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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Daybreak, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, 13/8/2022

Violinist Charlotte Scott

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Daybreak, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Daybreak, Welburn Manor marquee, August 13

THE 2022 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival got off to a cracking start with this afternoon concert, a Beethoven piano trio followed by a Dvořák piano quartet.

The festival’s umbrella title is Soundscapes, with the various subtitles moving gradually through the day and the seasons. Appropriately, this was Daybreak.

For anyone new to this wonderful festival – one of the best-kept secrets of the chamber music world anywhere in this country, let alone in Yorkshire – the names of the musicians taking part are only revealed at the event.

All you know ahead of time are the works on the programme. But have no fear. Nobody makes it onto the Welburn stage without the highest pedigree: concerto soloists, orchestra leaders, competition winners, from all over Europe, all with a shared love of chamber music which their careers normally prevent them playing.

So, they come here on holiday, often with families in tow, and indulge themselves for our delight. The results are often astounding – and at £15 a pop, extraordinarily good value.

Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op 11 in B flat, dates from the late 1790s when he was fairly new on the Vienna scene and still trying to make an impression. Wisely he based his writing on ‘Papa’ Haydn’s example. In these works you find Beethoven at his most witty, which did not escape our threesome here, violinist Charlotte Scott, cellist Rebecca Gilliver and pianist Christian Chamorel.

The opening Allegro was extremely light on its feet, with the downward part of the theme given a keen staccato. The semiquavers in the development section were particularly energetic.

The centre of the slow movement, which involves cello and piano alone (because its remote keys were inaccessible at the time by the clarinet for which the violin role was originally written), was soulful indeed.

The finale, nine variations on a wildly popular song by Joseph Weigl (Before I Start Work, I Need Something To Eat! – one knows the feeling) were sombre, dramatic and martial in turn. They are followed by a crazy little piano cadenza that goes off at a tangent, which Chamorel relished to the full, before his colleagues were allowed back to restore order.

The second of Dvořák’s two piano quartets, Op 87 in E flat, brought in a completely new group of players – something that ordinary economics would not normally make feasible – violinist Benjamin Baker, viola player Meghan Cassidy, cellist Jamie Walton and pianist Daniel Lebhardt. All are regulars at the festival, while Baker and Lebhardt are also frequent collaborators which undoubtedly helped cohesion.

Its dramatic opening was made more so by Lebhardt’s insistent piano, which drove his colleagues a little harder than they might have wished. It did however make the calm appearance of the second theme during the development especially beautiful.

Walton’s cello gave an ultra-lyrical start to the slow movement, so that the arrival of its stormy centre came almost as a shock. The return of the cello’s theme was almost remorseful, as if the disturbance had been too much, and it came to a serene, penitent close.

There was a pleasing sense of dance to the scherzo – almost an old-fashioned minuet – and the finale’s main theme matched the forthright opening of the whole work. The ensemble seemed particularly to savour the moments of repose that Dvořák throws in strategically. The enthusiasm of both ensembles was infectious: it bodes well for the rest of the festival.                                                                                                

Review by Martin Dreyer

Folk musician Sam Lee’s band to play at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

Sam Lee: Ground-breaking concert at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Andre Pattenden

FOLK pioneer Sam Lee will bring a new perspective to this summer’s North York Moors Chamber Music Festival when performing his Songlines set of folk songs in the Welburn Manor marquee on August 22 at 7pm.

Now in its 14th consecutive year – it was one of the very few arts festivals to go ahead during the pandemic in both 2020 and 2021 – the 2022 festival runs from August 13 to 27, when its roster of world-class classical musicians gathers to perform dazzling repertoire around the theme of Soundscapes.

This year they will be joined by folk singer, song collector and conservationist Sam Lee and his band. Lee met the festival’s director,  cellist Jamie Walton, when he spent time at the newly opened Ayriel Studios in Westerdale, near Whitby, late last year.

Walton, a founder and artistic director of this new state-of-the-art facility, explains: “Sam spent time up at Ayriel Studios writing songs, and we got on so well that I joined him back in May to perform live with nightingales as part of his Nest Collective project.

“This year’s festival theme, Soundscapes, takes inspiration from the landscape and music inspired by nature.  Sam’s song set will fit in perfectly, as he is a conservationist, collector of songs and a real champion of nature.”

Ayriel Studios is also serving as a rehearsal space for many of this year’s other festival artists, which includes international musicians such as violinists Charlotte Scott, Benjamin Baker, Rachel Kolly, Victoria Sayles, Irena Simon-Renes and Irene Duval; cellists Alice Neary, Rebecca Gilliver, Tim Posner and Jamie Walton and pianists Katya Apekisheva, James Baillieu; Daniel Lebhardt, Christian Chamorel and Anna Tilbrook.

Taking part too are Ben Goldscheider (French horn); Matthew Hunt (clarinet); James Gilchrist (tenor); Alison Buchanan (soprano, Matthew Wadsworth (lute and theorbo) and young artists The Jubilee String Quartet and Cristian Grainer de Sa.

They will perform works by composers including Beethoven, Debussy, Fauré, Dvořák, Elgar, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Chausson and many others.

