Issue No.60
Friends Newsletter We say hello to ’
January 2013
Trevor Pinnock You have a long history with Music in the Round. When did you first perform with us? I first came into contact with Music in the Round a long time ago. I’d admired the work of the Lindsay String Quartet and what they were trying to do, particularly how they were working to make even tough music approachable. I hoped to do the same. I saw them perform at the (then) Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent and we both knew Peter Cheeseman who was pioneering in-the-round theatre there; we shared an enthusiasm for the inclusive and accessible ethos of what he was doing. I was excited to then be invited to perform the “Trout” Quintet with the Lindsays in Sheffield and at Wigmore Hall. I also really enjoyed working with Martin Cropper on the Highly Strung project through
Contents...
page one an d two We Sa y Hello to Tre vor Pinnock page three E xciting New s Fundraising Update page four an d five Exploring M ozart May Festival Callout page six Fr iends’ Event Transformat ions Blog Staff News page seven Just a Note page eight A Look Ahead
the Music in the Community.
It will be fantastic to have you back in the Crucible Studio. Do you enjoy playing I’ve got other links with in the round? Sheffield, especially with I have to say that playing in the University, which gave the round is slightly tricky me an Honorary Doctorate for harpsichord because of in 2005 following a the directional nature of the research study project I’d instrument, but I do like the done there. fact that the setting breaks I’d also given recitals at down barriers between the the University and had performer and the audience, made contact with Mitzi the “them and us” feeling that Matlock who was running you get in some concert halls. concerts there then. I I always work in close was working on a special collaboration with ensembles project, the European and like to have them around Brandenburg Ensemble the instrument. Of course the project, to celebrate my paths of communication are sixtieth birthday, and I not only sight, listening is asked Mitzi if she would very important too. work on it. She got the Council and Sheffield City What drew you to the Hall involved and it was programme you’ll be playing performed and recorded for us in March, and could in City Hall. She drummed you tell us about it? up sponsorship and got I make connections, and in a hotels for us. It was a sense every concert is a new great project and good in journey, a journey in sound. that it happened outside London; sometimes London people forget that things happen outside of the city.
continued overleaf...
Photographer: Peer Lindgreen
I started in a different place, with a different connection. Antonio de Cabezón was a new starting point; I was fascinated by his music and by his travels with Prince Philip of Spain through England, France and Germany in the 1570s or 80s. My mind wandered to the musicians he might have met. I’m interested in the links or influences between composer and musician and de Cabezón was an important composer in his day and may have influenced Bryd and Tallis, but was probably influenced by the musicians and composers he met on his travels. Both de Cabezón and Frescobaldi were forerunners of Bach. Bach owned a volume of music by Frescobaldi, his Fiori Musicali, (Musical Flowers), a publication from the end of his life that offered a sampling of what would have been required of the composer as a working church musician.
In the programme in March, there’s a connection between Vivaldi and Bach, but the point is that music isn’t bound by the pigeon holes we put it in, musicians and composers are open to being influenced by different music from different ages. How did you first get into playing the harpsichord and early music? I was about seven years old when I first listened to early music as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. Then I took some music by John Blow [an English Baroque composer and organist] to my music teacher and played it, probably from terrible editions. I learnt piano and organ and became a church organist and then began to play harpsichord when I was fifteen. I went on to study it, alongside the organ, at the Royal College of Music. How important is it to revive early music? I don’t feel it’s useful to talk about early music in that way. I don’t just play early music, because music isn’t bound by time and place – I want to know, is it alive?
What other projects have you got coming up? I’ve got a variety of projects coming up. I’m conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Houston Opera and Haydn’s La Vera Costanza with the Royal Academy of Music, London; I’m working on a newly commissioned chamber music version of Bruckner’s Second Symphony by Anthony Payne for nineteen musicians with the Academy Chamber Ensemble, then the solo recitals of Bach in Sheffield and London. I’m working with Basel Chamber Orchestra and pianist Maria João Pires, on a programme of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. Later in the year I’ll be working with Alison Balsom on a project initiated by her, a play by Samuel Adamson called Gabriel at the Globe Theatre which will feature musicians as actors. I’m the musical adviser, the stage director on the music side.
Pinnock You can hear Trevor Studio ble uci Cr the perform at ay 6 March. Theatre on Wednesd
www.musicintheround.co.uk | 0114 281 4660
Fundraising Update We’ve been bowled over by the response to the Ebony & Ivory Fund and would like to thank everyone for their kindness, generosity and support so far. However much you’ve donated, whether you’ve sponsored a piano part, donated a prize for the raffle, or attended the dinner at Cutlers’ Hall, we are extremely grateful. By March 2013 we hope to have raised £35,000 towards the new piano, including Catalyst match-funding and Gift Aid on eligible donations, an unbelievable 70% of our £50,000 target. If you haven’t yet donated towards the piano fund and would like to do so, you can sponsor a key for £25, a pedal for £500 or the lid for £1,500. We’re also planning more fundraising events later in the year, news of which is coming soon.
