Comments on: An equal music? http://www.susantomes.com/southbank-chamber-music/ Pianist & writer Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:56:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Susan Tomes http://www.susantomes.com/southbank-chamber-music/comment-page-1/#comment-1611 Susan Tomes Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:03:29 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=1590#comment-1611 Thank you, Cathy. You make a very good point about chamber music! Thank you, Cathy. You make a very good point about chamber music!

]]> By: Cathy Jones http://www.susantomes.com/southbank-chamber-music/comment-page-1/#comment-1609 Cathy Jones Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:31:06 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=1590#comment-1609 Thank you, Susan, for pointing out this disturbing trend. Just as the world is waking up to the huge diversity of performers, and thus creating a more level playing field, the promotional arm decides to bank on an old-fashioned celebrity cult, and in chamber music, where the public is most discriminating! The appendage '... and musicians' made me laugh... as if one simply created a chamber ensemble by addition. Greetings from a devoted fan of yours and your trio and earlier quartet. Cathy Thank you, Susan, for pointing out this disturbing trend. Just as the world is waking up to the huge diversity of performers, and thus creating a more level playing field, the promotional arm decides to bank on an old-fashioned celebrity cult, and in chamber music, where the public is most discriminating! The appendage ‘… and musicians’ made me laugh… as if one simply created a chamber ensemble by addition.

Greetings from a devoted fan of yours and your trio and earlier quartet.

Cathy

]]> By: Tim Boulton http://www.susantomes.com/southbank-chamber-music/comment-page-1/#comment-1576 Tim Boulton Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:33:41 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=1590#comment-1576 You and I both know the enormous value of coming together in ad hoc groups to play chamber music, and have done so for many years at the International Musicians Seminars at Prussia Cove. Groups formed in this way can sometimes reveal exciting new insights, especially when playing repertoire that has been largely forgotten over time. And there is something rather special when a seasoned player of many years experience at the top of their profession is partnered with an extraordinarily talented young player just at the beginning of their professional orbit - the chemistry can be totally compelling. The IMS concerts are popular, drawing along a percentage of the local population which would be unheard of in the larger cities. But over the last few years Concerts Penzance has been inviting some of the same musicians back to Cornwall to perform in the chamber groups which they live and work with for much of the year. Without a piano we are a bit restricted, and with little money I wish we could pay the musicians what they really deserve, but recent visitors have included the Naravva, Elias, Dante and Herold Quartets. It's a bit of an eye opener! These groups consistently find depths of meaning, insight and tonal refinement which offers an intimacy which surely can't be achieved without the months and years of chamber music 'marriage'. I know from experience that some of the most memorable moments in performances have been when some of the working out of musical and to some degree personal relationships happen on stage - but here is my ego getting a big foot in the door. I'm also aware that the moments when I have felt most at one with the eternal in music, where my colleagues and I have simply become the vehicle through which music can mysteriously form, these moments of heaven on earth, happen at a stage well beyond that of public flirting. These times are my best, but I can't say I'm proud of these moments of true musical revelation. Rather, I'm forever grateful to have been allowed to experience them in the company of others - together with greatness - audience and musicians together. That's what makes musical life worth living, and the potential for these moments of true insight makes concerts worth presenting. You and I both know the enormous value of coming together in ad hoc groups to play chamber music, and have done so for many years at the International Musicians Seminars at Prussia Cove. Groups formed in this way can sometimes reveal exciting new insights, especially when playing repertoire that has been largely forgotten over time. And there is something rather special when a seasoned player of many years experience at the top of their profession is partnered with an extraordinarily talented young player just at the beginning of their professional orbit – the chemistry can be totally compelling. The IMS concerts are popular, drawing along a percentage of the local population which would be unheard of in the larger cities.

But over the last few years Concerts Penzance has been inviting some of the same musicians back to Cornwall to perform in the chamber groups which they live and work with for much of the year. Without a piano we are a bit restricted, and with little money I wish we could pay the musicians what they really deserve, but recent visitors have included the Naravva, Elias, Dante and Herold Quartets. It’s a bit of an eye opener! These groups consistently find depths of meaning, insight and tonal refinement which offers an intimacy which surely can’t be achieved without the months and years of chamber music ‘marriage’.

I know from experience that some of the most memorable moments in performances have been when some of the working out of musical and to some degree personal relationships happen on stage – but here is my ego getting a big foot in the door. I’m also aware that the moments when I have felt most at one with the eternal in music, where my colleagues and I have simply become the vehicle through which music can mysteriously form, these moments of heaven on earth, happen at a stage well beyond that of public flirting. These times are my best, but I can’t say I’m proud of these moments of true musical revelation. Rather, I’m forever grateful to have been allowed to experience them in the company of others – together with greatness – audience and musicians together. That’s what makes musical life worth living, and the potential for these moments of true insight makes concerts worth presenting.

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