All the main festival concerts will take place once more in an acoustically adapted marquee in the grounds of Welburn Manor Farm, near Kirkbymoorside. This is likely to be the last time the festival utilises this format before returning to churches, three of which – at Coxwold, Egton Bridge, and Danby – are featuring as part of this year’s festival.

Tickets for each main festival concert cost £15; free for under-30s. A season ticket for all 15 concerts costs £150.

To book, email bookings@northyorkmoorsfestival.com, call 07722 038990 or visit northyorkmoorsfestival.com.

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival director Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Post War Paris and Trio Mazzolini, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

Nicholas Daniel: “Restrained crescendo”

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Post War Paris; Trio Mazzolini, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 19 and 20

POULENC was the chosen representative of Paris in the eras after the two World Wars, with Prokofiev in his neo-classical prime characterising the Roaring Twenties. But last Thursday evening’s programme was given in more or less reverse chronological order.

Poulenc’s only three sonatas for solo wind instruments date from the last five years of his life. All were written in memory of friends as he began to contemplate his own demise. But they are far from elegiac, combining reminiscence with levity: Poulenc is rarely able to keep a straight face for long.

The Oboe Sonata of 1962, the last to be written, is the most outwardly mournful of the three and remembers Prokofiev. Nicholas Daniel’s oboe took a leisurely approach to the opening Élégie, describing a giant arch that reached a restrained crescendo before subsiding placidly, accompanied every step of the way by Katya Apekisheva’s sensitive piano.

The scherzo was typically flippant, but more than balanced by a pensive finale, where the action was mainly in the piano while the oboe wept.

Five years earlier, Poulenc had written his Flute Sonata, formally in memory of his patron
Elizabeth Sprague but fired by the spirit of his friend Raymonde Linossier. Thomas Hancox brought verve to the puckish opening, with smooth legato in the central Cantilena. He was even lighter on his toes in the finale – which is briefly interrupted by an elegy when Poulenc remembers to be serious.

Hancox brought a trigger-jerk to the start of every phrase, which was fine at exciting moments but distracting when the going was supposed to be calmer.

The sounds of Paris were much more apparent in the Clarinet Sonata, where Matthew
Hunt was soloist, partnered by Alasdair Beatson’s piano. Although in memory of Honegger, it was written for Benny Goodman, hence its several nods towards jazz. Its central Romanza was especially affecting but the shrieks in the finale were pure Benny. This duo mixed flair with finesse.

Prokofiev’s Quintet in G minor, Op 39 began life as a ballet, Trapeze, written in 1924, using the unusual combo of oboe and clarinet, with violin, viola and double bass. It reeks of circus life. The winds are so dominant in the opening that one feared for balance, but the double bass led the way in the following movement, often made to sound like a cello, with quirkily dissonant outcomes.

Similarly later, rapid bass pizzicato, imitated by the other strings, led to a crazy ending in the Allegro Precipitato. Straight out of the Twenties, the finale, although in three-time, was more Charleston than waltz. Nikita Naumov’s bass was the star of this show.

Poulenc’s Trio, Op 43, written only two years after the Prokofiev, was much more backward-looking, even nostalgic in its romanticism. It linked Daniel’s oboe and Beatson’s piano to Amy Harman’s bassoon. Its long-limbed Andante might almost have been late Brahms; it was lovingly presented.

The trio made teasing use of the many rests at the end of their jaunty Rondo, probing Poulenc’s wit to its limits.

Last Friday lunchtime, it was the turn of the Trio Mazzolini to take their place as the last of the Young Artists in the festival, an initiative, incidentally, that has been a great success by all accounts.

Piano trios by Haydn and Mendelssohn framed the 1998 trio by Judith Weir. This is a work of refreshing directness and clarity that wears its heart on its sleeve. The bells of St Mark’s, Venice ring through the opening movement which radiates exotic tints of the barcarole that is Schubert’s Gondelfahrer, its inspiration.

The strings handled the harmonics of the Scherzo deftly, and the taut curlicue motif in the
finale was positively crystalline here. The Mazzolinis clearly revelled in this idiom.

The Haydn, a late work in C major, was notable for the ensemble’s use of rubato, which carried more than a hint of signposting that the music does not need. Still, Harry Rylance’s piano passagework in the finale was impressive, even if his partners struggled to achieve a good balance.

We heard more from the strings in Mendelssohn’s Trio No 2 in C minor, although Yurie Lee’s cello could have afforded to project even more. The highlight was the Andante, the trio negotiating its rolling acres beautifully together and bringing it to a lovely close.

There was exciting propulsion in the Scherzo and the sweeping piano chorale in the final Allegro heralded a sweet-toned outpouring from Jack Greed’s violin. This is a
talented trio, with Rylance an exceptionally agile pianist, even if one could not always be sure that he was listening to his colleagues as keenly as he might.

