 |
| Fitzwilliam Quartet at the Assembly House, Norwich |
The inaugural concert of the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club fell on 26th May 1951 given by the London Harpsichord Ensemble in the elegant surroundings of the Music Room of the restored Georgian-built Assembly House, a ‘crowning glory’ of the fine city of Norwich.
Along with the historic cities of Bath, Exeter, Canterbury and York, Norwich was targeted in two major Baedeker raids during the nights of 27th-28th April and 29th-30th April 1942. The raids formed part of a series of retaliatory attacks by the Luftwaffe on historic English cities following the RAF’s bombing of Lübeck.
Therefore, following the end of the Second World War, Norwich, like many other English cities and towns, was down at heel, slowly recovering and finding its feet and thankfully cultural activity was high on the agenda. Narrowly, the Theatre Royal survived the bombing but offered very basic fare while the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival was held over a handful of days in 1947, 1951 and 1955 with a variety of small amateur groups holding fort.
The mainstay of the classical-music scene was the Norwich Philharmonic Society founded in 1839, three years after the founding of the Huddersfield Choral Society, by Frank Noverre, grandson of French dancer, Augustin Noverre, who in 1775 came to England with a corps de ballet at the invitation of David Garrick, one of England’s greatest actors, who at that time was manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the dancers appeared.
Noverre - whose uncle, incidentally, was Jean-Georges Noverre and known as the ‘father of modern dance’ - also established a prominent dancing academy in Norwich in 1793 based at the Assembly House and it’s fitting and proper, I feel, that the ballroom of this fine building is named after the Noverre family.
A well-respected amateur body, the Norwich Philharmonic Society offered a regular series of orchestral and choral concerts in St Andrew’s Hall engaging professional soloists and from time to time promoted the occasional celebrity recital. For instance, I well remember (and attended) the piano recital that Ukrainian-born pianist, Benno Moisewitsch, gave in St Andrew’s Hall in the 1950s. Virtually, though, there were no professional chamber-music recitals.
Against this rather spartan background and by the initiative of the Norwich Philharmonic Society a meeting of local music representatives was convened with a view of creating an independent body to co-ordinate chamber-music activities.
Conveniently, the Georgian-built Assembly House (originally used by the Girls’ Public Day School Trust (Norwich High School for Girls) from 1876 to 1939 had just been restored and refurbished to its former glory by the prominent Norwich shoe manufacturer, Henry Jesse Sexton, who presented it to the city for public use.
Therefore, when the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club formed on 31st March 1951, they found a ready-made home utilizing the elegant Music Room of this delightful ornate property in which, may I add, the famed ‘devil’s violinist’, Niccolò Paganini, thrilled a packed house in August 1831.
His visit rests alongside other ‘celebrity’ performances at the venue topped by the renowned Hungarian pianist/composer, Franz Liszt, who dazzled yet another full house in his recital of September 1840 as part of his Grand Tour of England, Scotland and Ireland during the height of ‘Lisztomania’.
The driving force behind the club was, undoubtedly, Mr W J Dearnaley, Head of Town Close School. He was the club’s first chairman and very determined that music-making in Norwich would be at the highest possible level therefore invited Benjamin Britten to become the club’s president.
For the club’s first season the programme had been planned by committee (under the stewardship and strong guidance of Mr Dearnaley) but in March 1952, Miriam Cannell was appointed the club’s Hon. Sec. and assumed responsibility for programme planning.
 |
| Mrs Miriam Cannell, Norfolk & Norwich Music Club's first Hon. Sec. |
Over the course of the next few years a host of national and international musicians made their way to Norwich including the likes of Dennis Brain (French horn), Julian Bream (classical guitar), Osian Ellis (harp), Léon Goossens (oboe), Nina Milkina (piano), Flora Nielsen (soprano), Gervase de Peyer (clarinet) and the prominent cellists William Pleeth and Paul Tortelier as well as many eminent international string quartets, too, such as the Tátrai and the Bartók from Hungary as well as the Janáček from Czechoslovakia.
