Friends' newsletter September 2019

Issue No.79

FRIENDS’ NEWSLETTER

September 2019

ANGUS SMITH LOOKS AHEAD TO TASMIN LITTLE’S FAREWELL CONCERT

CONTENTS

PAGE ONE Tasmin Little PAGES TWO & THREE Beethoven 250 PAGE FOUR Focus on Tim Horton PAGE FIVE Philip Thomas in

conversation PAGE SIX Spotlight on Barnsley PAGE SEVEN News in brief PAGE EIGHT Dates for your diary

It came as quite a shock to the musical world when at the beginning of 2019 it was announced that Tasmin Little would retire from the concert stage in summer 2020.

A fabulously talented musician, Tasmin is at the peak of her career and continues to receive rave reviews wherever she performs.

Yet the impressive statistics of her schedule over the last 30 years perhaps offer a clue as to her decision – close to 2,000 solo performances (including 99, at the last count, of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto!), travels to every corner of the globe, 40 commercial recordings, and meeting the unceasing demands of press and media. There is also Tasmin’s commitment to furthering engagement with classical music for people of all ages. This is demonstrated by the hundreds of visits that she has made to schools and the development of her Naked Violin project, offering free downloads on her website and performing in communities where classical music is rarely heard.

Tasmin first picked up a violin at her primary school in north-west London and, such was her instant

affiliation with the instrument, she won a scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. As much as the school provided an extraordinary platform for studying a string instrument, it also clearly made a deep impression on Tasmin in terms of building a musical philosophy. As she has said in interview, “the ethos of the school was all about being humanitarian, having a social conscience, and championing social causes. And it was such a small, close-knit group (about 35 students initially), drawn from such different nationalities and backgrounds. We had to live together, work together, and, most importantly, learn tolerance.”

Now at the opposite end of her performance career there is much to celebrate, and it is a great

pleasure that Tasmin’s partner for her performance with Music in the Round is the wonderful Australian pianist Piers Lane, a long-standing collaborator. In Tasmin’s words, “I really enjoy Piers’s sense of fantasy.

His colours are so subtle and you often get the feeling that he is ‘composing’ the piece as he plays.”

Such is Tasmin’s indefatigable energy, it would be a mistake to imagine that her retirement from the concert platform will be any kind of actual retirement. This supremely communicative advocate will surely be continuing to make waves and sharing her love of music for many years to come.

There are just a few more tickets available for Tasmin’s concert in October but her pre-concert ‘in conversation’ with Paul Allen has completely sold out. Please book soon to avoid disappointment.

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CELEBRATING THE GREAT COMPOSER Next year, 2020, will see worldwide celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven. His actual date of birth isn’t known, but he was baptised in Bonn on 17 December 1770. Music in the Round is joining in the party by presenting all of his string quartets and featuring much of his significant output of chamber music.

Ben Nabarro explains the significance of Beethoven’s quartets in particular for Ensemble 360: “String quartets have always been an important feature of Music in the Round’s activities, beginning with the Lindsays and then the Elias Quartet when the members were part of the newly-formed Ensemble 360. String quartet repertoire is also rarely heard alongside other genres, so a combination of stand-alone concerts, together with programmes integrating quartets with other related and complementing repertoire, will be an exciting and new way to present all of Beethoven’s string quartets.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest and most important composers of all time, Beethoven wrote string quartets throughout most of his life, beginning with the Op.18s in his late twenties, and ending with the monumental late quartets written in the last years of his life when he was

deaf. To undertake this cycle is to embark upon an extraordinary journey, not only into music of extraordinary depth and beauty, but also into the soul of Beethoven whose music speaks more directly and honestly from him than words can express. We approach this cycle with excitement, anticipation and awe, and invite you to do the same.”

There are 16 string quartets in total, as well as the Grosse Fuge, so we are presenting them over a period of 18 months, starting in the autumn of 2019 and culminating with a programme including the final quartet, Op.135, in spring 2021. The launch concert of this amazing cycle is on Saturday 16 November with three quartets: one composed in his late twenties, one when he was nearly 40 and one written the year before he died. One not to miss!

The Beethoven festivities continue in spring 2020 with more string quartets in February, and we’re thrilled to be welcoming Steven Osborne for a performance of the final three piano sonatas on Friday 27 March.