This brought an end to my festival, which has been even more satisfying than last year’s – and that is saying something. The Welburn Marquee must surely become a fixture. Even allowing for a few bleating lambs and the odd passing tractor, it has an intimacy that is somehow exactly suited to chamber music and the audience this year has exulted in the many treasures it has heard. The rapport between listeners and players has been second to none.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Turn Of A Century/Through War, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

James Gilchrist: “As always, he brought intensity to every phrase, delving well below the surface of the
poetry”

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Turn Of A Century/Through War, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 16 and 17

FESTIVALS would not be festive if they delivered only run-of-the-mill fare. From time to time, as here, it is absolutely right that they plough new furrows.

Turn Of A Century looked at two works written by composers before they had become famous, Richard Strauss and Béla Bartók.

Strauss was a mere 20 years old when he finished his Piano Quartet in C minor (1884). It is the work of a young man striving hard to make an impression but by and large falling short.

Neither of the opening themes has much character and sound like Brahms on an off day. The Scherzo is even more bombastic while its trio has a pallid melody that lacks definition. The Andante might have been written by Schumann, but with a whiff of the salon about it. The finale uses motifs in a series of sequences that are ultimately repetitious. In short, not exactly vintage Strauss.

Daniel Lebhardt, no doubt in an effort to ‘help’ the music, brought considerable aggression to the piano role; too many of his fortes were fortissimo or louder. It put the strings at a disadvantage, although they – Charlotte Scott, Meghan Cassidy and Alice Neary – dug in and answered as best they could. There was a brief oasis of calm near the end, but otherwise it was a harum-scarum affair, good to hear once, but no more than that.

Bartók’s youth was altogether more disciplined, on the evidence of his Piano Quintet in C,
composed at the age of 23. Here there were genuine precursors of his mature style, with strongly Hungarian flavours throughout.

The richly Romantic opening contrasts a lovely viola melody – played here by Timothy Ridout – with a nervy, urgent dance, which returns even more balletically in the coda.
An ethnic-sounding Scherzo is paired with a Viennese-style trio, before the menacing opening of a slow movement that turns quite lush and ends with strings muted.

The finale, following immediately, starts in folk-dance style very slowly, gathering pace wittily. There are some spaces for ruminative solos, but eventually a fugal finale boils up from the piano – crisply delivered by Katya Apekisheva, on peerless form at this festival.

But all the players deserve praise for their devotion to a work not often heard: violinists Maria Włoszczowska and Vicky Sayles and cellist Jamie Walton, along with Ridout and
Apekisheva as mentioned. Their teamwork was exceptional.

The following evening’s Through War heralded an English programme that required the services of tenor James Gilchrist and a dozen players. The undoubted highlight was Gilchrist in On Wenlock Edge, Vaughan Williams’s evocative setting of six poems from Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, with piano quintet accompaniment.

What really made this performance special was his recitation of the poems in advance, loaded with emotional nuance. It made one appreciate even more the composer’s
special feel for the English language, its intonation and rhythm.

As always, Gilchrist brought intensity to every phrase, delving well below the surface of the
poetry. His contrast between living and dead voices in Is My Team Ploughing? reached a spine-chilling conclusion on “whose”.

His change of tone in Bredon Hill was telling. But he was matched every step of the way by the strings, whose orchestral sweep extended from the opening tremolos – “On Wenlock
Edge the wood’s in trouble” – to the muted ending of Clun. Alasdair Beatson’s piano rippled
effectively, while underlining accents. They all got carried away at the top of Bredon Hill, where Gilchrist was briefly submerged. But it was a memorable account.

We had opened with York Bowen’s Clarinet Sonata, with Matthew Hunt dancing light-footedly through the roulades of the title role and Beatson’s piano in tight support. Hunt later cleverly blended his virtuoso instincts into the ensemble in Howells’s Rhapsodic Quintet, where he was joined by a passionate string quartet led by Charlotte Scott.

The tension of the opening slowly dissipated into a lyrical mood that led coolly to a lovely conclusion. The score sounded freshly-minted, beautifully integrated – and thoroughly English.

The Jubilee Quartet, with David Adams bravely stepping into their injured leader’s shows,
revealed its versatility in Elgar’s String Quartet. Adams is widely experienced, currently concertmaster with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera and incidentally husband of the cellist Alice Neary (who played in the Howells).

Nevertheless, the voices took time to settle in an opening that was more calculated than spontaneous. Adams really found his wings in the central movement, guiding his charges
into a nicely controlled ending. Then the quartet reached persuasive heights in a finale that was both rhythmically alert and bouncing with energy. The best had been kept to last.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on La Belle Époque, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, 10/8/2021

Mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley: “Played her part superbly too, setting the fin de siècle tone”. Picture: Kaupo Kikkas

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: La Belle Époque, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 10

NO fewer than 11 different musicians took part in what was essentially a song-recital by mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley, devoted to ‘mélodies’ – the French answer to the German Lied – whose heyday was that prosperous period of roughly 35 years up until the First World War.

Among the composers, we enjoyed a fascinating handful of lesser lights jostling with the likes of Debussy, Ravel and Chausson.

Huntley certainly knew her way around this repertory. When singing with piano accompaniment – provided by the keenly attentive James Baillieu – she quite properly used no score. She found pathos at the centre of Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage and sustained a lovely line against Baillieu’s rippling piano. Paladilhe’s Psyché made a pleasing miniature with the voice in a largely secondary role.

