One of Britain's finest string quartets will perform two masterworks by Beethoven and Dvorak at a concert in Rickmansworth on Friday, September 30.
The concert is being given by the multi-award-winning Maggini Quartet which has developed a special relationship with Three Rivers Music Society in recent years.
The quartet's acclaimed recordings have earned the Gramophone Chamber Music Award of the Year and a Cannes Classical Award, as well as two Grammy nominations.
The Magginis have performed for the society on six previous occasions but each concert has offered a refreshingly different programme from its predecessors.
The Dvorak work that the Magginis have chosen for their latest Rickmansworth concert is his final chamber music composition, the String Quartet in A flat Op.105. It is a work of great maturity that the Czech composer wrote soon after his world-famous cello concerto.
By contrast, the Beethoven work -- String Quartet in C Minor Op.18 No.4 -- was one of the early compositions which suggested that young Ludwig would become a worthy successor to Haydn and Mozart.
Sandwiched between these two masterpieces will be a composition that Cheshire-born John Ireland wrote in 1897 when he was an 18-year-old student at London's Royal College of Music.
Hubert Parry, the composer of "Jerusalem", was the college's director at that time and he is said to have been so impressed by Ireland's String Quartet No. 1 that he offered the teenage prodigy a four-year scholarship.
The September 30 concert will be held at the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH and will begin at 7.30pm (pre-concert talk from 7.15pm). Tickets: £ 16 at the door including programme and refreshment. Reduced prices for music society members/patrons and online booking. Free entry for under-25s.
The Maggini Quartet returns to TRMS, Rickmansworth for the 7th time.
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Formed in 1988, the Maggini Quartet is one of the finest British string quartets. Its acclaimed recordings have won international awards including Gramophone Chamber Music Award of the Year, Diapason d'Or of the Year and a Cannes Classical Award, and have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards. The Quartet has recorded the complete Mendelssohn quartet cycle for Meridian Records and their CD of two of the opus 18 string quartets by Beethoven is now available, also on Meridian. Recent projects for the label have been recordings of the string quartets of Welsh composer Arwel Hughes and a disc of music by Jonathan Rutherford.
The Maggini Quartet's commitment to new music has led to important commissions including works by James MacMillan, Robert Simpson, Eleanor Alberga and Roxanna Panufnik. Their unique collaboration with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, performing and recording his ten 'Naxos Quartets', was hailed as "a 21st century landmark".
The Maggini Quartet appears frequently in prestigious concert series at home and abroad and makes regular media broadcasts. International tours have included the USA, Japan, South Korea, Dubai and many European countries. Their regular schedule includes two annual visits to Norway.
The Magginis are renowned for their interpretations of British repertoire and The Glory of the English String Quartet continues to be an important ongoing initiative, drawing upon the wonderful repertoire which the Quartet is committed to bringing to a worldwide audience.
In addition to their concert activity, the members of the Quartet have an international reputation as chamber music coaches. They hold several UK residencies and have worked at the UK's senior music institutions.
Chorleywood jazz pianist who creates melodies that linger
Modern jazz pianist and composer John Donegan, one of the star performers at this autumn's international jazz festival in Limerick, will bring his highly rated sextet to Rickmansworth on Wednesday, October 19.
The sextet will perform some of the stand-out tracks from two of John's most recent albums at a concert organised by Three Rivers Music Society. The first album, A Kite for Kate, released in 2019, was dedicated to John's youngest daughter. The second, Shadows Linger, was premiered at the Limerick Jazz Festival on September 25.
This brand-new album includes tracks that John worked on during the Covid lockdowns. "Not being able to play with other musicians and in front of an audience was a real loss," he admitted. "However, the lockdowns also gave me an opportunity to be creative. I am sure many other musicians would say the same."
John was born in Cork but now lives in Chorleywood. He has performed in France, Spain and Portugal and at Birdland in New York.
John's music has been partly influenced by jazz greats such as Bill Evans, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett and, as one reviewer recently noted, he has "an unfailing gift for melody". His compositions have been played on the BBC, Jazz FM and independent radio stations in both the UK and Ireland.