A highlight of the season, however, will be a weekend featuring Ensemble 360’s wind players and Beethoven’s ‘Harmoniemusik’. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many courts in central Europe had a group of wind players to entertain them with music. While the string family was fairly established, much as it is in orchestras today, wind instruments were undergoing constant developments.

Composers eventually settled on using the instruments in pairs to provide harmonic support (hence the term ‘Harmoniemusik’) to the strings, replacing the keyboard in this role. Originally comprising two oboes, two horns and one or two bassoons, the octet (with the addition of clarinets) soon became the norm. They provided music at events such as dinners and parties - a famous example being in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, where the Don is serenaded by his own Harmoniemusik in the second act.

During the weekend of 20 to 22 March, you will be able to hear some examples of Beethoven’s Harmoniemusik, as well as

other chamber music showcasing the amazing talents of Ensemble 360’s wind players. Our Friday evening concert (20 March) includes Beethoven’s gorgeous Quintet for piano and wind (clarinet, oboe, horn and bassoon), then the following morning the wind players will visit young musicians at Sheffield Music Academy to give them coaching and masterclasses. We’ll be pausing on Saturday evening, while Sheffield International Concert Series stage their own Beethoven celebrations with our Singer-inResidence Roderick Williams, and then on Sunday morning our musicians will be joined by guests for a concert of Harmoniemusik in a brand-new event space in the recently renovated Castle House on Angel Street (formerly the Co-op building).

Sunday afternoon completes the weekend with a hugely enjoyable Come-and-Play of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony for all ages and abilities led by Ensemble 360 and Hallam Sinfonia. We hope that many of you will come along and join in!

You’ll receive the full Sheffield programme in around ten days’ time, as we’re currently finalising the spring 2020 brochure in the office. If you can’t make any of the events that weekend, you may be interested to know that in addition to their Sheffield concerts, Ensemble 360 will also be presenting some Harmoniemusik highlights in a concert on Thursday 19 March as part of Penistone Arts Festival.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about all the celebrations and we look forward to sharing more details with you soon.

With many thanks to Malcolm Nabarro for the photographs of Ensemble 360 in rehearsal during Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2019.

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FOCUS ON E360: TIM HORTON I am writing this from a rented cottage overlooking Lake Como. It is 8.30 at night and stonkingly hot, not something I particularly enjoy (as a famous comedian once said, “I don’t burn, I stroke”), but given the astonishing beauty of the place I can more than live with it.

A week ago I was at the North Norfolk Music Festival preparing for a solo recital of Brahms and Chopin and a programme for two violas and piano with Hélène Clement and Simon Rowland-Jones. The Brahms element was in preparation for a Wigmore Hall concert on 14 September.

Earlier in the summer I spent two weeks at a wonderful festival in Sweden called the Järna Festival Academy. It takes place in a Steiner building just south of Stockholm. The organisers are trying to make the venture carbon neutral as soon as they can and, as such, offer an entirely vegan/vegetarian menu (meat was available at a pleasingly steep price). They encourage people not to fly to Stockholm wherever possible and are trying to find a way to make it viable financially and practically for all their artists to make the journey by train.

Musically it was a great experience. I had never met anyone I was to play with, a nerve-wracking prospect, but learned a huge amount from them all – a very inspiring experience.

Something that I think is significant about both the Norfolk and Järna festivals is the rapidlychanging attitudes to how we eat and how

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we approach our lives as musicians given the climate and biodiversity crises. Every person I met was happy to eat less or no meat, was trying to change their travel habits and was not wandering around with the previouslyubiquitous plastic water bottle. I’m not sure this would have been the case even two years ago.

Encouraging.

Before you ask, I travelled to Lake Como entirely by train.

As the Music in the Round autumn season fast approaches, there are some particular highlights I’m really looking forward to. Two finales not to be missed – the Leonore Trio Beethoven cycle (Saturday 26 October, 7.15pm) and my Schubert Piano Sonatas (Friday 29 November, 7.15pm) – see you all there!

PHILIP THOMAS IN CONVERSATION WITH TOM MCKINNEY Music in the Round’s Tom McKinney caught up with Sheffield-based pianist Philip Thomas in advance of his concert on Wednesday 2 October at Upper Chapel with Music in the Round, presented in partnership with Sensoria Music & Film Festival.

