REVIEWS

21st March 2024: English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble String Octet with Ofer Falk solo violin/director

The 2023-2024 series of Chichester Chamber Concerts at the Assembly Room, Chichester was brought to a glorious conclusion on Thursday [21st March] with a scintillating display of string playing by an ensemble drawn from the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO), one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras.  On this occasion the ensemble was led by violinist and soloist Ofer Falk.

The evening began with the Romanian Folk Dances Sz 68 by Béla Bartόk.  In 1905 Bartόk began an association with Zoltán Kodály to pursue a joint interest in, firstly, Hungarian and then Romanian folk music.  The Romanian Folk Dances (Sz 56), based on melodies from the Transylvania region of Romania, which would originally have been played on the flute or violin, began life in 1915 as a suite of seven pieces for piano and was transcribed by the composer for small orchestra in 1917.  The string version presented by the ECO on Thursday was arranged by Ofer Falk.   With nine members of the ensemble already arranged in a semi-circle on stage (3 violin, 2 viola, 2 cello and 1 double bass), Ofer Falk contributed to the “folksiness” of the occasion by arriving on stage through the audience whilst playing the solo part.  The dances were joyous and spirited, yet displayed a wide range of emotions in the space of little more than ten minutes, leaving the audience wanting for more.  This was Bartok at his most benign and approachable. A delightful opening to the concert.

The rest of the evening belonged to Mendelssohn.  The second item on the programme was no less than the familiar and much loved Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64 but in an arrangement for solo violin and string octet by Mordecai and Ilan Rechtman.   As in the Bartόk, Ofar Falk was the soloist standing in the centre of the stage with the remainder of the Ensemble in an arc behind him (the violins and violas playing whilst standing, as they did throughout the evening).   First violin Lucy Jeal acted, effectively, as the Leader of the orchestra.

This unfamiliar arrangement threw up several surprises.  The first was the richness of the sound produced by the nine players, filling the hall.  Another was the clarity of the melodic line and the intimacy of the detail.  The first movement was brisk and full of energy, a single sustained note on the cello, in place of the familiar bassoon, linking it seamlessly to the second.  The second Andante movement was particularly effective, Ofer Falk’s solo violin being eloquently lyrical throughout. The delightful third movement, dancing and playful, brought the concerto to a scintillating conclusion.  This arrangement is highly imaginative and stylistically persuasive, and allows this most popular of concertos to be performed and enjoyed in a small hall such as the Assembly Room.   It is, of course, a different experience from hearing the full orchestral version in a large concert hall, especially without the contribution of the woodwind, but is highly enjoyable in its own right, especially when played with the flair exhibited by the skilled musicians of the ECO.

The evening ended with Mendelssohn’s magnificent Octet in E flat, Op. 20.  Written when the composer was just 16 years old, this most inventive of pieces remains unsurpassed in its genre.  It begins briskly, full of energy and verve, calling for precision playing by the ensemble.  The second movement, based on a Siciliano, an Italian dance, is more subtle with a constant interweaving of themes.  The Scherzo, as so often in Mendelssohn’s chamber works, is the gem of the piece.  Pianissimo and staccato throughout this calls for, and received, playing of great delicacy.  An energetic fugal finale, marked Presto, and opened by the second cello mounts through the instruments until a brief reappearance of the Scherzo is overpowered by a headlong rush to the triumphant conclusion.  As in the concerto, the bold sound from the nine instruments filled the room.

A programme of great music, played with energy, flair and consummate skill; hugely enjoyed by the large audience and fully deserving of the partial standing ovation.  The 2024/25 series of CCC concerts begins on Thursday 3rd October with a visit from Ensemble 360.

Peter Andrews

7th December 2023: Sitkovetsky Trio

Anyone going to a concert by the Sitkovetsky Trio can expect a performance of verve, energy and total commitment coupled with gentle sensitivity.  Such was the case last Thursday evening when a large audience braved a wet and windy evening to attend the fitting venue of the Assembly Rooms in Chichester for the latest concert in the Chichester Chamber Concerts season.

The Sitkovetsky Trio brought with them two of the most well-known and well-loved pieces in the Piano trio repertoire together with a Trio almost certainly never before performed in Chichester.

