8 February 2012
Chamber Music Workshops and Evening Concert
Eager anticipation greeted the arrival this afternoon of the world-renowned Chilingirian Quartet – Levon Chilingirian, Ronald Birks, Susie Meszaros and Philip de Groote. The School was delighted that the quartet accepted an invitation, soon after Levon Chilingirian’s wonderful Strings Masterclass in November last year.
The four, all outstanding musicians in their own right, moved straight into a demanding round of coaching sessions for 12 of the multiplicity of chamber-music ensembles which Mariette Pringle tirelessly organises and coaches through the year, ranging from piano trios to a group of 12 cellists. Though their approaches differed, sometimes gently encouraging, sometimes proactively cajoling, they all succeeded in eliciting noticeable improvements in their groups in the course of only 45 minutes’ contact time. Consequently, the forthcoming chamber music concert just after half-term (Wednesday 22 February, 7pm, CMR) promises to be a feast for the ears.
With only a short break for their own rehearsal, the quartet presented a formal concert to a packed Amey Theatre. The first work, Haydn’s late quartet in D op76.5, described by one of the quartet as his finest, was delivered with all the grace, poise, delicacy and balance for which the quartet is famous. Shostakovich’s 8th quartet - a felicitous choice as being an A-level set work – provided a stark contrast, painting the composer’s personal view of the Russian revolution in moods by turns bitter and melancholy. The quartet plumbed the full depth and range of feeling with clear understanding and conviction in this dramatic work.
After the interval, the appreciative audience was treated to one of the gems of romantic repertoire, Ravel’s only quartet. Its lyrical and rhapsodic qualities were exposed in playing of great subtlety, with the Chilingirian Quartet once again displaying their amazing range of tonal and dynamic contrasts and finesse of ensemble.
Not surprisingly, the audience gave them a rapturous ovation, and were rewarded by the shortest of encores – the final Presto movement of Haydn’s earlier E minor quartet.
As they dispersed into the chill evening, it was clear that the school’s string players were as inspired as the rest of the audience by the concert, and it is to be hoped that this highly successful occasion may be repeated in future years.