Her account of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis – who was supposedly an ancient Greek poetess but was in reality a fiction created by Pierre Louÿs and fooling many classicists – was equally fluent.

The semi-recitative of ‘La flute de Pan’ and the rueful reminiscence of ‘La chevelure’ was countered by more forceful momentum in ‘Le tombeau de Naïades’. Later we had shapely Chaminade, and Viardot’s Havanaise in operetta style, with Baillieu injecting witty habanera rhythms.

Violinist Benjamin Baker: “Breath-taking finale, barely off the plane from New York”

But the real treats came when she had an ensemble at her side. In Chausson’s Chanson perpetuelle, violin and viola sweetly in turn echoed the vocal line and the full piano quintet helped generate considerable intensity.

Even more of a pleasure was the chance to hear Ravel’s Chansons madécasses with the flute of Claire Wickes (doubling on piccolo), alongside Jamie Walton’s cello and Daniel Lebhardt’s piano. Here was intriguing scene-painting, impressionism with exotic ethnic tints. This group was notably well-knit.

A breath-taking finale came with violinist Benjamin Baker, barely off the plane from New York, in the concertante role in Chausson’s Poème, Op 25. The early elegiac mood turned gradually more upbeat, as Baker’s soaring cantilenas and dizzying arpeggios built towards a protracted final cadence that turned from minor to major at the last gasp. A quintet, led from the piano by Katya Apekisheva, lent energetic support. Another festival gem. But Huntley had played her part superbly too, setting the fin de siècle tone.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Turning Points, A New Genre and Jubilee Quartet, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

Charlotte Scott: “Nothing short of magnificent”

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Turning Points / A New Genre / Jubilee Quartet, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 13-15

ANOTHER day, (yet) another special occasion at this extraordinary festival. The programme was as big a draw as you could imagine, Mendelssohn’s Octet for strings, preceded by the penultimate of Mozart’s six string quintets, K.515 in C. For connoisseurs of chamber music for strings alone, it doesn’t get much better than that.

The Mendelssohn, the work of a 16-year-old, almost singlehandedly brings back the string orchestra into existence. It requires virtuosity from all eight players but especially from the top violinist.

The way Charlotte Scott filled this concertante role was nothing short of magnificent: determined, deliberate, dazzling and utterly focused. In a word, gutsy. But the inner voices emerged here with considerable clarity.

This was all the more remarkable since four seasoned professionals were joined here by the young Jubilee Quartet (with Julian Azkoul standing in for their injured leader). The youngsters were in no way overawed by the company they were keeping. Indeed, it may be that each group inspired the other to greater heights.

A few highlights will have to do duty for a performance that will live long in the memory. The unison wind-up into the return of the opening, following a pregnant piano passage, stood out in the first movement. The slow movement was a tenderly woven tapestry, its dark opening picked up more strongly later.

The scherzo, so often associated with the composer’s ‘fairy’ music began with wonderfully taut dance rhythms, but only turned really light-footed later, a pleasing surprise. The brisk tone of the fugal finale set by the cellos was imitated with equal panache all the way up the instruments, with Scott’s virtual moto perpetuo icing the cake. The whole was breath-taking, not least from an ensemble that had enjoyed so little time to coalesce.

Julian Azkoul: Stood in for Jubilee Quartet’s injured leader

It is not often the Mozart finds itself as the warm-up act, normally taking pride of place. But it set the bar high. Benjamin Baker, in decisive mood, was leader here. He engaged in delightful dialogues with both cello and first viola in the first two movements. The delicacy of the slow movement heightened the eventual contrast with the finale, which was taken at a terrific clip, but superbly survived by all five players alike.

It was prelude to a great weekend. On the Saturday, two of the great Romantic piano quintets framed the UK premiere of a work for the same forces by Albanian composer Thomas Simaku. ‘Con-ri-sonanza’ deliberately hovers rather than progresses, opening with plucked piano (Daniel Lebhardt leaning inside) heard against tremolo strings, with sudden intense interjections.

The tremolo becomes eerie, the interjections more strident, until a pregnant pause leads into a gentle piano phrase and an altogether more ethereal texture with high glissandos in the stings. The piano’s interruptions gradually subside, until the cello rises up the harmonic series from its C string. Mere description does not do justice to a piece that constantly intrigues – and delighted the house.

In the opening Allegro of Schumann’s Piano Quartet, it was to be expected that the second theme would emerge so gloriously from cello and viola – Brian O’Kane and Simon Tandree respectively.

More of a surprise was the marvellous contrast between the two melodies in the slow movement, with the rests in the ‘funeral march’ given full value as opposed to the creamy legato of the major-key tune that follows. Other little details tickled the fancy: the return to the trio in the Scherzo and the short gentle interlude in the otherwise boisterous finale, where the mildly fugal ending reached a thrilling climax.

Dvorak’s quintet appeared nearly half a century later and speaks powerfully of his roots in Bohemia, an aspect emphasised here. The ensemble was spearheaded by the redoubtable Charlotte Scott, neatly partnered (as so often at this festival) by Vicky Sayles, with Katya Apekisheva’s piano providing a consistently sensitive underlay.