They opened with the Piano Trio in D major, Op. 70, No. 1.   Consisting of three movements, the trio was dedicated by Beethoven to Countess Marie von Erdody, a young Hungarian who had difficulty walking due to partial paralysis of her legs.  It is possible that Beethoven, who was severely deaf by the time, and the Countess were drawn together by their disabilities and it was in the Countess’s own house that he wrote this Trio and the trio in E flat.   The first movement is original in that the two contrasting themes are revealed together right at the start.  It is marked “con brio” and the Sitkovetsky Trio fairly burst into the opening theme given to all three instruments in bare octaves, giving a foretaste of what was to be a brilliant and thrilling performance.  If there was an initial danger that the full-toned cello of Isang Enders would drown out the violin of Alexander Sitkovetsky this fear was soon extinguished.   The virtuoso piano part was performed here, and indeed throughout the evening, with great élan by Wu Qian.   

The second movement, marked Largo assai ed espressivo, is one of Beethoven’s darkest, full of Gothic gloom and tremendous dramatic power.  It was this movement that led to the trio being nicknamed “Geister” – “The Ghost”.  It may be no coincidence that Beethoven was sketching a projected opera about Macbeth (also in D minor) at the same time as he was writing this movement.  The low rumblings in the piano part add to the ghostly atmosphere.  Gloomy maybe, but also magnificent and the Sitkovetsky Trio’s rendition could not have been more subtle and gentle.  They rounded of the Trio with a lively presto.

An altogether different work is the Schubert Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 99, D.898 which formed the second half of the Sitkovetsky programme.  Full of delightful melodies and invention the piece reflects sunshine and contains some of the most widely loved music written by Schubert.  It was assumed to have been written in 1827 (although not published until 1836).  Yet this was the same year that Schubert was writing the deeply melancholic Die Winterreise, and was already unwell.  Within a year he was dead, at the age of just 31.  Alexander Sitkovetsky told us that this was one of the Trio’s favourite works and their love and care for it was reflected in every note.

Between these two major works in the whole of the chamber music repertoire came the surprise: the Piano Trio No.2 in G minor by Elfrida Andrée.  Previously unknown to the present writer, it transpires that Andrée was a formidable composer and organist in Sweden and the first Swedish woman to conduct a professional symphony orchestra.  She lived from 1841 to 1929.  Her list of compositions runs to at least 135 works including an opera, two symphonies and five other works for full orchestra and numerous pieces for chorus and for the organ.  She was organist at Gothenburg Cathedral for sixty two years.   A more-or-less contemporary of Ethyl Smythe, she was also an advocate for women’s rights.

Composed in 1885, the trio itself is highly accomplished, in the late Romantic style.  It consists of three movements.  The first is melodic and peaceful.  The second, the soul of the Trio, is romantic and delightful.  At its beginning a solo piano introduction invites the cello to join with a plaintive melody followed by the violin.  This moves on to a dance-like theme introduced by the piano with a subtle accompaniment on the strings.  The third movement had a rather jerky feel but finished strongly.  It was perhaps risky to programme this Trio between such formidable works by Beethoven and Schubert but it more than stood its ground and we must be thankful to the Sitkovetsky Trio for bringing it – and the composer – to our attention and for giving it such a careful, committed and enjoyable performance.

This was, as one has come to expect from this ensemble, a thoroughly rewarding concert of virtuoso playing and careful interpretation.

In passing I notice that no less than four of the six concerts in the present CCC season contain works by female composers -  a welcome development that would have been unheard of just a few years ago.  The next concert is on 25th January and will be given by Connaught Brass when the programme will include an arrangement of a piece by Florence Price.

Peter Andrews

Review by Bob Connell

Chichester Chamber Concerts at Champs Hill Music Room
By kind invitation of the Trustees of the Bowerman Charitable Trust

Julian Arp (cello) and Caspar Frantz (piano)

Leoš Janáček              Pohádka [Fairy Tale] (final version) (1910, rev 1912, 1923)

Franz Schubert           Sonata in A minor, D821, ‘Arpeggione’ (1824)

Yosef Suk                     Ballade in D minor, Op.3 No. 1 (1890)

Yosef Suk                     Serenade in A major, Op.3 No. 2 (1896)

Johannes Brahms      Cello Sonata in E minor, Op.38 (1862-5)

Felix Mendelssohn    a Song without Words arr. cello and piano [encore]

A splendid Duo makes it to Champs Hill at last!

