....any suggestions??!
So that brings me to today, Monday, and we're playing in the Rising Sun from 830 I think so maybe see you there....
Don x
ps I also managed to catch a Kate Rusby gig on Sat in Derby. Absolutely amazing.

Hi all, it's Adrian here...
Just updating you on what's been going on since we got back from our Summer sojourns.
First of all WELCOME LAURENE! ....We're very happy that Laurene has joined us from Toulouse and look forward to her amazing energy and musicality. I noticed the other day that she has bought an English dictionary.....so I am sure she'll be speaking perfect Yorkshire before very long!

Thank you for everyone who came to our concert on he 25th at the Crucible, it was great to have your warm response once again and thanks also for our 1st year birthday cake....that was just the icing on the.....Sorry!
We had already given a concert on the 26th in Rotherham and it is great that we are now to have a series of concerts at the Talbot Lane Methodist Church. Our next concert there is on the 26th November......you're all very welcome!!!!
On the 29th the Winds went to Barlow to give a concert in the small village Church. It's a really beautiful place to give a concert and the accoustic is amazing, I really hope to be back there soon. On the 30th we jollied up to historic Richmond en masse and gave our first performance of the Spohr Septet which will be recorded along with the Nonet in November.
This was after an amazing rendition of the Beethoven duo for clarinet and bassoon....there is virtually nowhere to breathe in this piece and as such is incredibly tiring to play...Matt and Ben were absolutely amazing and had about 20 seconds to recover before launching straight into the sextet for piano and winds by Francis Poulenc!
Since then we've been rehearsing alot for various programmes and it suddenly struck me how amazing the programme is that we're playing on the 11th October in the Crucible. It's the first of our 'National' concerts, that is to say that all the music is from one country....Czech in this instance. The programme starts with the Concertino by Janacek which is an extraordinary piece for piano 2 violins, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon. The movements originally had titles suggesting a nature-based programme (squirrels and hedgehogs etc.) if you know his opera the Cunning little vixen it's a very similar soundworld.
'Mladi' or 'Youth' for Wind Sextet...there's a Bass clarinet added....(a stroke of genius)has to be one of the greatest pieces for winds. It has so much vitality .....Bouncing Czech I suppose...(groan!)and beauty that one wonders why it is so under performed.
The Dvorak Piano Quartet is an undoubted masterpiece and the Martinu Nonet is such a warm sunny piece aswell as being huge fun!
....whilst I remember....the 11th October is also the launch of our Mozart CD....so don't forget your tenners!!! It's cheaper to buy it after one of our concerts than buying it in a shop...and It would make the ideal Christmas present!!!!
Yesterday was a day off so Tim and Martin came round to brave the novelty of my cooking...I had no idea what to make but ended up finding some Venison steaks (never tried those before) and making some pear chutney with it...turns out to be a good combo....tiny bit of clove....magic!
Anyway I think they survived....
This is all making me hungry so time to raid the fridge....
See you all soon
Adrian x

P.S Many thanks to Patrick Vaughan who managed to raise some £650ish for the Lindsay Foundation by hosting a Musical Soiree on the 170th Anniversary of the building of his house.
An amazing experience to perform Chamber music...in a Chamber as originally intended.