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Brodsky Quartet concert for Roseland Music Society includes pre-concert talk by BBC Proms presenter Rosamund Bartlett

On Friday May 9th, Roseland Music Society, with support from the Green Bottle Trust, will present a talk and concert at St Just in Roseland Church. 
The Brodsky String Quartet have celebrated over 50 years of playing together, making them one of Britain's leading chamber ensembles. They will play Haydn, Debussy and Shostakovich. 
A pre-concert talk will be given by Rosamund Bartlett at 5.30. She is an expert on Russian literature and on Shostakovich, has worked as a consultant to London orchestras and contributed to programmes on BBC Radio such as Opera on 3 and In Our Time. She says This exciting programme presents three quartets which are masterpieces of the genre. Dedicated to a King, a composer friend, and wife respectively, they were composed in widely differing time periods and circumstances, but all demonstrate abundant wild invention and virtuosic brilliance. 
This is the most ambitious project for the 24/25 series which has already brought an award winning early music group from Switzerland, a larger ensemble of local players in the Cornish Sinfonia, ‘Jaclarabag’ a group of three of Cornwall’s leading stage musicians, a song recital by Alysia Hanshaw and Jay Carroll and the inspiring, London based, Duo Clio who also visited all the Primary schools on the Roseland to engage a new generation of concert goers. The series will conclude on June 20th when Julia Chaplina, winner of 7 international piano competitions, will perform. 
A founder member of the Roseland Music Society which is in its 25th year recently remarked, ‘The Phoenix rising of Roseland Music Society is a Jewel that must be nurtured and supported.’ Just before Covid there was a real threat to its survival but since then a new committee has worked hard to revive it. 
Tim Smithies, the present chairman says: A short time before Covid I heard that the Roseland Music Society was about to close down. My grandfather, George Parker, sang with the Radford sisters’ Falmouth Opera Group, rehearsing at St Anthony in Roseland and as a teenager I had played as part of the St Anthony Players in concerts at Gerrans and St Just churches which rehearsed in the same Music Studio. So I was quite invested in music on the Roseland and therefore stepped in to the breach. 
I invited Gabriel Amherst to join the committee. Though from Devon, she had played in Cornwall Youth Orchestra when her father Nigel was its conductor. She also played in the St Anthony players, is a professional cellist and teacher and comes regularly to West Portholland.
 

Roseland Music Society

Following a stunning concert by Clio Duo in March, one founder member of the Roseland Music Society sent me a message of thanks in which he wrote, ‘The Phoenix rising of RMS is a Jewel that must be nurtured and supported.’ The concert itself had already been worth the effort as well as the workshops led by Aneesah and Alexia which were enjoyed by Roseland Primary school children, but his comments really put the icing on the cake!

Five years on from the concert cancellations of Covid, we are still not getting the audiences we were in the past. Perhaps there’s a reluctance to ‘give it a go’, maybe an assumption that the music we programme is too high-brow. It really isn’t. You don’t have to dress up to come, our concerts are on your doorstep, and you will be made very welcome.

This month we have managed to entice the Brodsky Quartet to St Just Church. Krysia Osostowicz, their first violinist, offers this comment on one of their programme choices: 

“Although Shostakovich's 8th quartet is the best known, we've chosen his 9th: one of the most exciting works in the entire repertoire, and one of our favourite ones to play. Audiences love it too, even those who fear they might not like Shostakovich. 

Opening with a gentle, sighing melody, punctuated with mischievous marches and distant trumpet fanfares, the music travels through a varied landscape before culminating in a tsunami of energy which is both terrifying and exhilarating. 

A friend wrote to me recently: "Shostakovich's music seems to be imbued with these bitter experiences and at the same time shows the most enormous resilience". Shostakovich's quartets represent his most personal utterances; and for us, working on them in these very worrying times, it is an inspiration to experience his courage in the face of tyranny, and the way in which he expresses so many aspects of the human condition.

I am delighted to be together with the Brodsky Quartet, which I had admired for many years before being invited to join them in 2021. It is now in its sixth decade and still going strong, travelling all over the world. Last year we visited Brazil, China and New Zealand, as well as playing in London and Dublin with Elvis Costello.” 
Proms presenter, Rosamund Bartlett will give a free pre-concert talk at 5.30pm. Please see Notices for details. 
Emma Campbell 
 

Roseland Music Society Comes of Age 
‘We come from afar but whenever we are down and you have a concert we always come because we enjoy them, a good choice of music and love the variety!’ an audience member on June 9th

Before our final concert on the 22/23 season on 9th June we treated the audience to Pimms and some delicious nibbles to celebrate another successful season. Audience numbers are not back to the pre-covid levels but for 20 years now we have provided excellent concerts and invaluable income and performance opportunities for local, visiting and international musicians. We also wanted to thank three of our team who were retiring, Denise, Julie and Peter, who have given their time and expertise to keep the society going through the years. As the audience chatted, we gathered information about where people travel from and what sort of music they would like to see as part of future seasons. The audience were then treated to the beautiful ensemble playing of “Harmoniemusik”, a wind quartet formed by players who for many years have visited Cornwall to play in the St Columb Festival.  