However, tremendously keen to promote young artists at the start of their careers, Miriam welcomed to Norwich such young bloods as pianists John Ogden and Stephen Bishop (Kovacevich), the Dutch recorder-player, Franz Brüggen and the gifted and talented Lindsay, Chilingirian and Takács string quartets. And through her hospitality and encouragement many of them returned to the club as well-established solo musicians or ensembles.
A delightful person all round, Miriam conceived many friendships over her long association with the Music Club especially with the Nash Ensemble who came on eight occasions including a special concert to mark her retirement in June 1996 after more than 40 years’ devoted service in which time she promoted well over 350 concerts.
Following in her wake came Norfolk-born music aficionado, Roger Rowe, who took the reins of programme organiser from the beginning of the 1996-97 season. He enjoyed a good innings, too, retiring at the age of 80 after 22 years’ service in 2017. Roger was awarded an MBE in 2008 for voluntary service to music from Prince Charles now, of course, the King.
An excellent raconteur, Roger has kept many a dinner-party guest riotously entertained while politely putting a few musicians in their place, too. ‘I can honestly say that a great many of musicians are inveterate smokers,’ Roger fondly recalls, ‘and that’s something which has caused a certain amount of embarrassment for me over the years. For instance, I well remember having a problem with Sir Malcolm Arnold when he was guest of honour at a post-concert party at the Assembly House. He lit up an enormous cigar directly below a very large sign saying ‘‘no smoking’’ obviously incurring the wrath of the management.
‘A very similar incident occurred at the John Innes Centre during the Borodin Quartet’s memorable Beethoven cycle in 1996 surrounding their distinguished veteran cellist, Valentin (Mr) Berlinsky, a compulsive smoker and lover of malt whisky. He completely ignored my tactful advice that if he wished a quick fag, he would have to go outside.
‘However, in the middle of the concert series, an irate security guard faced me to say that the concert must be abandoned as someone had been found smoking thereby sparking off the entire site security alarm system.’ Mr Berlinsky was found sitting having a quiet drag in the atrium behind his dressing-room but Roger, in his infinite wisdom, smoothed things over in true diplomatic style and the show went on.
A temperamental and fussy international pianist, though, gave Roger a massive run-around over the needs of a piano stool for him to do his job effectively. ‘So many musicians have particular requirements, I’m quite used to it,’ said a bemused Roger. ‘Take, for instance, the famous 19th-century Russian opera singer, Chaliapin, he loved a rare steak 30 minutes before he went on stage.
‘However, the pianist in question did not demand a rare steak but demanded something more difficult, a rare-size 15-inch-high piano stool. Believe me, that’s very low,’ exclaimed Roger. ‘Therefore, after his rehearsal he pointed out that if the right stool couldn’t be found he would cancel the recital and return to London.
‘Fortunately, Cooke’s piano shop in St Benedict’s Street, Norwich (now no longer trading) was still open. Thankfully, I managed to purchase what I thought was the right piano stool but, sadly, that turned out not to be the case. I quickly had to find a saw to cut through the legs to the exact height the pianist requested.
‘After all the comings and goings, the pianist then demanded an adjustment be made minutes before he was about to go on. And to add more drama to the case and to the amazement and bewilderment of a packed house, he insisted on carpet tiles being placed under the legs of the stool.’
 |
| Roger Rowe receiving his MBE in 2006 |
Most of the concerts, though, went without a hitch and most of them were held, of course, at the Assembly House with occasional excursions to Blackfriars’ Hall. However, in April 1995, fire destroyed a significant part of the Assembly House including the Music Room and during the rebuilding period the club decamped principally to the United Reformed Church in Princes Street, Norwich but other venues, too, including the Walter Roy Theatre (Hewett Academy), Masonic Lodge (St Giles’ Street) and Blackfriars’ Hall.
But when the club returned to the Assembly House in June for the last concert of the 1996-97 season, there were limitations imposed on the seating capacity in the aftermath of the fire as well as car-park restrictions thereby making this lovely and inviting venue increasingly difficult for the club to carry on there.
