St Boniface Concert Society
Thursday 13th August, 7.30pm, at Crediton Parish Church.
Cellist Jane Lindsay, Jennifer Hughes, piano
Sonata No 2 (Opus 5) by Ludwig van Beethoven; ‘Pohadka’ by Leos Janacek; Fantasiestucke (Opus 73) by Robert Schumann
Sonata No 1 (Opus 32) Camille Saint-Saens
Tickets £14
The Music Makers’ concert #10:
Tuesday 20th October
Doors open 6.45pm, music from 7.30pm
Please do get in touch if you are not on our mailing list. Look out for our yellow leaflet which contains dates of all our events.
www.themusicmakers.org.uk
Our continuing thanks to members of Crediton Congregational Church for their support in putting on The Music Makers’ events. Since July 2013, we have enabled over 100 musicians to perform here.
The Music Makers’ presents
The Music Makers’
CONCERT #9
The Clayhanger String Quartet
Roger Stephenson, piano
Tuesday 21st July 2015
Crediton
Congregational Church
doors open 6.45pm
food & drink available
entry £7 (under 16s £2)
THE PERFORMERS
The Clayhanger String Quartet, meets in Clayhanger, mid-Devon, where Simon and Alison live with Ivan, Simon’s favourite cat. Due to the warmth of their welcome and the consistently high quality of their tea and cake, our meetings are something we all look forward to eagerly.
Sarah Greinig trained at the Royal College of Music and the Purcell School as a teenager and subsequently read music at Manchester University, where she studied with members of the Lindsay Quartet. After a few years in Sheffield during which she completed a Masters in Performance, she decided to settle in Devon, where she has a busy timetable of violin and viola pupils, many from local schools, and a growing number at Exeter University.
After a degree in Music, Simon Routh combined a career as a Whitehall civil servant with playing in orchestras in London. He now lives in Devon and divides his time between playing chamber music, restoring barns and working in London. He first played quartets with Ruth Lock over 30 years ago.
Adrian Lock studied mathematics at Cambridge and now works at the Met Office. Adrian began learning the viola as a 12 year old, with renowned physicist and skilled amateur viola player, Dr Keith Berry, and he now spends much of his spare time playing the viola, including with Exeter Symphony Orchestra. Adrian has four children, the third of whom is an accomplished French horn player, and the fourth has recently started learning the violin.
Ruth Lock played the piano from the age of 4. The orchestra in her senior school needed a cello, so when Ruth was 12, her father bought one from the local junk shop for £4, and Ruth had lessons at school. Leaving the
Upcoming events . . .
Summer Lunchtime Recitals
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1.10 – 1.50pm: 11th/12th, 18th/19th and 25th/25th August at Crediton Congregational Church
A series of six 40-minute events providing delightful musical mid-day diversions, plus a Sunday afternoon concert by West Wind, a 10-piece wind ensemble. The recitals are free (refreshments included), but donations are invited to cover costs, with any surplus going to church funds. Doors open 12.45pm. The West Wind concert raises funds for Children’s Hospice South-West. Admission is £10, including complimentary drinks.
Tues 11th Aug: Mervyn Bedford, clarinet; Sarah Preece, clarinet; Joanna Cartwright, cello, Jon Rottenbury, trombone. Carol Galton, piano accompanist
Wed12th August: ‘Songs of Ivor Gurney’ presented by Philip Lancaster Carol Galton, piano accompanist
Tues 18th: Rebecca Willson, piano
Wed 19th: Emma Graham, harp, and introducing pupil Niamh Flynn.
Wed Tues
Tues 25th: Quorum: Janet Macdonald, soprano; Alison Macdonald, mezzo-soprano; Philip Bonser, clarinet; Margaret Chave, piano
Wed 26th: Alex Wilson, piano
PROGRAMME
String Quartet (Opus 54, no.1, in G major)
by Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)
1. Vivace assai
2. Andante piu tosto
3. Allegretto, Menuet & Trio
4. Finale: Vivace
Rückert-Lieder
(song cycle of five lieder for voice piano,
based on poems by Friedrich Ruckert)
by Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
INTERVAL
Piano Quintet (Opus 34, in F minor)
by Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
1. Allegro non troppo
2. Andante, un poco Adagio
3. Scherzo (Allegro) & trio
4. Finale: Poco sostenuto – Allegro non troppo
Sarah Greinig, violin
Simon Routh, violin
Adrian Lock, viola
Ruth Lock, cello
Alison Routh, soprano
Roger Stephenson, piano
THE COMPOSERS
Joseph Haydn (1732 -1809) was a happy, contented man with a warm sense of humour – easy to believe if you listen to his music. Much of it is traditional and cheerful; he was not an innovator but he brought to all he wrote great skill, ingenuity and wit. He was also capable, however, of expressing in his music strong emotions and sadness. For most of his life Haydn was in the service of a famous Hungarian family who lived near Vienna. But latterly he became an international figure, and the opportunity to travel abroad – to Paris and London – stimulated him to write orchestral music of great brilliance and inventiveness. He wrote 104 symphonies, more than 80 string quartets and over 50 piano sonatas, not to mention 20 operas and chamber works, concertos and arrangements.
It took a long time for the music of Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911) to ‘arrive’. But having done so, it established itself with the utmost rapidity. Mahler’s music is romantic, eloquent and very beautiful. It is not, however, always ‘comfortable’ to be with. It speaks with a deeply personal voice, and when that voice utters a cry of anguish, the effect can be extremely disturbing. He is a man of song and symphony. . . The Song cycles ... contain what many believe to be the essence of Mahler
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) was a musical architect, whose works are firmly constructed on the most solid, classical foundations. But this most German of composers was also a Romantic, and what he wrote endures as much for its heart as for its impeccable form. He was deeply in love with Clara, the wife of his friend and fellow musician Robert Schumann. But when Schumann died, they did not marry and Brahms remained a bachelor. It is not fanciful to state that Brahms’s unrequited passion left its mark on his music, particularly the later works which have a strong thread of melancholy running through them.
Notes extracted from the ‘Good Music Guide’, by Neville Garden (Bloomsbury, 1989)
piano behind, Ruth went on to play the cello in the National Youth Orchestra, and learned with William Pleeth, who was also teaching Jacqueline du Pre at the time. Ruth studied mathematics at Cambridge - although spent more time and energy playing the cello. However, she had a very interesting career teaching maths in south-west London, whilst making plenty of time for music. Ruth relocated to Exeter as a ‘Met Office Granny’ and now enjoys the countryside - and playing chamber music with friends.
Alison Routhstudied Music at Oxford and singing at the Royal Academy of Music.She sang in the Tallis Scholars for 8 years and inThe Sixteen, andworkedwith composers, in particular the late Sir John Tavener, who wrote five works for her in the 80s.Alison has also worked as a commercial record producer, including recordings of Oxford, Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedral choirs.She now divides her time between teaching singing, and working in the vineyard that she and her husband Simon maintain at their home near Clayhanger.
Roger Stephenson was a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral before studying medicine at Cambridge. After completing his medical training, he returned to piano studies with Peter Element at the Royal College of Music. He later moved to the Westcountry where he practises as a GP in mid-Devon. His musical activities have continued as an accompanist, while also playing with several chamber groups over the years. He has appeared as repetiteur, and playing continuo, for Opera Glass and as timpanist with the English Mozart Players.