Morton Feldman died in 1987. Although he was a major figure during his lifetime, since his death his importance seems to have grown and exceeded that of most of his contemporaries.

Why do you think that is?

In an ever-chaotic world, in which communication, ‘noise’ of many types, instant demand and provision, bombards our lived reality, and in which the pace of travel, work, media and entertainment feels ever more rushed, the invitation to stop and attend something as simple as sound – and simple instrumental sounds at that – is more welcome than ever before. Feldman’s music is immediate, is of-the-moment, and is in no rush to get anywhere soon, and that is extremely attractive and perhaps counterintuitive today.

Throughout history there have been many composers who conceived music on a vast timescale, but at times Feldman took that to extremes. What made him write pieces of such long duration?

Over the last 10 years of his life Feldman became really interested in, amongst other things, Persian carpets, and the repeated but ever-so-slightly changing patterns and hues of colour contained within them. This has a parallel in his music such that repeated patterns of sound are sustained over a long time, slightly changing, but very similar. And why shouldn’t music be worked out over long durations? Why should it be of some ‘standard’ length that we seem to have somehow arrived at as being acceptable? I think the reason it works so well

for Feldman is that he’s not trying to present an argument through music but instead inviting us to an experience.

Playing Feldman must surely require incredible stamina and concentration. Do you prepare for the performance of his music in a different way to other composers?

I’ve been playing music of long duration for years now. The first time I played Triadic Memories – which lasts 90 minutes – was in Sheffield over 20 years ago. And I’ve played pieces that last for several hours, once playing a piece by John Cage for 12 hours. So I guess I’m getting used to it. Honestly I love the experience of just diving in. I’m no less curious each time as to how this experience will be than if I were a listener. There’s always something new and puzzling to encounter with each performance.

How do you suggest an audience member new to Feldman should listen to his music?

I honestly can’t recommend anything more than, as I do as a performer, just diving in and enjoying the ride. There really is no ideal way to listen, and you should feel free to experience and appreciate the music on your own terms. There’s nothing to ‘understand’ – if it feels unfamiliar and strange then that’s just fine. All I would suggest is to keep your ears open and your mind will take care of itself!

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SPOTLIGHT ON MUSIC IN THE ROUND IN BARNSLEY TICKLE THE IVORIES AT BARNSLEY MARKET

THE SHARED LANGUAGE OF MUSIC

Since January, we’ve been running monthly music groups for refugees and those seeking refuge in Barnsley. Once a month, a group of adults from countries such as Syria, Iran, Sudan and Pakistan come together to make music. They are united by having endured some of life’s most distressing experiences, by feeling isolated in their new non-permanent ‘home’ and by trying to navigate a difficult system in a language that is not their own.

Barnsley Market is now the proud owner of Barnsley’s first open-to-all piano thanks to a generous donation by a Music in the Round Friend. The anonymous donor was bought it by her father on her 10th birthday, a day she’ll never forget, and it has brought joy to her three children ever since. She’s delighted to now be able to give that opportunity to others. We hope the people of Barnsley will play it, listen to it and own it. When you’re in Barnsley visiting the Lightbox, pop over the road to the Market and upstairs you’ll find this much-loved instrument.

Let the sound of music fill the air.

Many of the group don’t play an instrument or read music, yet all throw themselves in with joy and abandon. Incredible sounds emerge; the most powerful of which is the laughter.

“It makes me happy” group member “We rarely see such beaming smiles” Sarah Sonne, Refugee Council We’ve enjoyed so much pleasure and inspiration, and learnt so much from working with this wonderful group of people. We’re currently seeking funding so we can continue to work with the group, providing more regular sessions, opportunities to integrate with the local community and attend cultural events, and taster music workshops with instruments, hosted by Barnsley College.

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A plea: if you have a loved but unused guitar loitering in a cupboard we could find it a much appreciated home. Please contact tracy@musicintheround.co.uk – thank you.

GIDDY GOAT PLAYS ROCK ROUNDERS IN BARNSLEY!

In June, Polly Ives and Ensemble 360 performed Paul Rissmann’s Giddy Goat to over 700 schoolchildren and their teachers in two sell-out school concerts, and our first ever family concert, at The Civic in Barnsley.

