February 2009

Dear Music-lover,

It must be something to do with the wind quartet medium; it lends itself to not only a variety of quirky musical styles, but also to a certain quirkiness in the performers!

Thus we had a very enjoyable evening provided by the Illuminati Wind Quartet whose mainly 20th-century, but highly approachable music was "illuminated" by their humorous verbal introductions to each work from the stage. Speaking about the Mozart Adagio & Allegro, Katie Punter (the flautist) pointed out that the composer didn't really like the work and "only did it for the money". It was written in 1790 at a time when, according to Stephen Fry (" Incomplete and Utter History of classical music"), Mozart was "the greatest thing to happen to music since someone burnt the blueprints of the banjo."

Other pieces were composed by Norman Forber Kay, who proved to be a "squatter" in his determination to secure a post; by Villa Lobos, whose career as a wandering musician took him to the rainforest - and to cannibals; and by Frank Bridge, who was so often used as a last-minute substitute, when the original conductor had fallen ill, that he became known as the “ambulance conductor".

The audience was, it must be said, a little diminished by the snowy conditions although this proved no obstacle to the Quartet, who had driven from an appearance in Elgin the previous night and who, after Inverness, were then proceeding to Portree.

As prizewinners of the Tunnell Trust Award (the only such competition in Scotland), the Illuminati are able to play at music clubs throughout the country in two or three tours throughout the year, enabling them to bring chamber music to relatively remote areas and to allow music lovers in these areas to appreciate the standard of musicianship of young professionals. We have been fortunate indeed on several previous occasions to be granted such a concert and the Illuminati showed us again how lucky we were.

On Tuesday, 17th March, the French Psophos String Quartet are joined by German violist Nils Monkemeyer in two of the great works of the viola quintet repertoire:the Mozart and Brahms viola quintets. I hope to see you there.

Paul