CLASSICAL FANS IN FOR A REAL TREAT
Inverness Courier
08 July, 2009
FOR classical music lovers Inverness Town House will be the place to
be as Inverness Chamber Music announces the line-up for its forthcoming
autumn and winter evening series.
The new season, which will bring a selection of international talent
to Inverness, complements the society’s monthly series of lunchtime
concerts held all year round, also at the Town House. "If you haven’t
been to a concert in The Town House yet, then there is a treat in
store for you," Inverness Chamber Music’s James Munro commented.
"The main hall is a comfortable elegant space where you will get
a friendly welcome and be entertained by the very best professional
musicians from all round the world who delight in coming to perform in
Inverness. "Artists relish the acoustics of this 180-seater venue and
are especially full of praise for the excellent Bosendorfer grand piano
which was purchased in 2006 with grants from Inverness Common Good Fund
and 2007 Highland Year of Culture." Obviously, because of its size,
the Town House is ideal for small scale, or chamber, music rather than
full size orchestras. Once defined by the historian Charles Burney as
"such music as was not intended for the church, for the theatre or for
a public concert room", today it is much fairer to think of chamber
music as the music of friends, played in an intimate environment,
Munro suggested. Inverness Chamber Music grew out of such a group
of friends who came together to play, or as one of them admits, to
"murder", Schubert’s "Trout Quintet", but soon decided that they were
going to have to start promoting concerts and call on professionals
if they were ever to hear the piece played properly.
Two of the original members of that group are still on the team 15
years later – chairman Alison Marr and secretary Paul Crowe – with
James Munro taking on the role of treasurer, Joan Gamblin and Howard
Spenceley responsible for the hospitality and marketing roles. Together
in their enthusiasm and musical passion, they bring the evening series
of nine concerts to Inverness each year, though in recent seasons
Inverness Chamber Music has been given marketing and box office support
through Eden Court. The first concert of the 2009/10 season, which
runs from September to May is a piano recital on 16th September by
the Perth raised musician Alasdair Beatson with a programme by Bach,
Beethoven, Ades, Ravel and Schumann. The Anglo-Swedish Kungsbacka
Piano Trio, perennial Inverness favourites, return on 14th October,
playing works by Dvorak, Haydn and Schubert. Schubert is back on the
menu on 12th November from what is widely regarded as one of the great
chamber music ensembles, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet. They will be
joined by Moray Welsh, formerly principal cello with the Philharmonia
Orchestra, for a performance of Schubert’s String Quintet. It is now
a tradition that the audience at the pre-Christmas concert enjoy some
seasonal mince pies and mulled wine, which they can enjoy alongside
the music of Thistle Brass, featuring horn player Tim Hunter from
Alness, who bring their rumbustious mix of classics and jazz to the
Town House on 11th December. The 2010 concert season begins on 18th
January with popular Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, who will be
joined by his wife, the clarinettist Jean Johnson. Another group
of Inverness favourites, the Carducci String Quartet visit on 16th
February to play one of the great string quartets, the "American"
by Dvorak, and on 16th March two more artists return by popular
demand for a fourth visit. Peter and Zoltan Katona, guitar playing
identical twins from Hungary, take a break from their globe-trotting
career performing in huge arenas to enjoy the atmosphere of one of
their favourite venues, Inverness Town House. Every November some
of the best classical musicians come to Elgin for the annual Moray
Piano Competition, when part of the prize is a concert in Inverness
Town House the following spring. In past years this has resulted
in the Town House hosting outstanding performances by the likes
of the Russian Anna Kavalerova, Anne Macgregor from Greenock and
the Anglo-Iranian pianist Yasmin Rowe. This year’s winner will be
invited to play in Inverness during April 2010. Another tradition for
Inverness Chamber Music is for the last concert of the season to be
light-hearted, end-of-term party. This season will conclude on 12th
May with a visit from The Diamond Divas, three glamorous sopranos from
London and their very flamboyant accompanist. The lunchtime concert
series runs parallel with, but independent from, the Inverness Chamber
Music evening series. Instead of a programme of established artists
with an occasional emerging talent, the lunchtime series sets out
to provide performance experience for young professional musicians
at the beginning of their careers, with the occasional established
name brought in as seasonal highlights. The series was started three
years ago by former Inverness area arts officer, Adrian Clark, and
is currently run by Inverness Arts Forum. It is more informal and
more flexible than the evening series, with the audience welcome to
bring their lunch with them, a broader range of music and extra events
organised at fairly short notice. The next concert will be tomorrow
by the young Armenian violinist Ani Batikian and the Japanese pianist
Ayako Kanazawa. In August a spin-off event from the Nairn International
Jazz Festival is planned to follow up on Larry Fuller’s performance
last year. On 2nd September there will be the world premiere of "The
Poet’s Return", a suite for harp and clarsach, played by Beauly harpist
Hannah Phillips. The work commemorates the visit to Inverness by
Robert Burns in September 1787 and has been commissioned by Inverness
Arts Forum from the distinguished Scots composer Edward McGuire, with
the help of a generous grant from the Highland 2007 Legacy. Other
lunchtime events include entertaining bass-baritone Donald Maxwell,
with accompanist Sheila Bruce, reminiscing about his career in the
world’s opera houses on 25th November; the Russian pianist Artem
Akopyan playing Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky on 20th January 2010;
outstanding young cellist Philip Higham with pianist Simon Lane on
23rd February in a concert supported by the Tunnell Trust for Young
Musicians; and on 2nd March the violin duet of Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne,
winner of the 1996 BBC Young Musician of the Year, and Agnieszka
Marucha, leader of the Danish Chamber Players. In addition there
are at least three more concerts being organised showcasing the
best of Scots traditional music, in partnership with the Highland
Council TMC Project. Inverness Chamber Music season tickets are
already on sale from the treasurer, James Munro, on 01463 710363 or
[email protected]. Tickets for individual concerts will go on sale
nearer the time.