BERKHAMSTED MUSIC SOCIETY 2002/2003
THE BELCA STRING QUARTET |
We feel the tradition of promoting high-class musical entertainment will be maintained and the committee feels that members will be richly rewarded with a splendid year of music.
The season opens with the Ibert Trio (Saturday, September 28) playing a varied and attractive programme featuring combinations of violin and harp, and ‘cello and harp, as well as together in works by Tartini, Elgar and Ibert.
The harpist is Hugh Webb who is joint principal harpist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, whilst the violinist Sophie Langdon has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia, and guest leads for a number of chamber groups, such as English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.
Cellist is Andrew Fuller, who was associate principal cellist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1990-97, and has played with many chamber music groups including the Brindisi and Coull.
Our November 9 concert in the serene and harmonious surroundings of St Peter’s Church, features well-known soprano Emma Kirkby, with the London Baroque group, in a wonderful sequence of baroque music, including the recently discovered and inspired Gloria of Handel. Trio sonatas by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel will be performed on period stringed instruments and make the evening wonderfully memorable.
Emma Kirkby has been called the queen of baroque singers and her recordings are extensive and highly regarded, reminding us how fortunate we are to hear her in the intimacy of music in Berkhamsted.
This concert is presented in association with the Cowper Society.
The youthful Belcea String Quartet has had a quite meteoric rise in the world of chamber music, becoming in October 2001 resident quartet at the Wigmore Hall.
In their concerts at the Wigmore they have collaborated with artists such as Imogen Cooper, Thomas Ades, Ian Bostridge and the Borodin String Quartet.
And despite demanding professional engagements they are continuing their studies with the Alban Berg quartet in Cologne. A number of society members have asked when we will hear them in Berkhamsted, and it is a great privilege and relief to say “December 14, 2002”. All who have heard their fresh, youthful, dynamic playing will be looking forward to this highly anticipated concert, which will feature two string quartets by Schubert, and a delightful one from the Haydn corpus.
They were coached at the Royal College of Music by the Chilingirian Quartet and the Amadeus.
Their first CD was released in autumn 2000 and won a Gramophone Award 2001. A great anticipatory treat for local music lovers.
We can always rely on the Countess of Munster Musical Trust to provide us with a memorable artist or two (the trust gave us Lawrence Power on the viola early in 2002) and this year (February 8, 2003) we feature Min Park, flute, and her accompanist Zoe Mather. Min Park is UK born, of Korean parents, and spent some of her study at Chetham’s School. She gained her Bachelor’s degree from the renowned Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She has given solo and concert performances in Britain, the US and Far East and worked under such distinguished conductors as Sir Colin Davis, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Andre Previn and Sir Simon Rattle.
Her pianist, Zoe Mather, was educated at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition, 1990.
Her Wigmore Hall debut was in 1995 and she has made her first CD. She has specialised in French music with world premieres of pieces by Charles Koechlin, and piano music of Ravel.
She has accompanied artists as diverse as Elizabeth Soderstrom and dancer Irek Mukhamedov.
These two Countess of Munster artists are eagerly anticipated. Our final concert artists (March 1, 2003) promise a memorable event, featuring piano music from the four hands of Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa.
The hauntingly beautiful Fantasia in F minor of Schubert will be a highlight of an evening which includes works by Ravel, Chabrier and Mozart.
Kathryn Stott is well-known for her superb playing of the complete piano works of Fauré and also for her performance of The Piano Concerto by Michael Nyman, from music for the film The Piano of 1993. Her teachers included Vlado Perlemuter and Nadia Boulanger and she was a Leeds International Piano Competition winner in 1978.
Noriko Ogawa was a Leeds prizewinner in 1987 and has achieved considerable renown in Europe and America, whilst in her native Japan she is a national celebrity.
She records regularly for the BBC as recitalist and soloist, and has appeared with the Philharmonia, the BBC Philharmonic and other UK orchestras. She records for the Swedish label BIS and her recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was selected as Critic’s Choice 1998 by BBC Music Magazine. With Kathryn Stott she brings the 49th season to a wonderful, scintillating close.
The society’s informal January event on Saturday 18th, will be in the same venue as this year, the Sunnyside Hall and Church of St Michael’s and All Angels, by popular request.
Our entertainers in 2002, Adrian Davis and Friends, will give us a similar concert with some variation in the composition of supporting friends. They should certainly complete our enjoyment of the wine and cheese evening, 2003.