John's sextet includes some of the other outstanding talents on the British jazz scene. At the Rickmansworth concert, the tenor saxophonist will be Alex Hitchcock, whose own quintet won the Conad Jazz Contest, Italy's prestigious competition for young musicians. The sextet's alto and soprano saxophonist, Jamie O'Donnell, is also a prolific composer who studied at the Guildhall School of Music.
The October 19 concert - the sixth that John will have given for Three Rivers Music Society -- will be held at the Baptist Church in High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH. It will begin at 7.30pm. Tickets £16 at the door. Reduced price for members. Free entry for under-25s.
The venue: Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH It will begin at 3.00 pm (pre-concert talk from 2.45 pm). Tickets £ 16 on the door incl. free concert programme. Reduced prices for TRMS Members/Patrons, online and advance booking. Free entry to all under the age of 25.
Exceptionally gifted and talented young students from this world-famous music school returning for the 8th time to the Three Rivers Music Society in Rickmansworth for a lunchtime Christmas concert .
As is customary, TRMS will invite 30 Year 6 boys and girls from a local primary school (at no cost). The aim is not only to familiarise them with the classical music but also to give them inspiration from the young students with remarkable musical ability from Purcell School who are not much older than themselves. Details about which school this will be to be announced soon.
The venue: Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH It will begin at 1.00 pm (pre-concert talk from 12.45 pm). Tickets £ 6 on the door incl. free concert programme. Reduced prices for TRMS Members/Patrons, online and advance booking. Free entry to all under the age of 25.
On Wednesday 29 June we welcomed Purcell School Students for the 7th time.
THE TALENTED YOUNG MUSICIANS OF THE PURCELL SCHOOL RETURNED TO TRMS TO PLAY-
Their extraordinary talent and musical ability never ceases to amaze and impress the discerning Rickmansworth audience.
...As is customary, TRMS invited 30 Year 6 boys and girls from a local primary school (at no cost). The aim is not only to help the children familiarise themselves with classical music but also to give them inspiration from the young students with remarkable musical ability from Purcell School who are not much older than themselves. On this occasion, TRMS invite Year 6 pupils of Maple Cross JMI and Nursery School.
Specially invited Year 6 pupils from the local Maple Cross Primary School enthusiatically enjoyed the Q & A session after ther concert.
on Thursday 26 May we welcomed that seldom-seen creature, an organist, to play in one of our lunchtime concerts. Samuel Bristow, now of Salisbury Cathedral and formerly from St. Paul's is more used to the mighty (and recently gloriously refurbished) Willis organ in Salisbury's vast acoustic, but he produced colour and variety on the Baptist Church's much more modest instrument, making light of any deficiencies of the instrument and giving us a performance to savour.
Commencing majestically with two Bach masterpieces, the Prelude and Fugue in C minor and the Chorale Prelude 'Schmucke dich', he moved onto rarities by Wolfgang Mozart: the Fantasie in F minor and his own Chorale Prelude arrangement of 'Ach Gott vom Himmel' from The Magic Flute. It was disarming to hear a virtuoso admitting the technical difficulty of these works, which latter was not apparent at all to my ears, so he must have overcome them with ease.
Felix Mendelssohn's Organ Sonata in D was a fine conclusion to the first, 'serious' half of the programme which was made more notable by Samuel's fluent and expert introductions to the works in the concert.
...Traumerei from Robert Schumann's 'Kinderszenen' (arranged by Alexandre Guilmant) and William Strickland's arrangement of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings gave us a new perspective on these favourites from other musical forces. Unlike like all the other works in the programme, none of which had been heard before at all in TRMS's 40+ year history, only these two works had featured in a previous season (2007 and 1981 respectively).
All this led up to two other works from the Twentieth Century. Full disclosure: David Halls is my brother as well as being the Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, and my fraternal admiration was kindled by Samuel's graceful nod to his Salisbury colleague in programming two movements from David's The Salisbury Suite. The high-spirited twitterings of the junior members of the Cathedral Choir were evoked as they prepared to go into the sublime Cathedral, where they sang Evensong with solemn professionalism then exited the building to resume their antics. Quite charming.
