March 2006

Dear Music-lover,

I found the Katona Twins’ concert last week to be a revelation. Their readiness to return to Inverness was shown by the fact that they boarded a train from their home in Liverpool at 5.45 a.m. to play for us alone - they went back to Liverpool the next day. The audience was such that our average age must have been reduced by 10 years! I don’t know the numbers because James Munro, our Treasurer, has gone off to Edinburgh (were the takings that good?), so I won’t get the figures until he returns. But they seemed healthy enough.

I particularly enjoyed the “cross-over” effect. Their performance shared – with many of our “traditional” concerts – the ability of first-class musicians to make technical virtuosity a secondary feature, so that the music sings through. They certainly were virtuosi – giving us a performance of a work specially written for them and of transcriptions that added new dimensions to the originals. I heard the music of Bach, Vivaldi and de Falla in a completely new way and I hope that the “straight” guitarists in our audience appreciated that chamber music can be a wonderfully pure, intimate way of listening to music.

I was delighted to be able to put out leaflets of next year’s concerts – and if you didn’t get one, they’ll be on our websites www.invernesschambermusic.com and www.musicinverness.com. With the help of Highland 2007, we’ve been able to add another concert, making it an 8-concert series – every month from September to April - and some of the performers are giving daytime schools’ workshops. I am particularly looking forward to the piano recital in October, to a violin and piano concert, including the huge Franck Sonata, in November, and in January, to Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. (The “Trout” – a popular favourite – has not, so far, been programmed by ICMS as it demands non-traditional instrumentation, but we are really pleased to fill that gap now. In fact, ICMS started as a result of various players – guess who on piano? – getting together to play the “Trout”, so it will be a nostalgic affair, too). These concerts will all feature the hoped-for new Town House grand piano. A decision on support by the National Lottery will be made next month.

Our final concert for this season, on Wednesday, 19th April, will be given by “Travelling by Tuba II – the Sequel”, which promises to be an evening of great fun and, like the Katona concert – of considerable virtuosity. Our traditional end-of-season “fun” concert will be enhanced by pieces by Mozart, Brahms (what does Brahms’ Hungarian Dance sound like on a tuba?), Donald Swann and many others. It’ll be good to see you there.



Paul Crowe