Later this year we’ll be asking for your suggestions of artists you’d like to see in the programme and we’ll be launching an Angels Fund for donations to try and fulfil some of those requests. Instead of asking for one-off donations on an as-andwhen basis, we aim to be more planned in our approach to including more wellknown artists in our annual programme and to building up the resources to do so. We’re also delighted to have received a generous donation from a local supporter towards an innovative new project celebrating Benjamin Britten’s centenary year. If you’d like to know more about how you might be able to support this project or other projects in the pipeline we’d love to hear from you. For more details contact Deborah on deborah@musicintheround.co.uk.
Exciting News
We are deli ghted to an no Children’s Composer in unce that our Residence Rissmann h Pa as won Bes t Communit ul Education y or Project at th e prestigio British Aca us demy of So ngwriters, Composers and Author s awards fo Music in th r his eR The Chimpa ound commission nzees of Ha ppytown.
Exploring Mozart By Simon Keefe
J. R. Hoyle Chair and Head of Music, The University of Sheffield Board Member of Music in the Round
Mozart is everywhere, or so it seems. Festivals celebrating his music come around with great regularity, not just in anniversary years, and books (both scholarly and popular in orientation) continue to be written. Whereas the Radio 3 Mozart marathon in January 2011, featuring blanket coverage of his music for twelve days, aspired somewhat naively to play “every note he wrote”, our Music in the Round Exploring Mozart weekend (1 - 3 March 2013) is much more modest – and all the better for that. Focussing on the chamber music, it enables us once again to renew our relationships with some of Mozart’s most intimate and beautiful works, including those that are (somewhat surprisingly) still not especially well known. For example, the opportunity to hear four piano trios in succession (K502, 542, 564, 548) from the Kungsbacka Trio is a real treat. These works tend to be overshadowed in the concert hall – for which they weren’t in fact intended – by the piano quartets K478 and 493 and the Quintet for Piano and Winds K452. Yet the piano trios are stylistically refined and carefully constructed, less audacious than the late symphonies with which they
are closely contemporaneous, but no less subtle and sophisticated in the interaction between instrumentalists. The opportunity to hear the Violin Sonata K454 in Stefan Jäger’s arrangement for clarinet and piano is also not to be missed. K454 was one of very few chamber works Mozart performed in public – with the great Italian violinist Regina Strinassachi at the National Court Theatre in Vienna in spring 1784. It appears that Mozart did not have time to write down much of his own piano part before the concert, improvising it instead; I’m sure Tim and Matt will stick more noticeably to a printed text! Luckily, there is space in the programme for three of Mozart’s greatest works in any genre: the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K452, the “Kegelstatt” Trio, K498, and the Clarinet Quintet, K581. K452 was first performed by Mozart on 1 April 1784, a few weeks before the premiere of the Violin Sonata K454, and was rapturously received by the audience. “I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever composed” Mozart wrote to his father nine days later. “How I
wish you could have heard it! And how beautifully it was performed!” I’m certain that our Ensemble 360 players will give a wonderful rendition as well. The “Kegelstatt” Trio, with its unusual scoring for clarinet, viola and piano, and the Clarinet Quintet are exercises in beautiful textural interplay from start to finish. As well as the concerts, we hope you will also attend Prof Derek Beales’ pre-concert talk on Friday 1 March and the symposium on Saturday 2 March. Beales is a world-leading authority on late eighteenth-century Vienna under Emperor Joseph II; his historical perspective on Vienna, my stylistic- aesthetic- and receptionrelated perspectives on Mozart, and Dr Renee Timmers’ views on performance will make for varied and hopefully stimulating discussion at the symposium. Mozart’s chamber music can charm, delight, enlighten and astonish us, sometimes all at the same time. And it never disappoints, especially in the hands of Ensemble 360. Enjoy the festival – we’ll look forward to seeing you there!
May Festival Callout! As part of our celebration of music in Britain in this year’s May Festival we are very keen to learn more about chamber music performances in Sheffield in the years before the arrival of the Lindsay String Quartet and Music in the Round. In particular we would be delighted to hear from any Friends who might have some knowledge of the concerts that were organised by local bassoonist John Parr and by the Foxon sisters, Marie and Lily, who presented a long-running series under the name of the “Foxon Five-o-clocks”. If you can help please contact us on 0114 281 4660 or info@musicintheround.co.uk
Transformations Friends' Event Blog Exploring Mozart Friends’ Lunch Sunday 3 March, 1.15pm
Between the 12 noon and 3pm concerts we are hosting a Friends’ lunch at Piccolino, Millennium Square. More details are to come – if you’d like to reserve your place contact us on 0114 281 4660 or info@musicintheround.co.uk
Staff News
We are delighted to announce that we have launched a new blog, which will feature news on our Associate Composer Charlie Piper’s latest project, a piece written for Ensemble 360 to BFI steel-making footage, as well as a new project devised by our own Adrian Wilson. Visit musicintheround.tumblr.com to view the blog.