As a tribute to Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, Samuel programmed The Queen's Procession, a fitting tribute but even Her Majesty's many titles and honours could not compete with the name of the loyal composer - Soorjo Alexander William Langobard Oliphant Chuckerbutty. When shall we hear in the TRMS concerts another work from this neglected composer?
Symphonia Academica came back to TRMS, Rickmansworth for the 3rd time and put on another exhilarating performance including Interpretation of Four Seasons by two composers almost 300 years apart..
The Programme included Vivaldi's Four Seasons successively intermingled with Piazzolla's Buenos Aires version of Four Seasons. They ended their performance with two short pieces of encore.
Daphne and David appeared in October 2019 to begin the cycle of Dvorak's piano trios and returned to TRMS, Rickmansworth with the more tragic No.2. David is Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral and received national media attention with his organ playing for the queues receiving their Covid jabs in the Cathedral.
The Programme included Vivaldi's Sonata in C minor for Violin, Cello and Continuo, Bridge's Three Miniatures Set, David Halls's Quodlibet on Bridge's Miniatures and Dvorak's Piano Trio in G minor.
On Saturday 26th February 2022, we welcomed for the first time to our series the violist Rachel Roberts accompanied by the pianist Tim Horton. Rachel is Professor of Viola at Guildhall School of Music and Drama who has given masterclasses at the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme, Dartington International Summer School, Chethams School of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
They began their recital with Robert Schumann's Marchenbilder, and gave characterful interpretations of these widely differing works.
They then tackled a work never before heard in our series, the Sonata for Viola & Piano in F min. op.120 no.1 by Johannes Brahms. One of the pieces composed in a final flare of creativity, this work was beautifully delivered, with a heart-stopping slow movement.
Tim re-joined Rachel to deliver one of the most eminent works in the repertoire, the sonata by the great violist Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). For those who had never heard of her, Clarke in 1912 became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional (and formerly male) ensemble, when Henry Wood admitted her to the Queen's Hall orchestra. In 1916 she undertook a US residency that included extensive travel, performing and she also achieved fame as a composer with her Viola Sonata (1919) and Piano Trio (1921), both runners-up in competitions that were part of the Berkshire (Massachusetts) Festival of Chamber Music, sponsored by the American patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.
This sonata is a tremendous work and the duo deservedly received enthusiastic applause at its conclusion.
We at TRMS finished our 2021 concerts on Wednesday 1st December, when the Purcell School presented a concert in a different format from previously: instead of solos with their School accompanist, the marvellously talented pupils took the reins themselves, starting with the string quartet of Yinong Xiao and Maria Noskova (violins), Elsa Rapisarda (viola) and Tianao Pan (cello) performing the first two movements of Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F Major. Starting a little nervily, they really hit their stride in the second movement and we were left regretting they did not play the complete work.
The same musicians were then joined by clarinettist Lily Payne to perform one of Johannes Brahms' last works, the piercingly beautiful first movement from his Clarinet Quintet in B minor. It might have been the stage layout but the balance was less than ideal making it difficult to hear throughout the excellent playing of Lily Payne, but it is always lovely hearing such musicians tackling one of the pinnacles of the chamber music repertoire.
Tha advertised programme ended with an immensely stylish and bravura performance by Zaki Osahn (clarinet) and Djordje Jovanovic (piano) of Darius Milhaud's three-movement Scaramouche, the final Brasileira drawing enthusiastic applause.
As a delightful unexpected addition to the concert, Momo Alnajjar modestly sat at the piano and stunningly played Chopin's Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor. Again, the applause was long and loud.
The concert ended with the young people from Arnett Hill School, Rickmansworth - and some of the more senior audience - enjoying a question & answer session with the friendly young musicians.
Thomas Bowes is one of the UK's finest violinists. He is very active in the realm of cinema, and millions have heard him on the soundtracks of his numerous (200+) film credits.
Verona Maier (piano)
Prize-winning pianist, harpsichordist, organist, teacher, academic, prize-jury member and adviser to movie and TV productions, it's hardly surprising that Verona Maier was awarded in 2004, the "Cultural Merit Medal - First Class" by the President of Romania.
The sextet played a selection of tunes from John's last album - A Kite for Kate. The sextet also played a few tunes from the Siamsa Suite from John's previous album.