The Arp/Frantz Duo had a hard time of it getting to Champs Hill. Their scheduled appearance in 2021 was cancelled owing to Covid and the they were unable to come in 2022 for family reasons. But patience crowns all and suddenly, the two were there in front of us with a superb programme, the eager audience enraptured in the art-filled music room. The relaxed approach of the pair belied a fearsome technique and highly intelligent programming.

The pairing of Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata and Brahm’s First Cello Sonata revealed the lyrical expansiveness in Brahms learned from the earlier composer, notably Schubert’s  habit of wandering far and wide within sonata structures. In Brahms, this deeply romantic lyricism co-exists with, for Brahms, the damoclean presence of Bach and Beethoven, never failing to provide a unique tension. Two attuned Czech works  filled out the programme, Yosef Suk’s highly coloured, emotionally charged Ballade, and its accomanying Serenade, anticipating the highly distinctive folk-inflected romanticism of Leoš Janáček’s delightful Pohádka, or Fairy Tale.

Fantasy forms based on folk stories drove much of Janáček’s music, befitting for the Czech romantic tradition.  The Fairy Tale was thoroughly revised after its first performance in 1910 but published as late as 1924, in three movements. It has an elaborate programme derived from the epic poem ‘The Tale of Emperor Berendyey’ (1832) by Vasily Zhukovsky. An emperor longs for a child and in the meantime intends to visit his kingdom, with much fanfare at his departure. The first movement is a questioning dialogue between piano and cello, which captures a subtle blend of grief and longing as only Janáček could, his technique essentially a repetition of speech-like phrases, progressively modulated harmonically, articulated as a crescendo of shifting, ultimately ecstatic emotions. The Duo set a slow pace, expressively hushed, in the first movement, the following two, concerning ardent endeavour and panoply, equally engaging.

Schubert’s well-known ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata was written in 1824 for the short-lived arpeggione, a strange hybrid derived from a ‘bowed’ guitar and the viol family. Typically, the highly flexible formal structures combust in sudden switches of mood, covering a great emotional range in this essentially light-hearted, playful work, despite its occasionally dark moments of a Weber-like mystery. The Duo clearly loved this piece, which Julian played from memory.

Josef Suk’s Ballade and Serenade were published as his Op.3 but were written five years apart, the Ballade in 1890 and the Serenade in 1896.  In the Ballade, Suk uses extreme piano registers, caught well by Caspar, to heighten emotion in a rather startling anticipation of Janáček.

Brahms’s Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38 engaged the composer for three years, a slow movement falling by the wayside, completing it in 1865 when he was thirty-two years-old.  The work is clearly a homage to Beethoven, with reference to his Cello Sonatas Op. 69 and Op. 1o2 No. 2—as well as to Bach, the stern fugal finale quoting from Bach’s The Art of Fugue.  All the mature Brahmsian traits are here, with a melancholic first movement which barely manages to rise to the light, a soft fanfare-like figure trying but soon fading into the shadows. The Allegretto quasi menuetto is a rather spectral, a fractured waltz with a wan palindromic trio. The robust fugal Allegro attempts to elevate the mood but fades into a sort of semi-benign musing, the initial fugal element brought in characteristically as a coda. The Duo were thoroughly at home in this complex piece, with no passion withheld.

The Duo rounded off a splendid evening with an arrangement of one of Mendelssohn’s more mellifluous Songs Without Words.

RKC/CCC review  23.4.2023

Review by Peter Andrews

Triumphant conclusion to Chichester Chamber Concerts season

A hail of “Bravo”s greeted the conclusion of Brahms’ magnificent Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 at the Chichester Assembly Room on Thursday evening bringing the current season of Chichester Chamber Concerts to a triumphant conclusion.   The performers prompting this favourable reception were the renowned Arcadia Quartet (Ana Török – violin, Rasvan Dumitru – violin, Traian Boals -viola and Zsolt Török – cello) with the outstanding internationally acclaimed pianist Katya Apekisheva.

The Brahms F minor Quintet had a difficult gestation.  Brahms was a notoriously harsh self-critic (he probably destroyed three times as many chamber works than exist today) and he had difficulty finding the right instrumentation for this composition.  Following experimentation with different combinations (including piano duet) it was Clara Schumann who suggested a piano quintet to him and the result was the supreme masterpiece that we now know and love.   Its composition was a significant step in Brahms’ development and the Piano Quintet is now the most frequently played of all Brahms’ chamber works.

