CHELTENHAM MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER APRIL 2009

As this season reaches its climax with Richard Lester’s fascinating fortepiano recital and the welcome return of the excellent Takacs Quartet, it’s time to look forward to next season. For 2009/10 the provisional dates and artists are:

Sunday 25 October Fujita Piano Trio

Tuesday 17 November Maggini Quartet

Wednesday 9 December Armonico Consort

Sunday 24 January Royal Quartet

Wednesday 17 February Court Lane Music

Tuesday 9 March Dominant Quartet

Wednesday 24 March Jerusalem Quartet

Sunday 11 April Bernard d’Ascoli (piano)

As usual our series is founded on the string quartet. Two ensembles of international repute will be playing for us for the first time, the Royal Quartet from Poland and the Dominant Quartet from Russia. The Jerusalem and Maggini Quartets return, having both been very well received in previous seasons. The mainstream repertoire will be well represented - Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok - alongside a variety of established works plus a couple that will probably be new to most of us. The Fujita sisters’ piano trio is very popular with music societies around the country and, unusually, they play from memory. Appropriately for Cheltenham, Court Lane Music will give a concert showcasing the chamber music of Imogen Holst. Their recent cd of her music is well worth listening to. Armonico Consort’s unaccompanied vocal programme is entitled ’The Glory of old England‘, and consists of a beautiful combination of 16^th century sacred works and a number of more light-hearted secular pieces from the last 500 years. Finally, after Easter, the celebrated blind French pianist Bernard d’Ascoli will perform a programme of romantic piano music featuring Chopin, for which he is justly renowned. (And if you are wondering about the Takacs, they are pencilled in for November 2010.)

The AGM will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday June 9th at St Andrews Church. Our intention is to put on a short recital featuring one of the instruments that we have overlooked in our main series. Watch this space!

The committee is very keen to hear from people who are willing to help, please do get in touch if you think you might be interested. If you have picked up this and do not yet subscribe to the series, please let us have your name and address and we will mail the new brochure to you when it is ready in a few weeks’ time.

Paul Smith 01242 576482 paul@jungsmith.freeserve.co.uk