Jamie Walton: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival director and cellist with an elegiac touch

Jamie Walton’s cello brought an elegiac touch to the start of the Dumka and its return on Meghan Cassidy’s viola was equally nostalgic, its triplets beautifully elongated. The Scherzo was notably snappy, and the finale ebbed and flowed lusciously, thanks to a very happy balance between piano and strings.

Sunday’s lunchtime event was one of the five devoted to Young Artists, with the Jubilee Quartet – such vital participants in the Mendelssohn Octet – returning on their own, with Julian Azkoul once again heroically standing in for their regular leader, who fractured a hand a few weeks ago. Haydn was in his seventies when he wrote his last quartet, Op 103 in D minor, leaving only its two middle movements completed. The Jubilee played them respectfully and immediately showed how well they communicate among themselves.

But what followed was of an entirely different magnitude. Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, D.810, also in D minor, is a much-played work. I hardly expected a group this young to find new insights into it. I was wrong, utterly. Co-ordination was electric and attacks incredibly precise. All the group’s ideas emerged with total clarity, led by the four-note rhythmic motif that dominates the opening Allegro.

The song-theme of the title was enunciated without vibrato before some heart-stopping variations: the leader tinting in his comments to the first one, the cello ethereal in the second, the sense of dance in the third, and the little dotted rhythm from the inner voices in the fourth … I could go on. The ending here was serene, even cathartic. Azkoul’s passagework in the trio was silky-smooth in the middle of a properly jarring Scherzo.

In the finale, the Jubilees really went hell for leather, at a dangerously rapid tempo that yet never swerved out of control. Accents were firm and determined, teamwork everywhere shining confidently through.

On this evidence, the Jubilees are bound to go far – their enthusiasm is infectious, exactly what an audience loves. They owe a great debt to Azkoul’s smiling calmness under extreme pressure: he is a superb musician. But we must also wish their injured leader a full and speedy recovery, with all four returning to this festival as soon as may be.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Rhapsody, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, August 8

Katya Apekisheva: Mainstay of the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival for several years

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Rhapsody, Welburn Manor Marquee

THE best-kept secret in the music world is back in business. Not that it ever went away.

Last August, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival (NYMCMF) discovered it could align with current Covid regulations by staging events in an open-sided marquee at Welburn Manor.

It was a thunderous success, such that the same venue has been re-erected this year for almost all the events, which continue until August 21 (the three exceptions, Young Artists’ events, are in St Hilda’s West Cliff, Whitby).

You may also be wondering what “Rhapsody” implies. Uniquely, this festival does not announce its performers until just before each event. They are all seasoned performers combining a holiday on the Moors with chamber music (a change is as good as a rest, since many earn their living in orchestras).

Young Artists apart, no established ensembles play here. Hence the events only have titles. “Rhapsody” covered piano quartets by Brahms and Fauré.

Two completely different foursomes were on display this time. In Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet, in C minor, the pianist was Katya Apekisheva, who has been a mainstay of the festival for several years. Her counterpart in the second of Fauré’s two piano quartets, in G minor, was Daniel Lebhardt. Both did sterling work in quite different ways.

I mention them first, not because they are more important than the other players, but because the piano can easily predominate in this form of music, all but turning it into a
concerto – with strings struggling to make an impression.

Neither quartet worked out like that. Apekisheva kept a firm hand on the tiller throughout the Brahms, making very little use of the pedal and keeping her textures crisp and clear. Charlotte Scott’s violin was a willing partner in her fierceness.

But the others made their voices heard too. The viola of Rosalind Ventris was notably appealing in the return of the second theme in the opening Allegro, as was
Kate Gould’s cello in the slow movement, setting a mellow tone.

The piano’s insistent chatter in the finale became big and bold – but not over the top – when C major finally arrived, and there was a beautiful fade-out before the final two crashing chords.

The Fauré was equally thrilling. Of the two pieces, it is the more rhapsodic, roaming hither and yon after the opening unison statement of intent. The ensemble as a whole, keenly spearheaded by the violin of Johannes Marmen, underlined its adventurous melodies. Lebhardt’s whirling piano in the (second) scherzo movement, imitated in all the voices, turned into a harlequinade dictating a variety of moods.

The Adagio took a while to get into its stride – the otherwise steady viola of Bryony Gibson-
Cornish might have been a touch more fragrant – but it settled into a lilting rhythm before the carillon began to ring out charmingly on the way to the ethereal, muted ending.

The rolling phrases of the final (third) Allegro Molto emerged especially pleasingly in the violin, with Jamie Walton’s pizzicato cello adding urgency. The composer’s first piano quartet has always enjoyed wider currency than this one. After such an exciting account, it is hard to understand why.

Review by Martin Dreyer

For more information on the festival, head to: northyorkmoorsfestival.com

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North York Moors Chamber Music Festival promises dazzling repertoire in Epoch event

“This festival is one way in which we can escape the turmoil and touch base as a community coming together,” says North York Moors Chamber Music Festival artistic director Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson

WORLD-CLASS musicians and emerging artists will head to the moors in August for the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival.

