Welcome to our twenty third newsletter – designed to keep you informed about our activities, as well as other local chamber music events.
2017/18 COFFEE CONCERT SEASON CONTINUES
The concert on 29 October featured the Fournier Trio. For Andrew Polmear’s review of the concert see https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk and click on ‘Latest Posts’. Do you agree with him that they played the Mendelssohn and the Beethoven quite differently?
The next concert will be given by the Castalian Quartet on 26 November at 11 am in the Attenborough Centre.
- Haydn String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 76 No. 6
- Dutilleux Ainsi la nuit
- Beethoven String Quartet in A minor Op. 132
The Haydn is one of that great last set of six, written after visiting London and hearing his music played in a concert hall, rather than in a small aristocratic salon. The scale is larger! The Beethoven is his next to last quartet. He gives us music so profound it hurts. But what of the Dutilleux? Written in 1976, it lasts 18 minutes and is thrillingly modern or totally incomprehensible according to your viewpoint. One online reviewer commented that if you want “an ‘impressionist’ French piece you can kill with, this is it”.
MEET THE ARTISTS
A reception to which members of Strings Attached are invited will be held at the Attenborough Centre after the concert so that we can meet members of the Castalian Quartet. This often happens informally after a coffee concert but this will be a little more organised with a drink provided. Patrons of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival have also been invited. To facilitate arrangements please notify the secretary Margaret Polmear on m.polmear@btinternet.com by 22 November at the latest if you plan to attend.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
If you haven’t renewed your membership for 2017/18 it is never too late! Download a membership form from www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk/friends/ or renew at the next concert. If you aren’t sure whether or not you have renewed, email membership@stringsattachedmusic.org.uk . By renewing you will not only have access to events like meet-the-artists as described above but also be entitled to a free sherry or fruit juice during the interval of each concert. Above all you will be helping to ensure the future of the coffee concerts.
PRACTICALITIES
The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), formerly the Gardner Centre, is at the University of Sussex at Falmer. The move to ACCA, as you will recall, is temporary during the extensive refurbishment of the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange.
There is free parking at the Sports Centre close to the Attenborough Centre. There are also excellent public transport links:
- by train from Brighton or Lewes, or
- by bus: No. 25 from Hove and Brighton, No. 23 from Brighton Marina or Nos 28 and 29 from Brighton, or, coming the other way, from Tunbridge Wells via Uckfield and Lewes.
Help with transport A happy tradition is developing whereby Strings Attached members offer lifts to others who would otherwise have difficulty with transport. If you would either like a lift, or would like to offer one, please email the secretary Margaret Polmear on m.polmear@btinternet.com . It will only be possible to find a lift for you if there happens to be someone in your area who is offering one.
Tickets prices for the coffee concerts have again been held at £18.50 (concessions £16). A half-season ticket (now only available for the three concerts in 2018) is £49.50 (concessions £42).
Tickets for all concerts are available from the Brighton Dome Box Office (01273 709709) or www.brightondome.org .
Tickets for those aged 8 – 25 are free as part of the Cavatina Scheme. The rules for this have changed. They can only be booked by visiting the box office in person. The Brighton Dome box office can issue tickets in advance; the ACCA box office will be open on the morning of the concert. Either the young person should be present at the time of booking, or the person booking for him or her must show proof of age, e.g. a passport. Under 14s must be accompanied to the concert by a paying adult.
OTHER CHAMBER MUSIC EVENTS
The chamber music series of concerts run by the Nicholas Yonge Society in Lewes continues on 10 November with Trio con Brio Copenhagen playing Beethoven (the “Ghost”), Tchaikovsky and Sandström. Tickets are available at www.nyslewes.org.uk or on the door.
The Seaford Music Society continues its programme with a concert on 3 December with songs and duos by Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Donizetti and Fauré, performed by the Capriccio Ensemble (soprano, cello and piano). The cellist is Sebastian Comberti, whose arrival as concert manager has transformed the society. Those of us who heard the first concert in this series were stunned by the playing of the London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble. Details are on www.seafordmusicsociety.com .
Details of concerts at Brighton churches (St Nicholas’, St Luke’s, and the Chapel Royal) and those organised by other music societies in Steyning, Shoreham, Eastbourne, Worthing and Chichester can all be accessed via the Strings Attached chamber music calendar. Go to www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk and choose ‘calendar’ from the menu.
Support your local composers! A piece composed by Strings Attached committee member Guy Richardson will be performed on 11 November at 7.30pm at Bridge Cottage, Uckfield. It’s a choral work for 3 folk singers and an 8 voice choir, based on a Sussex folk song ‘The Lark in the Morning’. If you miss that, it will be performed again on 12 November at 8 pm at the Horsham Folk Club, The Normandy Centre, Denne Rd, Horsham. Finally, a piano piece composed by Guy will be performed at St Luke’s Church on 18 November at 7.30pm along with other works by New Music Brighton composers. Details of all these concerts can be found at www.newmusicbrighton.co.uk .