A new venue was needed and after a successful trial concert in May 1998 (sponsored by Norwich-based company, Property Partnerships) at the John Innes Centre, a modern, spacious and purpose-built auditorium with a seating capacity of 320 on Norwich Research Park, the club moved there on a permanent basis as from April 1999.
The acoustics, seat comfort and sightlines of John Innes coupled with improved bar and foyer space as well as improved back-stage facilities and, of course, free parking, became a huge draw for club members. The move to John Innes increased the number of concerts per season expanding from around ten to fifteen while the adjoining seminar rooms also meant that it was possible to organise pre-concert talks and interviews with musicians.
A chamber-music weekend was pioneered in January 2000 which became a popular event in the club’s calendar. Over the years leading musicians have been invited to curate the weekend. Hosts have included the Borodin Quartet, Natalie Clein (cello), Michael Collins (clarinet) and Steven Isserlis (cello) as well as pianists Julius Drake, François-Frédéric Guy and Pascal Rogé.
Additionally, an extra series of concerts have often been staged featuring particular themes. For instance, in March 2004, the Borodin Quartet performed the complete Beethoven cycle in six concerts over a period of eight days returning in 2006 to celebrate Shostakovich’s centenary performing the composer’s fifteen quartets in five concerts over nine days.
In April 2010, the Guarneri Piano Trio from Prague performed Beethoven’s complete works for piano trio and in the spring of 2011 the distinguished French pianist, François-Frédéric Guy, presented the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas in ten recitals. Some were held at the Assembly House but most of them at John Innes.
For their 60th anniversary (26th June 2011) the club returned to the Assembly House when the Finzi and Idomeneo string quartets performed the Mendelssohn Octet while in October 2011, the Takács Quartet performed all six Bartók quartets over a weekend.
And to celebrate the centenary of the club’s first president, Benjamin Britten, four concerts were held in November 2013 featuring almost all his chamber music. He harboured strong feelings for Norwich truly strengthened, of course, when he became president of the Music Club in 1951.
Although born a Suffolk boy on 22nd November 1913 (which also happens to be St Cecilia’s Day, the patron saint of music) at 21 Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft, Edward Benjamin Britten (he dropped his first name early in life), the son of a dentist and an amateur choral-singing mother, he forged his early musical talents in Norfolk in particular in the fine city of Norwich. From the tender age of 10, he regularly visited the city for viola lessons with Mrs Audrey Alston, a good friend of his mother and a member of the Norwich String Quartet.
She was heavily involved with classical music in Norwich and practically knew everyone in the music business including the eminent Brighton-born composer, Frank Bridge, who studied at the Royal College of Music from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford. He lodged with Mrs Alston while attending meetings of the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival at St Andrew’s Hall, the ‘home’ of the festival since its founding as a triennial event in 1824 but the festival originated in 1772 as a series of fundraising concerts and services at Norwich Cathedral to support the newly established Norfolk & Norwich Hospital.
What could well be said to be an important part of Britten’s musical education occurred at St Andrew’s Hall on 30th October 1924 when he witnessed Frank Bridge conducting his suite for orchestra, The Sea, while three years later, on 27th October 1927, Mrs Alston urged Bridge (who was in the city conducting the première of his latest work, Enter Spring) to meet the young aspiring Suffolk-born composer. Reluctantly, he agreed to her request but following an inspection of Britten's music, he heartily accepted him as one of his very few composition pupils.
Dutiful as ever and as president of the club, Britten presided over several song-recitals in the 1950s and 1960s with Peter Pears. Their first recital (27th October 1951) included The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo composed by Britten in 1940 especially for Pears. Comprising settings of seven sonnets (all love songs, of course) by the Italian painter and poet, Michelangelo, the work was sung in the original language.
They delivered yet another brilliant song-recital at the Assembly House on 30th January 1954 featuring a performance of Britten’s Canticle No.1 as well as a selection of his folk-song arrangements while a further song-recital came about on 26th May 1961 which included a performance of Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (Six Hölderlin Fragments), a song-cycle for high voice and piano composed by Britten in 1958 comprising settings of short poems and verse fragments by the German 18th/19th-century lyric-poet, Friedrich Hölderlin.
