Notos bring chamber concerts to conclusion

Music The Germany-based Notos Piano Quartet conclude the current series of Chichester Chamber Concerts in The Assembly Room in the Chichester Council House in North Street on Thursday, March 28 at 7.30pm.

Sindri Lederer (violin), Andrea Burger (viola),

Philip Graham (cello) and Antonia Köster (piano) combine to offer Mozart – Piano Quartet in E flat K493; Françaix – Divertissement for Piano Quartet (1935); and Schumann – Piano Quartet in E flat Op 47.

They last played in Chichester at the end of 2016 and they have very happy memories, both of the city and of the series.

“What is nice is that whenever you play in Chichester, you also play in Lewes,” says Philip.

“It is very nice to be playing for music societies in England. You stay with families.

“We come quite often to England. We have signed to a new agency this summer there in London, so it will be more in the next few years. We have got three concerts in March and then we will be back in May for the Wigmore Hall and then again later.

“The English music societies are very similar to the German music societies, but it is becoming more and more difficult to keep these societies up and running in Germany.

“They are organised by the members who are doing it for the fun of it, but the members can be getting on in age and it can be difficult to find people to do the organising.”

“We have got lots of opera houses and tons of great orchestras in Germany.

“In Berlin alone there must be eight or nine, and all of that is state-funded, but chamber music is not supported by the government.

“It is a very vibrant music scene in Germany, but chamber is not so easy.”

The quartet came into existence in 2007: “But the formation now is not the original formation. As usually happens, some players will go off in different directions. In the course of 11 or 12 years, two of us have changed. I am the newest member. I came in three and a half, close to four years ago.

“In my case, it was very easy because my colleagues made it very easy for me. We got along with each other. We consider ourselves good friends, and that happened very quickly.

“In terms of suddenly playing lots of concerts and organising yourself, that was new to me, but you get used to it very quickly.

“It helped that it all just clicked between us.

“We see each other basically every day with a few exceptions. I would say that we probably do 60 to 70 concerts a year. There might be a month where there are no concerts and then there might be a month when there are lots. It depends on the season.”

In terms of profile, it helps that the quartet is in a unique position.

“We are not a string quartet. We are a piano quartet, and there are not many of those. There is one other piano quartet in Germany which is a generation older than us. In our generation, we are the only full-time working piano quartet in Germany.”

It means that there is a huge amount of repertoire they can explore.

“There are so many works that have been forgotten about or are hidden, but works which are important.”

Tickets for the Chichester Chamber Concerts series are available from Chichester Festival Theatre on 01243 781312.