During lockdown John was busy writing 2 new Sextet albums, a new Siamsa Suite album and a new Elegy Suite (album).
The sextet also played some of this new material at the concert.
John Donegan - Piano
Steve Fishwick - Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Steve's twin brother - Matt - Drums
Jamie O'Donnell - Alto and Soprano Saxes
Alex Hitchcock - Tenor Sax
Paul Jefferies - Double Bass
The one-hour recital by English National Opera violinist Jayne Walker and cellist
Steven Halls was the first event that Three Rivers Music Society had staged since
the initial Covid-19 lockdown began in England in March 2020.
Jayne Walker Piano Trio returned to Rickmansworth for her second concert.
The programme included Piano Trio in G minor, op.17, by Clara Schumann and two trios by Haydn. The concert was performed at the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Wednesday 29 January at 1.00pm to a loyal and enthusiastic audience.
Lunchtime concert by gifted music students
Young musicians from the Purcell School in Bushey – Britain’s oldest specialist music school -- gave a lunchtime concert in the Baptist Church at Rickmansworth on Wednesday, December 11. As is customary in such concerts, Year 6 pupils from Chorleywood Primary School attended the concert as special guests.
Yena Gook (cello) playing Bach Cello Suite No 6 in D
The Maggini Quartet led by Julian Leaper (violin), Ciaran McCabe (Violin), Martin Outram (Viola) and Michal Kaznowski (Cello) returned to Rickmansworth for the 6th time to play Beethoven, Frank Bridge and Mendelssohn string quartets. The concert was held in the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Friday 29 November with the Pre-concert talk by Dr. Steven Halls followed by the main concert at 7.30pm.
John Donegan returned with his Jazz Sextet to Rickmansworth including the much acclaimed saxophonist Tomasso Starace. The sextet played John's new compositions from his recently released album called A Kite for Kate dedicated to his youngest daughter Catherine at her wedding in Tuscany in August 2019. The concert was held in the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Tuesday 19 November at 7.30pm.
For the first time ever, David Halls, Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, his daughter Caroline and his brother Steven came with their long-time friend and professional colleague, Daphne Moody to present a unique programme on Saturday 26 October and included Dvorak’s first piano trio, a baroque cantata for soprano and strings, Elgar’s obbligati to popular songs written for violin and cello.
Louise Thomson's Harp Recital on Friday 3rd May 2019 at 7.30 pm at the Baptist Church in Rickmansworth was not only the unique first of this type but was a huge success with the full audience thoroughly enjoying the whole programme including in particular, Theme from Tchaikovsky's Opéra Eugène Onégin.
TRMS welcomed back the John Donegan Jazz Quartet to Rickmansworth with John himself on the piano, highly-regarded Italian Saxophonist, Tommaso Starace, Steve Riddle (Bass) and Greg McCarthy (Drums) on Wednesday 3rd April 2019 at 7.30 pm.
The programme included compositions by John Donegan from his recent compilation CD Album.
The concert took place at the Baptist Church, High Street Rickmansworth with full audience who enjoyed new showcase pieces from John's latest composition - Siamsa suite soon to be released.
TRMS with its longstanding partnership with the internationally well-known Purcell School of Music in Bushey organised yet another, 4th lunchtime concert with its students performing solo recitals on trumpet, cello, flute, piano and violin to a packed audience. We had to use the overflow balcony for the first time in 3 years.
The concert was held at the Baptist Church, High Street Rickmansworth, 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm on Wednesday 13th February 2019.
As is customary at these concerts, TRMS invited the Year 6 boys and girls from Holywell Primary School to attend the concert and both the primary school pupils as well as the audience were really impressed with the the skills and talent of the Purcell Scool student musicians.
Bach Italian Concerto, BWV 971, arr. Tochio (I and III) and Ferio (II) Bach Sheep May Safely Graze, from Cantata BWV 208, arr. Iain Farrington Bach Air from Suite no.3 in D major, BWV 1068, arr. Iain Farrington Bach Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G major, BWV 1048, arr. Iain Farrington Interval Reinhart Quartet in F minor for Saxophone Quartet Lago Ciudades (selection): Montevideo; Sarajevo and Herzegovina; Addis Ababa
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