Now in its 13th unbroken year, the 2021 festival will run from August 7 to 21, presenting “dazzling repertoire” around the theme of Epoch.

“Our history is punctuated by defining moments that influence the course of humanity and its cultures,” says the festival director, international cellist Jamie Walton, who lives within the boundaries of the National Park.

“This tumultuous last year has been one of those defining epochs for most of us, one may argue: a period we would probably all like to forget while we crave for our traditional rhythms and a simpler way of life. This festival is one way in which we can escape the turmoil and touch base as a community coming together.”

Against the tide of Cassandra doom elsewhere, last year’s festival was rearranged by the resolute Walton, who found a new Covid-secure location in less than a week to still play to audiences, socially distanced to meet regulations.

“Our passionate belief in finding ways to keep music present in our lives by refusing to be silenced was somewhat defiant of course, but also a deeply moving experience,” says Jamie Walton, recalling last summer’s hastily rearranged festival

For the past decade, concerts had been held in churches across the North York Moors National Park, but like so many other arts events, the festival was in jeopardy, discourtesy of the Coronavirus crisis.

When the Government made a last-minute U-turn, postponing the re-opening of indoor performances first announced for August 1, Walton had to act swiftly, settling on presenting concerts in a 5,000 square-foot, wooden-floored, acoustic-panelled marquee in the grounds of Welburn Abbey, Welburn Manor Farms, near Kirkbymoorside.

More than 50 per cent of the marquee sides could be opened, in effect making the concerts an open-air event. Good fortune then smiled on the event, blessing the sold-out concert series with an August heatwave. 

Originally, before the curse of Covid, Revolution! in Ryedale would have comprised more than 30 musicians, around 40 chamber works, in ten churches. Instead, it added up to 34 works being performed by 23 musicians at ten concerts in one outdoor location, under the concert titles of A Hymn; Time Of Turbulence; Janus; Incandescence; Mystique; Transcendental; Voices; Vivacity; Towards The Edge and Triumph!.

Last summer, Walton and his festival musicians from Britain and overseas “dared to dream despite the odds” by mounting the August 9 to 22 event with an apt theme of Revolution, “taking a gamble that took tremendous courage and sheer willpower in a climate of fear that is shutting down the arts”.

Cello, cello, its’s good to back, cello, cello: Jamie Walton out on the North York Moors, looking forward to the August concert series

“We have fought back against this Government and the disgraceful, destructive way it’s shutting down industries and, more ominously, the nation’s confidence,” said Jamie at the closing concert.

Now he reflects: “In 2020, we absolutely refused to cancel, despite the constraints of this worldwide pandemic, because we wanted to keep hope alive. Our passionate belief in finding ways to keep music present in our lives by refusing to be silenced was somewhat defiant of course, but also a deeply moving experience.

“Despite the obvious challenges, musicians flew in from more than six countries to enjoy a fortnight of electrifying music-making with a rarefied environment, incorporating vast spaces to override risk or limitations.

“Astonishingly and surprisingly perhaps, we were one of the only classical music festivals to go ahead live to socially distanced audiences at all, while not having to compromise on the length of festival nor the number of concerts. The result was a complete revelation, and we want to share this experience this summer with those who may have missed out last year.”  

This summer’s festival will comprise ten main concerts featuring a plethora of international musicians in music by many epoch-defining composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Dvorak, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Elgar, alongside the launch of an additional series of five Young Artists lunchtime recitals, showcasing talent from the Royal Academy of Music.

All rehearsals will take place at the new Ayriel Studios, a state-of-the-art soundproofed recording studio in the grounds of Millinder House, surrounded by North York Moors farmland in the heart of Westerdale. Initiated by Walton, it is due to open commercially in January 2022.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley: Taking part in the Epoch series of concerts. Picture: Kaupo Kikkas

“Some artists taking part in the festival will be recording there this autumn as the new facility builds its identity and reputation, putting North Yorkshire firmly on the cultural map,” says Jamie.

Among the line-up for the main festival will be tenor James Gilchrist; oboist Nicholas Daniel; clarinetist Matthew Hunt; North Yorkshire mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley; violinists Benjamin Baker and Charlotte Scott; violist Timothy Ridout; pianists Katya Apekisheva and Alasdair Beatson, plus many others from the classical music industry who regular collaborate with one another all over the world.

The Young Artists Recitals will be performed by the Salwa Quartet, Hill Quartet, Jubilee Quartet, Asyla Oboe Quartet and Trio Mazzolini.

As with last summer, the main festival concerts will take place in the specially adapted marquee in the grounds of Welburn Manor Farm. The venue for the Young Artists Recitals will be announced shortly; check the website, northyorkmoorsfestival.com, for updates.

The full concert festival details can be found there too, with concerts regaling in such titles as The Conquering Hero; Rhapsody; La Belle Epoque; Breaking Free; Turning Points; A New Genre; Turn Of A Century; Through War; Post War Paris and Caution To The Wind.