The tempestuous and tragic opening sets the mood for the whole work.  Only in the opening of the more lyrical second movement is there much lightness with the piano introducing a rocking, almost lullaby-like, theme that is taken up by the strings.  The third movement, a Scherzo, one of Brahms’ most exciting compositions, is sublime.  The dramatic progression continues into the Finale giving the piece an overall unity and leading to an explosive conclusion.

The technically demanding piano part was in this performance brilliantly executed by Katya Apekisheva.   Altogether this was a performance of great richness and excitement that fully deserved the enthusiastic reception of the audience.

The concert began with a delightful performance of Mozart’s Fantasy in D Minor K.397 by pianist Katya Apekisheva which fully demonstrated her sublime delicacy of touch and dynamic range.  It was a dramatic rendition fully enjoyed by a hushed audience.

The other work in the concert was the 6th String Quartet in E minor, Op. 35 by Mieczysław Weinberg.    Weinberg was born in 1919 to a Jewish family in Warsaw.  His father was a composer and conductor in the Yiddish theatre and his mother an actress.  He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory from the age of 12 where he produced his first compositions.  The family had already been exposed to anti-semitic violence and at the outbreak of the second World War Weinberg fled, initially with his sister Esther, to Russia.   Sadly Esther turned back with sore feet and Weinberg never saw her, or the rest of his family, again; they were all executed in 1943 at Trawniki concentration camp.   When Germany invaded Russia in 1941 Weinberg was forced to move again, this time to Tashkent where he met Shostakovich who became a life-long friend and supporter and who urged him to move to Moscow where he remained.

He was a prolific composer whose works included no less than 22 symphonies, 17 String Quartets and 40 film and animation scores.

The 6th String Quartet was written in 1946.  It was published due to the influence of Myaskovsky but fell foul of the Composers Union of the USSR in an order that also proscribed the works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Myaskovsky himself.  It was never performed in the composer’s life-time; the first performance was given in Manchester in 2007.

It is an understandably dark piece with sinewy lines interweaving between the four instruments throughout.  The influence of Shostakovich is evident, but the Quartet lacks the sardonic humour found in even the bleakest of the better-known composers’ works.  The Arcadia Quartet are committed to recording as many of Weinberg’s Quartets as possible and no-one present could doubt their commitment to the 6th Quartet and to its composer.  It is a complex piece deserving of another hearing.

The next season of Chichester Chamber Concerts begins on 5th October 2023 with an appearance of the Castalian Quartet.

Review by Bob Connell

Martin Funda (violin), Johanna Staemmler (violin), Teresa Schwamm-Biskamp (viola), Peter-Philipp Staemmler (cello)

On Thursday 23 February 2023, the young but highly experienced Armida String Quartet gripped and transported its audience with the third string quartets of Schumann and Brahms, flanking the UK premiere of the Second String Quartet by the Serbian composer Marko Nikodijevic. Named after an opera by Haydn, the German Armida Quartet showed a remarkable tightness and precision while interpreting the subtle emotional style and the stretching of form in the Schumann and Brahms, and were entirely at home in Nikodijevic’s sternly modern work.

The year 1842 is well-known as Schumann’s ‘chamber music’ year when, armed with intensive studies of illustrious past quartets, he embarked on a rapid set of three of his own. The Third Quartet crystallizes Schumann’s art of combining traditional forms with an imaginative (phantaisie) method, in which segments within traditional structures stand out almost in their own right as highly contrasted phantaisie moments, reflecting the duality of Schumann’s expressive alter-egos, Florestan and Eusebius. The first movement contrasts a rather expressionist slow opening with an exposition of three gentle ideas, combining concisely the development and recapitualtion. The second movement is a set of agitated variations, ending on spooky major-minor chords; the third a fulsome romantic tune subjected to a throbbing distress; and the finale, a perfect rondo, of three varied sections and a central ‘new’ idea gathering them up. Long codas neatly wrap up the proceedings.

Marko Nikodijevic was born in Belgrade in 1980 and studied in Stuttgart, becoming a composer of sound international standing. The Armida Quartet is one of his champions, closely involved with both of his string quartets, and giving the world premiere of the Second in Germany in July 2019. The short five-part Quartet No. 2 is a feast of tone-colour, using recognisable forms. It opens with a wild, agonized musing on the four letters of Bach’s name, the baroque bass progressions helping us along, after which a busy fugue becomes a long, speeding crescendo. An engaging tango forms the heart of the piece, and the final parts increase the tone colour through beautifully muted passages, the whole a journey from agony to calm. The ‘live’ effect was raw and visceral.