All were received tremendously well and plans are now underway for more concerts and a teacher training session in 2020. If you know a school in Barnsley who would be interested in this exciting project, get in touch with us for more details.

MUSIC IN THE ROUND NEWS IN BRIEF Jo Towler looks back on her first year at Music in the Round and shares some of our most recent developments.

I can’t believe how fast this year is going! I have now been at Music in the Round for over a year, and it has just flown by. I’ve heard some amazing concerts in that time, and I’m constantly pinching myself that we have such fine musicians performing in South Yorkshire. Everyone has made me feel so welcome, especially the brilliant team in the office that work tirelessly to put on all our events. In 2018/19 we reached over 10,000 young people and families through projects across the country, and performed to a total audience of 24,000 people at 126 concerts in 33 venues from Carlisle to Portsmouth. However, I am sad to say that this wonderful team is losing one of its most long-standing members. Fraser Wilson, Learning & Participation Manager, is leaving us at the end of the year to go and work for Festival Bridge in Norwich, supporting strategic collaborations between educational establishments and cultural organisations.

It’s a great opportunity for him, but he will be greatly missed here in Sheffield and we shall give him a good send-off!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has become an E360 Friend, directly supporting our resident musicians and their music-making across South Yorkshire. Thanks also to those of you who have increased your contributions to Music in the Round. At a time when we’re facing public funding cuts yet again, your support is invaluable so that we can continue to put on high-quality concerts – literally, every little helps, so THANK YOU!

like it if one or two Friends considered being part of the board. Current trustees include people with legal and financial expertise, but I think it’s important that you, who come to so many of our concerts and know the city, contribute to the future direction of Music in the Round. There are only four meetings a year, so the commitment isn’t enormous.

If you are interested, please speak to me or John Cowling, the current Chair, at a concert.

Otherwise you can email me/call me in the office: jo@musicintheround.co.uk / 0114 2814660.

STOP PRESS!!!

We are delighted to share news from the Marmen Quartet of their recently announced success as joint winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

They will receive a significant bursary plus mentorship and international performance opportunities, including a two-year paid university residency in Dallas, Texas. Previous winners of the competition include the Dover Quartet, who we are very much looking forward to welcoming to the Crucible Studio for the first time in January. For the Marmen Quartet, their success follows awards of first prize at both the 2019 Bordeaux and the 2018 Royal Over-Seas League competitions.

The team at Music in the Round is so proud to see the careers of these brilliant musicians continuing to thrive, having supported their development as our very first Bridge bursary winners in 2015-2017.

In January 2020, some trustees will be stepping down, as their term of office has run its course. I am therefore looking for some new trustees to join us, and would really

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY FOLLOW ENSEMBLE 360 AROUND THE COUNTRY WITH MUSIC IN THE ROUND Doncaster, Cast Saturday 19 Oct, 7.00pm BRITTEN Phantasy Quartet Op.2 DOHNANYI Serenade for String Trio in C Op.10 BRITTEN Six Metamorphoses after Ovid BEETHOVEN String Trio in C minor Op.9, No.3 Saturday 23 Nov, 7.00pm HAYDN String Quartet in D minor Op.42 BRAHMS Piano Quartet in C minor Op.60 SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E flat Op.44 01302 303959 www.castindoncaster.com

Barnsley, Emmanuel Methodist Church Friday 4 Oct, 7.30pm BRAHMS Clarinet Trio in A minor Op.114 ADES Court Studies from The Tempest BRAHMS Piano Quartet in C minor Friday 15 Nov, 7.30pm BEETHOVEN Quartet in F Op.18 No.1 Quartet in C Op.59 No.3 Razumovsky Quartet in B flat Op.130 01226 327000 www.barnsleycivic.co.uk

London, Wigmore Hall Saturday 12 October, 3.00pm Giddy Goat family concert Friday 18 October, 11.00am Giddy Goat schools concert www.wigmore-hall.org.uk 020 7935 2141 Stamford, Stamford Arts Centre Saturday 7 December, 7.30pm MAHLER Piano Quartet SUK Piano Quartet in A minor Op.1 BRAHMS Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor Op.25 01780 763203 www.stamfordartscentre.com

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