Main festival tickets cost £12.50, under-30s, free. A season ticket for all ten costs £100. Young Artists Recitals tickets cost £10 each. To book, email bookings@northyorkmoorsfestival.com, call 07722 038990 or visit northyorkmoorsfestival.com.

Exit 2020, now the marquee at Welburn Abbey will play host to the 2021 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Matthew Johnson
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Viva the Revolution as North York Moors Chamber Music Festival triumphs against the odds. “Fight back,” urges director

NOT THROWING IN THE TOWEL: “Creativity will not be silenced” says cellist Jamie Walton, artistic director of the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, here performing in the open-air marquee at Welburn Abbey. Picture: Matthew Johnson/Turnstone Media

NORTH York Moors Chamber Music Festival artistic director Jamie Walton is warning against giving in to the “climate of fear that is shutting down the arts”.

“I am humbled by the sheer success of this year’s festival, a gamble which took tremendous courage and sheer willpower,” he says, ahead of today’s closing concert.

“I hope this sends powerful ripples out to motivate others to do the same. It seems tragic that we were the only live classical music festival in the whole of the UK.”

Walton and his festival musicians from Britain and overseas had “dared to dream despite the odds” by mounting the August 9 to 22 event with an apt theme of Revolution.

“We have fought back against this Government and the disgraceful, destructive way it’s shutting down industries and, more ominously, the nation’s confidence,” he says.   

The Welburn Abbey marquee lit up in blue for a 2020 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival concert. Picture: Matthew Johnson

“We seem to be living in a climate of fear, a paralysed state, which, after talking to my colleagues at the festival, I believe isn’t anywhere to be seen elsewhere in Europe and Scandinavia right now.”

In a call to the arts world to go on the front foot, Jamie says: “It’s time to fight back against this scandal in order to save our creative industries and send a message of hope, particularly for the younger generation who are, after all, our future.

“We don’t have to put up with the reality being imposed upon us and the message sent through our festival this year was a healthy start. Creativity will not be silenced!”

The 2020 festival ends today after going ahead against the tide of Cassandra doom elsewhere when rearranged by the resolute Walton, who found a new Covid-secure location in less than a week.

For the past decade, concerts have been held in churches across the North York Moors National Park, but like so many other arts events, this year’s festival was in jeopardy, discourtesy of the Coronavirus crisis.

Socially distanced audience members watching a concert at this month’s North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Matthew Johnson

And when the Government made a last-minute U-turn, postponing the re-opening of indoor performances first announced for August 1, Walton had to act swiftly.

The international cellist, who lives within the National Park, settled on presenting a series of concerts in a 5,000 square-foot, wooden-floored, acoustic-panelled marquee in the grounds of Welburn Abbey, Welburn Manor Farms, near Kirkbymoorside.

More than 50 per cent of the marquee sides can be opened, in effect making the concerts an open-air event, further boosted by the good fortune of the festival being blessed with an August heatwave. 

Originally, before the curse of Covid, Revolution! in Ryedale would have comprised more than 30 musicians, around 40 chamber works, in ten churches. Instead, it has added up to 34 works being performed by 23 musicians at ten concerts in one outdoor location, under the concert titles of A Hymn; Time Of Turbulence; Janus; Incandescence; Mystique; Transcendental; Voices; Vivacity; Towards The Edge and Triumph!. 

Those musicians have travelled from across Europe to perform over an “intense fortnight of concerts to emotional and appreciative audiences”, who came in their droves, pre-booking every single one of the limited number of tickets available in a socially distanced seating plan.

Bring us your bows: The Cremona Quartet travelled from Italy to Ryedale to perform at the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Matthew Johnson

Jamie says: “Some of the world’s finest musicians, including Italy’s renowned Cremona Quartet, have all been playing their hearts out. Each and every one of these artists has been on incredible form and I think it’s safe to say that the atmosphere this year is the best it’s ever been, which is saying something!”  

Walton points out the festival has been “the only and first work any of my colleagues have had since lockdown began”.

Among those artists in residence have been: Katya Apekisheva, Christian Chamorel and Richard Ormrod, piano; Claude Frochaux, Rebecca Gilliver and Jamie Walton, cello; Nikita Naumov, double bass, and Meghan Cassidy, Tetsumi Negata and Simon Tandree, viola.

Rallying to the Revolution! cause too have been: Rachel Kolly, Victoria Sayles, Charlotte Scott and Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay, violin; Ursula Leveaux, bassoon; Matthew Hunt, clarinet; Naomi Atherton, French horn; Claire Wicks, flute; Adrian Wilson, oboe; Anna Huntley, mezzo-soprano, and The Cremona Quartet (Cristiano Gualco, violin, Paolo Andreoli, violin, Simone Gramaglia, viola, and Giovanni Scaglione, cello).

A beacon of light for the arts: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival goes ahead under a marquee moon.
Picture: Matthew Johnson

For the Revolution! theme in the festival’s 12th year of celebrating chamber works, the focus has fallen on and around the music of Beethoven – the “revolutionary” – and beyond to mark the 250th anniversary of the German composer’s birth in Bonn.

“Living through the French Revolution undoubtedly had a profound effect on this great composer and much of the repertoire we have chosen is to convey this triumphant spirit against all odds, which appears timely in light of recent events,” says Walton.

