Merlin Music Society Review January 2007
An Evening of Joyous Splendour
Another evening of outstanding entertainment astounded us when the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival Ensemble performed on the 19th January in the Blake Theatre as part of the Merlin Music Society, who are currently in their 44th season. This particular event was part of the Chamber ensemble’s tour of 2007. In each January, the Festival group promotes six performances in venues in the Wye Valley, from Hereford to St. Briavels. The members are renowned artists from the UK and elsewhere. The concerts are designed to perform interesting programmes from the acclaimed favourites to the unfamiliar pieces of the genre.
On the Friday night, they delighted the audience by playing Mozart’s Keyboard Duet in C which was performed by Daniel and Joseph Tong. This duet was written in Vienna 1787. The opening Allegro is reminiscent of a concerto with its exquisite decorations. The Andante is elaborate with a turbulent development section, and an entertaining finale. It was played with absolute enthusiasm.
Daniel Tong returned to play the Piano Trio no.1 in D minor by Schumann with the violinist Benjamin Nabarro and Kate Gould playing the cello. The D minor trio is wonderfully creative throughout. It is poignant and occasionally technically difficult. The trio creates various colours and textures in the first movement. The slow movement is typical of an intermezzo but intriguingly intricate. The trio was performed with tremendous fervour. Each player brought his/her own eccentricity to the piece which made it that much more enjoyable. Nabarro was an absolute elation, his performance was truly expressive.
We were then stunned by the performance of the String group. As a violinist, I was looking forward to this part of the concert. They performed Mendelssohn’s String Quintet no.1 in A major. Mendelssohn was known as the virtuoso of the violin and the piano and produced masterpieces while he was still a teenager. Unusually, Mendelssohn wrote this quintet for two violas. But it made all the difference. The musicians’ performance was absolutely breathtaking. It was passionate, emotive and vivacious. Matthew Truscott (violin) and Alice Neary (cello) amazed the audience with their talent. I was completely overwhelmed. The audience awarded them with thunderous applause.
This was a night of true magnificence.
Merlin’s next concert will be a performance by mezzo-soprano, Wendy Dawn Thompson, on 15th February in the Blake Theatre Monmouth.
Jessica Davies, Monmouth Comprehensive School