FOLK MUSIC AND A NEW CELLO

Folk music is not lost on our audience – if anything Brahms seems to be more so. The Bb string sextet no.1 is surely one of the purest pieces of music: its underlying drama subdued by euphonious melody. Over the years we have performed it many times and the end response is always somewhat subdued. Is this a reflection of the music?

Passions are not natural to humankind; they are always exceptions or excrescences…the ideal, genuine person is calm in joy and calm in pain and sorrow. Passions must pass quickly, or else they must be driven out.
-Brahms writing to Clara Schumann from Detmold (11 Oct 1857)

These are strange and confusing words to come out of a “Romantic” composer. Maybe they are in response to the madness of his friend Robert Schumann who was anything but calm in joy, pain or sorrow.

The work is very challenging to perform, least of all due to the subtlety and restraint of its emotional language. The more one gets into the power of this music, however, the more one finds the underlying drama (the passions?) disturbing that “ideal calm”.

You can feel the audience lulling into the “calm” of the first movement only to be re-awakened by gypsy passion in the second. A Schubertian dance movement follows, raising the pulse before the complex and almost unnerving calm of the last with the “seamlessly woven reappearances of the opening theme barely contrasting with the intervening episodes (an aspect of the composition which drew a negative comment from Joachim, but which Brahms-this time-did nothing to rectify!)”

Richard Specht, perhaps sums up best the overall effect of the Sextet in 1928: ‘Never before have such luxuries of sound been enticed from a handful of string players’.

Taciturn and droll, country fiddler Mike Kerin is a great addition to any orchestra. He stands up the front and with a humble strut (if that’s not contradictory) producing a raw and ready sound more heartfelt than many a top-notch classical soloist. This kind of fiddling is far preferable to the slick Irish fiddling perfection often treading the boards these days.

Danny Spooner is the crooner from soil, industry, ships and unions. He can bellow, caress and weep. His brain holds more than 1000 songs and his recall is phenomenal. It’s been a pleasure arranging these songs and I hope to put some sounds up soon.

Vuillaume

For the first time in the ACO’s history, we have spent some money on a capital purchase (apart from office furniture): we (the ACO company) now proudly own a beautiful Vuillaume cello.

Melissa Barnard, who is acting principal in place of Tipi, will play the cello for the foreseeable future. Like the recent purchase of the del Gesu violin, this evolves the sound of the ACO and of course inspires the player fortunate enough to use the instrument.