Brahm’s Third String Quartet in B flat was written in 1875, its publication as Opus 67 coinciding with that of the First Symphony.  Always fluid in his opening material, Brahms  likes to ramble far and wide, building up many segments of often greatly differing moods, resulting in lengthy yet tight expositions. The Third Quartet has a long exposition of varied segments, with a short development and a usual recapping which allows further variational subtleties: opening horn-like syncopated calls initiate a jaunty walk later shot through with an alternation of wayside stops and mysterious ruminations, with a squall in the middle, before the walk settles back down at the end to its happy tread.

The rest of the quartet follows the inward life of our intrepid walker, with a somewhat schmalzy romantic adagio tune subject to much inward contemplation, and a remarkable scherzo and barely differentiated trio, of stumbling syncopations and a rather mordant muted tones, contrasted with an unmuted, rasping viola, looking forward to Mahler’s folksy spookiness. The finale variations are fulsome, the jaunty walker eventually finding his place again right at the end, as the horn-calls and some of the rumination are recalled from the first movement as a firm re-establishment of the felicitous tone. The ineffable blitheness occasionally surfacing in this finale suggests the beginning of a late-style wistful mellowness, composed in ‘bucolic summer days’ spent by Brahms at Ziegelhausen near Heidelberg.

The Armida made the Brahms and Schumann seem big and important, without compromising their private inwardness, and revealed to us raw, visceral music of the young Serbian, supremely achieved in this performance.

Thursday 10th March 2022: Chiaroscuro Quartet with Matthew Hunt, Chris Rawley, Alec Frank-Gemmill and Juliane Bruckmann

Review by Peter Andrews

Spectacular Finale to CCC Season

The regular season of Chichester Chamber Concerts concluded in spectacular fashion on Thursday [10th March] with the return of the renowned Chiaroscuro Quartet.  The Chiaroscuro had performed at CCC in February to great acclaim, but this time they brought with them an additional four distinguished musicians, Matthew Hunt (clarinet), Chris Rawley (bassoon), Alec Frank-Gemmill (horn) and Juliane Bruckmann (double bass).  The programme consisted of just two works, but what outstanding works they were!  

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Thursday 23rd January 2020: Van Kuijk quartet

Review by Raymond Greenlees

The young French quartet Van Kuijk gave a most enjoyable concert in the Assembly Room, Chichester on 23 January to a packed audience. It was a well-balanced programme including Mozart’s Divertimento K128, Beethoven’s Op.59 No.3, and Schumann’s Op.41.No.3

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5th December 2019: Rowland/Kudritskaya Duo

Review by Chris Darwin

Before a note of this imaginative 'Parisian' programme had been played, we knew from those soulful open strings as Daniel Rowland tuned up that we had on stage a violin that loved to be played and a player that loved to play it. And how! Rowland's passion for the music shone through every one of the evening's very different works. From the poignant sorrow of Mozart's E-minor sonata following his mother's death, to the wild virtuosity of Stravinsky, this was no mere display, but a powerful communication of the heart of the music.

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Review by Amelie of the Prebendal School Chichester

On Thursday 5th December, several people from my school, including myself, had the lucky opportunity to go and watch a wonderful Chamber Concert at the Assembly Room in Chichester.

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7th November 2019: Busch Trio

Review by Peter Andrews

The popular and highly talented Busch Trio made a welcome return to Chichester on Thursday 7th November when they played before a large audience in the Assembly Room for Chichester Chamber Concerts.

