Welcome to our twenty-first newsletter – designed to keep you informed about our activities, as well as other local chamber music events.
2017/18 COFFEE CONCERT SEASON
The Sunday morning coffee concerts will resume in October, all starting at 11.00 am. They will again be held at The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (formerly the Gardner Centre) at the University of Sussex at Falmer. The move, as you will no doubt recall, is temporary, during the extensive refurbishment of the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. As the photo shows, the Corn Exchange is not quite ready for us. See the item below under Facebook for an explanation of why an archeologist is so interested in the foundations.
There is free parking at the Attenborough Centre. There are excellent public transport links, by train from Brighton or Lewes, or by bus (No. 25 from Hove and Brighton, or No.s 28 and 29 from Brighton or, coming the other way, from Tunbridge Wells via Uckfield and Lewes).
As before, we will be inviting, in a future newsletter, anyone with reduced mobility who has a problem with transport to contact us. We will then do our best to find another member who can offer a lift.
The coffee concert programme is as follows:
29 October 2017 Fournier Trio
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No.1 in D minor, Op.49
Turina: Piano Trio No.2 in B minor, Op.76
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op.97 ‘Archduke’
26 November Castalian Quartet
Haydn: String Quartet in E flat, Op.76 No.6
Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit
Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op.132
17 December Zemlinsky Quartet
Beethoven: String Quartet Op.18 No.1
Janacek: Mladi
R. Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op.41 No.3
28 January 2018 Bassoon Flute and Piano
Amy Harman bassoon, Adam Walker flute, James Baillieu piano
Martinu: Trio for flute, bassoon and piano
Fanny Mendelssohn: Piano Trio Op.11 arranged for flute, bassoon and piano
Donizetti: Trio in F
Dutilleux: Sarabande et Cortège for bassoon and piano
Beethoven: Trio WoO 37 (WoO means ‘Works without Opus number’)
25 February Castalian Quartet with Simon Rowland-Jones (viola)
Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op.76 No.5
Britten: String Quartet No.2 in C, Op.36
Brahms: String Quintet No.1 in F, Op.88
25 March Trio Isimsiz with Timothy Ridout (viola). Double bass to be announced.
Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat, D.28 Sonatensatz
Beethoven: Piano Trio in E flat, Op.70 No.2
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 ‘Trout’
There are two things to say about this programme. Firstly, half the concerts feature a piano. This is to take advantage of the Attenborough Centre’s magnificent Steinway. The Corn Exchange not yet have its own piano; and the seating there ‘in the round’ does not work so well with a piano. Secondly, four of the concerts feature performers that we have heard before. The Castalian Quartet has played for Strings Attached twice already. Our review noted their extraordinary clarity “like a well-pruned apple tree”. Amy Harman danced her way through a glorious programme of French music last November and now comes with two different soloists. The Trio Isimsiz last year played Haydn with “the delicacy of a Sung bowl” then “revelled in the changes of mood and pace” in Beethoven. And they are joined by Tim Ridout whom some will remember from the lunchtime recital he gave in this year’s Brighton Festival.
Tickets prices for the coffee concerts have again been held at £18.50 (concessions £16). A season ticket for the whole season (six concerts) is £99 (concessions £84). A half-season ticket (either the three concerts in 2017 or the three in 2018) is £49.50 (concessions £42).
Individual tickets for all concerts are available from the Brighton Dome Box Office (01273 709709) or www.brightondome.org . For the moment season tickets can only be booked in person or by telephone. Online season tickets will be available soon. Tickets for those aged 8 – 25 are free as part of the Cavatina Scheme. They can only be booked in person or by telephone to the box office. The young person need not be present at the time of booking but a name and date of birth will be required.
RENEW MEMBERSHIP * RENEW MEMBERSHIP * RENEW MEMBERSHIP
Unless you’ve been told you don’t need to (because you’ve already done so), now is the time to renew your membership of Strings Attached for the period 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018. Membership renewal forms can be downloaded from https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk . Click on ‘Friends’. Payment can now be made by bank transfer as well as by cheque. For Gift Aid reasons please complete one form per person. Paid-up members will receive a membership card which, to save postage, we plan to distribute initially at the October concert, and which can be used to obtain a free glass of sherry or fruit juice during coffee concert intervals.
We hope you will choose to renew your membership and support our work – and encourage like-minded people to join us too.
FEEDBACK ON LAST SEASON
In response to our request in the last newsletter a number of members have given us feedback about last season. People were pretty appreciative of most things: venue, performers, programme – including the pattern of including a modern piece in each concert. Click on the link for the full report:
https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk/coffee-concerts-2016-17-feedback-friends/ .
Strings Attached continues to maintain its Facebook page (@Stringsattachedchambermusic). You can reach it using the button at the bottom of this newsletter or on the Strings Attached website. There’s lots of interesting stuff there, including a sketch of how the new Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre will look from the outside. It also contains a link to an article about the discovery of a Quaker burial site under the floor of the Corn Exchange. It seems that, rather than move the remains, the Prince Regent’s builders just built over the top of them! If you are really interested the latest news is on the Dome’s blog at https://brightondome.org/news_blog/in_pictures_excavations_at_historic_quaker_burial_site_on_royal_pavilion_estate/
POETRY
Strings Attached is affiliated to the Brighton and Hove Arts Council, which has notified us that its annual poetry competition is now open. Entries must be received before 15 October. The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, will be present at the festival on 18 November to present the prizes, so it would be a competition worth winning, quite apart from the £1000 first prize. For details click on https://www.bh-arts.org.uk/2017-bhac-poetry-festival/ .
OTHER CHAMBER MUSIC EVENTS
The Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) starts on 27 October and runs until 12 November. Details are available on www.bremf.org.uk . Tickets will be available to BREMF Friends from 21 August and to the general public from 4 September. On 28 October the Consone String Quartet gives a lunchtime concert called “The Evolution of the Classical String Quartet”, which should be of interest to Strings Attached members, as will plenty of other BREMF concerts.
The Nicholas Yonge Society, Lewes begins its season on 27 October with the Magnard Ensemble: a wind group that will play music from Bach to Gershwin and a lot more. For details of tickets see www.nyslewes.org.uk .
Finally, don’t forget to check the Strings Attached chamber music calendar. It lists other chamber music concerts in Sussex, featuring both professional and amateur performers, and can be found at https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk/calendar/ . You will see that lunchtime concerts at various churches in Brighton, Hove and Lewes continue through the summer. Local music societies restart after the summer break.