“It seems ironic that for such a Titan, the world has been forced into relative (artistic) silence while it tries to control the pandemic, almost as if we are in tune with Beethoven’s very own debilitating deafness.”

The programme has featured chamber music by Beethoven, Schubert, Dohnányi, Pärt, Lutosławski, Ravel, Satie, Fauré, Elgar, Bach, Mozart, Spohr, Weber, Ravel, Schoenberg, Berg, Messiaen and more.

Red sky at night, cellist’s delight: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival founder and artistic director Jamie Walton surveys the moorland landscape. Picture: Paul Ingram

“We have documented this year’s festival on film, to be embedded within our website next month and released through social media,” says Jamie. “We will then continue to film the building of a new recording studio, Ayriel Studios, which is being constructed up in Westerdale, opening next year as we head into our 13th festival.”  

“In essence, it will be a ‘year in the life’ of a creative vision which fought its way through during the pandemic and its aftermath. I’m a great believer in true art thriving through adversity and we want to demonstrate what that means. Instead of our voices being supressed, they just got louder.” 

Today’s festival-closing 3pm concert has the appropriate title of Triumph!. Next year’s 13th North York Moors Chamber Music Festival will run from August 8 to 21 and the programme will be released in mid-November.

Lucky 13? Judging by the determined spirit of Jamie Walton, success does not come down to luck, especially when a pandemic throws a curve ball. “For more information about this ground-breaking festival, visit northyorkmoorsfestival.com and join the mailing list,” he urges.

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North York Moors Chamber Music Festival to go ahead outdoors at Welburn Abbey

Out on the moors: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival artistic director Jamie Walton. Picture: Paul Ingram

AN evolution as a much as a Revolution, after the ever-changing need to stay alert to Government guidance, the 2020 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival will go ahead. Outdoors.

The festival will run from Sunday (August 9) to August 22 in an open marquee sited in the grounds of Welburn Abbey, Welburn Manor Farms (YO62 7HH), between Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside, in Ryedale.

“Welcome to our Festival – ‘Revolution!’,” says festival founder, artistic director and cellist Jamie Walton’s buoyant latest newsletter. “We are pleased and relieved to confirm that we are going ahead as planned, observing the social-distancing regulations guidelines set for outdoor events.

“The welfare of everyone involved, audience included, will be thoroughly considered and planned for.

“The latest programme on the website, northyorkmoorsfestival.com, is the final version now, so please do check because certain works, in light of the change in venue, have had to change from the original launch.”

Originally, before the curse of Covid, Revolution! would have added up to more than 30 musicians, around 40 chamber works, in ten churches within the North York Moors National Park. Now, 34 works will be performed by 23 musicians at ten concerts in one location, under the concert titles A Hymn; Time Of Turbulence; Janus; Incandescence; Mystique; Transcendental; Voices; Vivacity; Towards The Edge and Triumph!. Full details can be found at northyorkmoorsfestival.com.

Explaining the choice of venue after the late Government U-turn on indoor spaces re-opening from August 1, Jamie says: “Due to circumstances, this year we are unable to perform within the churches (or any indoor spaces) available, so we have instead secured a 5,000-sq ft open marquee, with wooden floor throughout and acoustic panelling behind the stage, within the grounds of Welburn Manor.”

On song: Mezzo soprano Anna Huntley. Picture: Kaupo Kikkas

A separate garden can be used in the intervals. “This way we can ensure safety and adequate social distancing, as well as provide a unique experience within an area of outstanding natural beauty,” says Jamie.

For its theme of Revolution! in the festival’s 12th year of celebrating chamber works, the focus will be on and around the music of Beethoven – the “revolutionary” – and beyond to mark the 250th anniversary of the German composer’s birth in Bonn.

“Living through the French Revolution undoubtedly had a profound effect on this great composer and much of the repertoire we have chosen is to convey this triumphant spirit against all odds, which appears timely in light of recent events,” says Jamie.

“It seems ironic that for such a Titan, the world has been forced into relative (artistic) silence while it tries to control the pandemic, almost as if we are in tune with Beethoven’s very own debilitating deafness.”

Artists billed to be joining the Revolution cause are: Katya Apekisheva, piano; Naomi Atherton, French horn; Meghan Cassidy, viola; Christian Chamorel, piano; Claude Frochaux, cello; Rebecca Gilliver, cello; Matthew Hunt, clarinet; Anna Huntley, mezzo-soprano; Rachel Kolly, violin; Ursula Leveaux, bassoon.

So too are: Richard Ormrod, piano; Nikita Naumov, double bass; Tetsumi Negata, viola; Victoria Sales, violin; Charlotte Scott, violin; Simon Tandree, viola; Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay, violin; Jamie Walton, cello; Adrian Wilson, oboe, and Quartetto di Cremona (Cristiano Gualco, violin, Paolo Andreoli, violin, Simone Gramaglia, viola, and Giovanni Scaglione, cello).

Season tickets have sold out but tickets remain available for individual concerts, priced at £12.50 on 07722 038990.