Wonderful performance and setting

Cowbridge Music Festival concert, Holy Cross Church, Cowbridge

THESE are exciting times for the Cowbridge Music Festival. Renowned Welsh pianist Llyr Williams has become the event’s Artist in Residence, while organisers have launched a music seminar venture to bring exceptional musical graduates together for a feast of music-making.

This was the first of two CMF music seminar concerts at this year’s festival, which brought together 10 musicians in a programme that challenged and delighted the audience at Holy Cross Church - the spiritual home of the festival and a superb setting for chamber music of this calibre.

The opening work, Brahms’ Horn Trio in E Flat Major, showed the composer at his intense and passionate best.

The heart of the work is the Adagio mesto third movement, believed to be a lament for Brahms’ mother.

The musicians, especially violinist Boris Kucharsky, approached the piece with an intensity that explored every aspect of music that ended in a joyful romp, but only after an often leisurely and thoughtful stroll.

Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, which ended the first half of the concert, offered some light relief after the Brahms. Sachs Rattle (son of Sir Simon) played the basset clarinet with authoritative charm and insight, particularly in the lyrical Larghetto movement. The musicians’ clear understanding of the music and of their individual roles produced a wonderful performance and was especially satisfying in the calm of this church setting.

The second half opened with an engrossing performance of String Trio in B flat major which left the listener wanting to hear more of this fine music.

Erno Dohnanyi’s Sextet in C Major is scored for the unusual combination of clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano.

The players – not least cellist Thomas Carroll and violinist Boris Kucharsky – threw themselves into this performance with commitment and enthusiasm. The joy they clearly felt in playing this vivacious music, which is in the Romantic tradition of Brahams and Liszt, was also felt by the audience.

Peter Collins