Issue No.76
FRIENDS’ NEWSLETTER
September 2018
CONTENTS PAGE ONE Brahms PAGE TWO Hello from Jo PAGE THREE Laurence Osborn PAGE FOUR Focus on E360
PAGE FIVE The Modern String Quartet PAGE SIX Bridge scheme PAGE SEVEN Save the dates PAGE EIGHT E360 on tour
TIM HORTON TALKS ABOUT ENSEMBLE 360’S CURRENT EXPLORATION OF BRAHMS’S CHAMBER MUSIC
Ensemble 360 and Music in the Round have discussed ideas in recent years about how to integrate the programmes throughout the autumn and spring series. Based on our experiences from Festivals and concert cycles, we’ve found that having a focal point such as a composer is often a good way of capturing the imagination of musicians and audiences alike. For Ensemble 360, Brahms was an obvious choice on whose music we should concentrate in the coming seasons. It is a surprise to me but Brahms is, to some extent, a divisive figure. His music has been variously represented as overly thick, overworked and too clever for its own good, the latter being a view that some composers of my acquaintance still hold. I have always been baffled by these opinions. In my experience there are very few composers whose music is of such consistent quality and which marry head and heart so perfectly. By head I mean the extraordinary complexity of the construction – every note is related to tiny cells that one first encounters at the start of a work. Often, the rhythm of one main theme will act as an accompaniment to another theme, as is the case in the first movement of the A major Piano Quartet (to be heard on 11 December).
Ultimately Brahms’s compositional ingenuity creates the emotional complexity (heart) of the work: neither would stand up without the other. For him, Schutz, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and, especially, Beethoven and Schumann were his idols and one can find their influence in every work. The perfectionism for which he is famous makes his scores a joy to behold and one can study them endlessly without exhausting their secrets.
We will be presenting all of Brahms chamber music in the coming seasons in combination with some of the music that influenced him and some Dvořák, Schoenberg, Suk, Mahler and Strauss to name but a few - whose own output would not have been the same without him.
Ensemble 360 perform Brahms’s Horn Trio in E flat on Tuesday 6 November, 12.45pm; his String Quartet in C minor on Saturday 1 December, 7.15pm; and his Piano Quartet in A on Tuesday 11 December, 7.15pm, with the Brahms exploration continuing into spring 2019.
1