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3rd October 2019: The Esme Quartet

Review by Raymond Greenlees

This Quartet of young women from South Korea, who all studied at the Cologne Hochschule, gave an exhilarating concert of string quartets by Beethoven, Bridge, and Schubert to a packed Assembly Room 

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28th March 2019: The Notos Piano Quartet

Review by Peter Andrews

The 2018-2019 season of Chichester Chamber Concerts came to a happy conclusion with a concert by the highly regarded Notos Piano Quartet.  READ MORE

28th February 2019: The Heath Quartet

Review by Raymond Greenlees

It says a lot about the healthy state of quartet playing in this country, that when the German quartet “Vision” had to cancel their engagement to play in the Assembly Room at short notice, a replacement was found in the excellent Heath Quartet based in the UK READ MORE

24th January 2019: Matthew Hunt and Friends

Review by Raymond Greenlees

A spell-binding evening of French masterpieces, played by four virtuosi on clarinet, violin, cello and piano whose technique and musicianship gave us a performance that will never be bettered. READ MORE

6th December 2018: Magnard Ensemble

Review by Katie Salvatore

Who could ask for anything more READ MORE

8th November 2018: Merlin Ensemble

Review by Peter Andrews

Exquisite Musicianship from Visiting Austrian Ensemble READ MORE

4th October 2018: Castalian Quartet

Review by David Tinsley

Live Music at its Best READ MORE

22nd February 2018: Arcadia Quartet
Review by Peter Andrews.

Outstanding string quartet brings a varied and exciting programme to Chichester.   READ MORE

6th December 2017: Daniel Lebhardt
Review by Chris Darwin.

From the opening chord of Beethoven's 'Tempest' Sonata, it was clear we were in the hands of a magician. When Anton Schindler asked Beethoven for guidance in playing this sonata, the alleged answer was "read Shakespeare's Tempest". Whether you take this riposte seriously or not, the young Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt transported us Prospero-like to a magic "isle full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs that give delight".   READ MORE

9th November 2017: Trio Con Brio Copenhagen
Review by Peter Andrews.

The Chichester Chamber Concert presentation on Thursday 9h November was held in the Chapel of the Ascension at Chichester University and featured the Trio Con Brio Copenhagen. The trio is composed of two sisters, Soo-Jin Hong (violin) and Soo-Kyung (cello) and Soo-Kyung’s husband Jens Elvekjaer (piano). The close relationship of the players was reflected in their playing with keen attention to detail and precise ensemble throughout. Eye contact between the two sisters was constant.   READ MORE

5th October 2017: Akilone Quartet
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

This young French quartet opened their concert with an immaculate performance of Beethoven’s early quartet Opus 18 No. 6. This is a difficult work which poses problems of syncopation and balance, but begins with a jocular first movement of answering phrases, and they caught the atmosphere successfully, as well as negotiating the complex rhythmic patterns of the later Scherzo.   READ MORE

16th March 2017: Kungsbacka Piano Trio
Review by Peter Andrews.

When an ensemble as renowned and applauded as the Kungsbacka Piano Trio arrives in town it is reasonable to anticipate an evening of high quality and enjoyable music–making. This was certainly the experience of the audience at the Chichester Chamber Concerts recital in the Assembly Room last Thursday evening. Moreover, the Trio came with an enthralling programme which admirably suited their considerable talents. Each half of the programme contained one of the major works of the piano trio repertoire preceded by a shorter work of much greater rarity.   READ MORE

16th February 2017: SPIRITATO! Sound the Trumpet!
Review by David Tinsley.

What a treat to have an octet at CCC with two trumpets in full flow, evoking the atmosphere of the seventeenth century court. Spiritato! certainly lived up to their name and gave the responsive audience much to enjoy.   READ MORE

26th January 2017: SIGNUM QUARTET
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

The Signum Quartet played works by Haydn, Bruno Mantovani and Beethoven.   READ MORE

1st December 2016: NOTOS PIANO QUARTET
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

A packed house heard the Notos Piano Quartet give a shining performance of a reconstructed Mozart fragment, an early masterpiece by Walton, and the magnificent Brahms Opus 26.   READ MORE

27th October 2016: ALEXEI GRYNYUK, piano
Review by Chris Darwin.

It is every concert organiser’s nightmare: on the morning of the concert, the phone rings and the artist apologises that he is too ill to perform that evening. Aargh!! Fortunately for Anna Hill, the organiser of Chichester’s wonderful Chamber Concert series, Alexei Grynyuk, the pianist who was to have played with the indisposed cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, offered to perform a solo piano recital instead of the planned cello–piano duo programme.   READ MORE

6th October 2016: VAN KUIJK QUARTET
Review by Peter Andrews.

The first concert in the 2016 ⁄ 17 Season of the Chichester Chamber Concerts took place on Thursday 6th October in the Assembly Room. It was an auspicious start. The performers were the youthful Van Kuijk Quartet and the programme included the two best–loved, and most performed, French String Quartets, those of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.   READ MORE

17th March 2016: BRODSKY STRING QUARTET
Review by David Tinsley.