In September we welcomed Education and Outreach Manager Polly Ives back following her six-month sabbatical. Polly hit the ground running with the premiere and tour of Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants, which, and if We are delighted to welcome you saw it I’m sure you’ll Gemma Hankins, our new agree, was a real treat for Education and Outreach children and adults alike! Assistant, who joined us in November. Gemma is I’m sure you’d like also a part-time music to join us in saying teacher at Mount St. Mary’s “Congratulations!” to Daisy Swift, who took up the role College, the brass tutor at CSYO, and Director of of Producer of Wigmore Hall’s Learning programme Sheffield Music School’s at the end of January. Many Junior Department. We also welcome a new Finance of you knew Daisy as the Officer following the main face at concerts and departure of Jayne Beatson the office contact for our last year. Alison Parkinson Friends scheme. We send joined us in October to her our very best wishes work a day a week to ensure as she moves to London to Music in the Round’s take on her new role. She’s smooth financial operation. been a huge asset to the team, and will be greatly In October we said goodbye to our then-Education and Outreach Assistant Chloe Miller Smith, who we are thrilled to say has gone on to become Schools Liaison Administrator at the Royal Opera House.
missed but we’re delighted, and proud, to see her move on and join the MitR “alumni” to be taken on by one of the most prestigious classical music organisations in the country. At the time of writing we’re in the process of recruiting someone to take her place, but in the meantime, we’re pleased that Kathryn Gasic will be stepping in to run the concerts. Kathryn worked with us on our large-scale Olympics project last year and many of you may recognise her from helping out at concerts during last year’s May Festival and at Music in the Community events. We know you’ll make her feel very welcome. Deborah will once again be the Friends contact in the office, so if you have any queries, please do get in touch with her.
xJust a Note
This time we chat to Owen Gunnell, one of two percussionists in O Duo…
What’s your favourite piece of music?
I listen to so much different music, that I always have different favourites, depending on the mood I’m in. Today it’s Aphex Twin Ambient Works, because it sends me to sleep on long journeys!
Who or what is your biggest influence?
No-one or nothing in particular - I just try and keep enjoying playing and trying new things out.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to go surfing (my board goes most places with me), seeing my mates, playing football, and actually being at home!
What’s your favourite place in the world?
My home - my little village in the fens - where I was born, and where I still live. I’ve been really lucky to go all over the world - but home is always where I want to be, or on my surfboard somewhere!
If you hadn’t become a percussionist, what do you think you would have chosen as a career? I would like to have done something to do with sport. Whether or not I would have been able to is another matter though!
In one sentence sum up your average working day
I don’t have an average day! But here is my last 24 hours: I did a gig last night in Tokyo, then I flew back this morning, loaded the van with instruments, then went off to bed and got up in the morning to drive to Scotland for rehearsals and concerts! a schools’ O Duo is performing cert at con ily fam concert and Theatre on the Crucible Studio . Wednesday 13 March
A Look Ahead to Spring and Summer... Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield: May Festival 2013 Turtle Soup: The Curious Story of Music in Britain Friday 10 - Saturday 18 May Ensemble 360 and guests celebrate the rich history of music in Britain, with music by both native and visiting composers, and featuring a celebration of the centenary of both Benjamin Britten’s birth and the discovery of stainless steel in Sheffield.
Emmanuel Methodist Church, Barnsley: Ensemble 360 Friday 5 April, 7.30pm Ensemble 360 performs music by Walton, Schubert and Mozart.
Ensemble 360 Friday 3 May, 7.30pm Ensemble 360 performs pieces from this year’s British May Festival, featuring music by Bax, Stanford, Bruch, Elgar and Bennett.
Priory Place Methodist Church, Doncaster: Ensemble 360 Saturday 15 June , 7.30pm Ensemble 360 performs Elgar’s String Quartet and Schubert’s Octet. Plus more concerts on tour around the country, as well as a variety of talks and Q&As.
4th Floor | Sheffield Central Library | Surrey Street | Sheffield S1 1XZ Tel: 0114 281 4660 Fax: 0114 281 4661 Email: info@musicintheround.co.uk www.musicintheround.co.uk Registered Charity No. 326811