A feast of chamber music and free meals for the midges of Mull and Iona
By ROGER COX

The Scotsman – United Kingdom; Jun 27, 2005

LEVON Chilingirian – OBE for services to music, leader of the
celebrated Chilingirian Quartet and artistic director of the annual
Mendelssohn on Mull Festival – is preparing to do battle with
the midges. “Some very close friends who are Scots have just sent
me something today called Avon Skin So Soft,” he says. “It looks
like a ladies’ body lotion, but, apparently, it works absolutely
brilliantly. I’m going to test it out, and I’ll be equipping all the
players at the festival with the same stuff”.

By today, Chilingirian will have a good idea of whether this latest
midgie-buster is up to the job. Since Saturday, he and 19 other
musicians from as far afield as South Africa, Sweden and Armenia have
been on Mull preparing for a week-long programme of chamber music.
This evening they will divide into three groups – each one a mixture
of seasoned professionals and younger, less experienced players –
and sally forth to perform at various venues across the island.

Now in its 18th year, Mendelssohn on Mull was founded by the late
violinist, Leonard Friedman, with the aim of helping promising
young players to develop their skills by performing alongside older,
wiser heads. Chilingirian took over as artistic director two years
ago, and since then he has worked hard to remain true to Friedman’s
original idea. “It would be very easy just to invite ‘safe’ people,”
he says, “slightly older young professionals who are very good and
very experienced, and all just get together and produce proficient,
high class concerts. We’ve got plenty of youngsters who are more than
safe – they’re exceptional players – but I’m always wanting some at
the bottom end to come in who are not as experienced.

“It’s a big risk, but that’s exactly what Mendelssohn on Mull is about,
to get these people in, to wean them.”

Among the younger players this year are Hannah Craib, Heather Kennedy
and Christoff Fourie – all students at the Royal Scottish Academy of
Music and Drama in Glasgow. Chilingirian recruits players from all
over the globe, but he maintains that getting Scottish students to
take part in the festival is his priority.

The festival may be called Mendelssohn on Mull – a nod to the
composer’s 1829 visit to the island that inspired his great Hebridean
Overture – but this year’s programme only contains one performance
of his music. Chilingirian prefers to see the German composer as the
festival’s patron saint, rather than its raison d’etre.

“When I did my first festival two years ago,” he says, “there was a
blitz on Mendelssohn – there was Mendelssohn everywhere. Last year
the festival was a Mendelssohn-free zone. This year we’re back to
doing one of the quintets, and I’m sure other pieces will appear at
the classical ceilidh.”

The piece in question, Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B
flat major, will be performed at Salen Church today and at Creich
Church on Thursday. Also on the menu are three Haydn quartets (Op. 64
No. 2, Op. 64 No. 3 and Op. 64 No. 4) written in the autumn of 1790,
described by Chilingirian as “fabulous, fabulous pieces – really
original and wacky”, and various quartets, quintets and sextets by
Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner, Arensky and Brahms.

Venues include Glengorm, Duart and Torosay Castles, Aros Hall in
Tobermory and St John’s Cathedral in Oban. On Thursday morning all
the players will come together at Iona Abbey to perform a programme
that includes Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross.

“I don’t have a favourite venue,” says Chilingirian, “but Iona is
unique. The fact that we make a pilgrimage there every year, that we
all go there by boat – there’s a wonderful atmosphere.”

* Mendelssohn on Mull 2005 runs from today until 2 July. Visit
for more information.