Next season, the 23/24, we turn twenty-one. It will start with a concert called “Niccolò Paganini.  Mystery, Myth and Magic” and will contain seven concerts. In October the Chapel Street Quintet from Penzance will bring a programme including works by Elgar, Bridge and Dove. Trio Kurtag’s visit in November will see the return of the cellist Eliza Millet who delighted audiences last season playing with Trio Cordiera. In February we will join forces with the Cornwall National Music Archive to stage a concert to launch a very exciting year long project which will focus on Music on the Roseland. A number of well known local professional players will return as soloists in two Brandenburg Concertos and Mandy Burvill will perform ‘Carricknath’, a concerto commissioned from composer Ian Stephens in 2020 to celebrate the lives of Thea King, Jennet Campbell and Jane Fletcher. Nigel Blomilly will perform Beethoven ’Cello Sonatas in March and in May, Larkspur, a Fiddle and accordion duo will take us on some ‘Tin Travels’. The season finale in June ‘A Concert for Summer’ will be given by the City of Truro Male Choir. 
Membership for the new season which buys a discount on all ticket prices is available now at £16. Email roselandmusicsocsec@gmail.com 
Emma Campbell, Secretary
 

A Tombola of Treasures
In the penultimate concert of the 2022/3 season the thirty members of the Tresillian Singers were joined by seven recorder players making up the Carrick Consort. Though actually out-numbered, the audience showed their appreciation with loud and enthusiastic applause. They had had a part in the programming, selecting raffle tickets from a bucket to pick twelve of the twenty-one songs available. Most of the choir sang from memory, their eyes fixed on their dynamic and expressive conductor Elaine Tangye. The voices blended beautifully, the intonation was true, the lyrics were crystal clear and the ensemble was tight. More than anything it was the joy the performers clearly had from singing together that infected the listeners. Their motto is ‘To sing for pleasure…and to give pleasure to others’. They certainly achieved that. The random selection gave us Abba’s ‘Thank you for the Music’ just before the interval. Elaine said she would have programmed it as the finale but in that place came a rousing Da Doo Ron Ron. Particularly memorable were the spirited ‘Blue Moon’, a lovely version of Psalm 23 and the choir’s first performance of the Flying Pickets version of ‘Only You’ as an encore. They were accompanied sensitively throughout by Ruth Best on Keyboard.
Giving the choir a break in each half, the Carrick Consort of one descant, two trebles, two tenors and two bass recorders provided a rich selection of original pieces and arrangements. They started with a Pavane by Arbeau, a Jesuit priest, whose treatise on dance has been identified as the origin of classical ballet. The spiritual ‘Steal Away’ was introduced by Helen Whomersley, the arranger and director of the group with a story about its significance as a signal for slaves escaping on the underground railway in America. An Old Cornish Folksong and two Irish ones were also skilfully arranged for the four parts. For those whose only experience of the recorder is the plastic descants smelling of sterilising solution that every child used to have to play at primary school, the rich sound of the full recorder consort was a revelation. 
Once again the performers commented on how much they enjoyed the intimacy and the atmosphere of the concert. Whilst the committee is concerned that audience numbers are still not back to what we could expect pre-Covid, those who do come to Gerrans Memorial Hall one Friday of each month from September to June are always engaged and delighted by the range and impact of live music the Roseland Music Society continues to offer. 
We have one more concert to go in the 22/23 series. On 9th June we will give the same warm welcome to the wind quintet, Harmoniemusick. There will be celebration drinks for members at 6.15pm before the concert – with a chance to sign up for the new season and some sneak previews of the exciting 23/24 programme in construction. Membership is still just £15. Apart from giving you the chance to support musicians and keep music live, it also gives you a discount on all concert tickets so come along and buy your membership for next season now before a possible price increase after the AGM!
 

Roseland Music Society:
On 10th February, at 9.05 at The Roseland Academy, a motet by the 16th Century composer Thomas Tallis stilled students into an awed silence. Commenting afterwards, they said it ‘really unlocked a part of my brain’ and were ‘amazed that just four people can make that much sound’. 
The four were members of the Selene Scholars, self-proclaimed advocates for classical music, who were singing at Gerrans Memorial Hall that evening. The Roseland Music Society had procured funding from ASONE for workshops at The Roseland Academy and Veryan School. The singers were there to ‘engage their core muscles and their souls’ as they put it. 
After warm-up exercises and some rounds, at Tregony the students split into Sopranos and Altos, learnt and sang Orlando Gibbons’ ‘Drop, drop slow tears’ then, with piano accompaniment while walking around the room fully engaging whoever they passed, sang John Rutter’s ‘The Lord bless you and keep you’ again in two parts with the tenor and bass from the Selenes supporting them. 
After lunch, the rest of the choir was due at Veryan to deliver a workshop to Key stage 1 and 2 classes but crashed their car just off the King Harry. Concerned for their friends, the original quartet hastily planned material for the younger age groups. Again they started with Tallis’s If ye Love Me and the wonder on the faces of the mesmerised children was enchanting. They learnt how to sing rounds (described by the Selenes as a bit like a Mexican wave) and those who wanted to, sang ‘Bella Mama’ to the delight of everyone at St Symphorian later. The sound of the Selenes there was even more amazing. 
The programme for the concert had to be hastily rewritten for the depleted group. Gibbons and Tallis were joined by William Byrd and others. Just before the interval the driver of the written off car arrived on crutches wearing a hospital gown. To close their concert, he joined his friends to sing Arthur Sullivan’s ‘The Long Day Closes’ and the audience, cheering, rose to a standing ovation. Among them were four children from Veryan school. Though indeed long, it was a memorable and uplifting day. 
This month, on the 21st, we are hiring a grand piano for Martin Jones’s recital. We would love to welcome first time concert goers. We’re a friendly and informal crowd. Why not come?
Emma Campbell