If anyone is any doubt that live music is far better than recorded sound, tonight’s performance by the Brodsky proved the point. The clarity and perfection of their interpretation of the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 2 in A Op. 68 was not just an ear opener for those familiar with this complex work but an ideal introduction for those new to this composer.   READ MORE

18th February 2016: BUSCH TRIO
Review by Peter Andrews.

The Chichester Chamber Concert on Thursday 18th February provided a wonderful opportunity to hear two major works for piano trio. Both the Schubert Piano Trio in E flat D929 and the Mendelssohn Piano trio No. 1 in D minor Op.49 are exuberant and powerful works and the performers in the Assembly Room were the highly accomplished London–based Busch Piano Trio.   READ MORE

21st January 2016: ROSANNA TER–BERG and FRIENDS
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

This interesting combination of instruments performed at the City’s Assembly Room to a full house in a largely Franco–Belgian programme. Flautist Rosanna Ter–Berg , and harpist Olivia Jageurs provided the nucleus of the ensemble, with the addition of a string trio in many of the works.   READ MORE

3rd December 2015: LA SERENISSIMA
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

Although the title of this excellent baroque group is normally associated with Venice, we were spared Vivaldi and instead given the fascinating story of other Italian violinist⁄composers who at one time or another had met Handel or played his music.   READ MORE

5th November 2015: DAVID OWEN NORRIS (piano), AMANDA PITT (soprano), LOUISE WILLIAMS (viola). 
Review by David Tinsley.

From the start we knew we were in for a treat. Rarely featured as a solo instrument, Louise Williams demonstrated the full range of sounds possible from a fine instrument, beautifully played. The Rebecca Clarke Viola Sonata gave Louise every opportunity to display her virtuoso technique. A lively and melodic first movement was followed by a more complex display of the composer’s ingenuity. The final movement was a glorious outpouring of sound from two players in perfect sympathy with each other and with the composer’s wishes.   READ MORE

19th February 2015: KATYA APEKISHEVA Piano Recital. 
Review by David Tinsley.

Katya Apekisheva has an outstanding talent which impressed and delighted the Chichester Chamber Concerts’ audience. Unnecessarily looking to the gods for inspiration when her skills were deep in her DNA, Katya demonstrated a range of musical understanding and interpretation through a wide range of pieces which culminated in a spectacular interpretation of the popular Chopin Scherzo which seemed to confirm that the gods wanted to lift her up to heaven.   READ MORE

8th January 2015: BRENTANO QUARTET
Review by Raymond Greenlees.

This long–established string quartet based in New York gave a spell–binding performance of works by Mozart, Bartok and Schubert in Christ Church, Chichester. Their refined and immaculate playing illuminated all three works but particularly Bartok’s 3rd string quartet in which their accurate corporate intonation made sense of the composer’s daring discords.  READ MORE

4th December 2014: HANNAH MARCINOWICZ and the MAGGINI STRING TRIO
Review by David Tinsley.

What an evening of contrasts!
Quartet No. 2 by Crussell is a delightful and playful piece which suits admirably this seldom heard combination of instruments. Hanna Marcinowicz was impressive as a virtuoso clarinettist, secure in all registers. The clarity and precision of her playing blended well with the expert string accompaniment and produced a lively and exciting rondo finale.   READ MORE

6th November 2014: SMETANA PIANO TRIO
Review by Peter Andrews.

The second of the Chichester Chamber Concerts in the 2014–15 Season was given on Thursday 6th November in the Assembly Room by the highly accomplished Smetana Piano Trio. Despite their programme consisting of three trios all in a minor key, this proved to be a joyous and most enjoyable occasion.  READ MORE

2nd October 2014: LONDON CONCERTANTE
Review by Chris Darwin of Nicholas Yonge Society, Lewes.

First up in the 2014–15 season on Thursday October 2nd was the London Concertante, a flexible group fronted by cellist Chris Grist, which has metamorphosed from a chamber group to an opera orchestra and back again and whose eclectic and often novel repertoire extends from the baroque to the contemporary. For their Chichester concert the group fielded seven players: two violins, two violas, cello, clarinet and horn. Each of the four works they performed was for a different combination.  READ MORE