Over the course of a couple of seasons (2012 / 2014), the Elias Quartet presented their series of the complete Beethoven quartets and in the 2014-15 season, Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien, presented the complete Mozart violin sonatas in five recitals.
The Borodin Quartet with Michael Collins returned to John Innes to mark Roger Rowe’s 80th birthday on 6th June 2017 who, on his retirement, was duly elected president of the club and Misha Donat, writer, lecturer and senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 for more than 25 years, became programme director from the commencement of the 2017-18 season.
Following in his wake came Richard Wigmore, a writer for BBC Music Magazine and The Gramophone, who took over programming from the 2023-24 season. He read French and German at Cambridge and later studied music at the Guildhall. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn.
And to celebrate the club’s Silver Jubilee in 1976, the Suffolk-based composer, William Alwyn, was commissioned to write a string quartet. Therefore, Alwyn’s String Quartet, No.2, entitled ‘Spring Waters’, was performed by the Gabrieli Quartet and broadcast by the BBC at a concert from Blackfriars’ Hall on 29th May 1976 and subsequently recorded by the Quartet of London (Chandos) and the Maggini Quartet (Naxos) in 1980.
For the 30th anniversary concert in 1981, the club commissioned Anthony Payne to write a song-cycle for his wife, the soprano, Jane Manning, who was born in Norwich. Therefore, Evening Land: a cycle of poems from Pär Lagerkvist’s Aftonland received its première by Jane Manning accompanied by John McCabe on 4th April 1981.
There has been a policy of the club commissioning (or co-commissioning) works preferably from composers with local connections since 1997. For instance, David Bedford, who had been composer-in-residence at the 1996 and 1997 Norfolk & Norwich Festival was commissioned to write a string quartet and his Second Quartet received its first performance at John Innes by the Schidlof Quartet on 30th May 1997 and encored at the 1998 N&N Festival.
The Mandelring Quartet from Germany also gave the première of David Matthews’ Eighth Quartet on 29th November 1998 while the Norfolk-based composer, Douglas Weiland, was appointed composer-in-residence in 2000 and invited to write a variety of compositions over an eight-year period.
This resulted in a Piano Quartet (Pro Arte Quartet - 25/03/00), the Piano Trio, Op.32 (Altenberg Trio - 09/04/05), the Third Cello Suite (Steven Isserlis - 12/11/05 and 13/11/05), the Clarinet Quintet (Andrew Marriner/The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble - 25/03/06) and the Third String Quartet (Hamer Quartet - 29/03/08).
Also in 2000, the Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s composer-in-residence, Howard Skempton, was commissioned to write a short piano piece entitled Whispers for Viv McLean who won First Prize at the 2002 Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona. A quiet and spacious miniature, the work challenges the performer’s ability to play within the lowest dynamic range of the piano.
However, the first female composer to be commissioned by the club, Anna Meredith - widely recognized for her genre-defying work that spans classical, electronic and pop music - came up trumps with a sextet (scored for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano) entitled Railgun performed by the Chroma Ensemble on 24th September 2011. Highly characterized as a fast-paced contemporary piece (lasting a mere eight minutes) the work encompassed a striking energetic soundscape thus giving it edge, excitement and so much more to the pleasure of a packed and appreciative house.
And when Gordon Crosse came to prominence as a composer at Aldeburgh in the 1960s, he became a natural choice to write a couple of pieces in which to celebrate Benjamin Britten’s centenary. The first piece was a string quartet acting as a companion piece to the composer’s Divertimento.
Aptly entitled Blyth Postcards the work received its first performance by the Carducci Quartet on 23rd November 2013 while the second piece for solo cello, Little Bu, written especially for David Cohen, who performed it on 27th January 2017.
The Carducci Quartet also gave the first performance of Kemal Yusef’s string quartet OYUN, another club commission, on 18th February 2017 while the BBC Third Programme/Radio 3 has broadcast live or recorded a considerable number of concerts over the years.
The celebrated Amadeus Quartet visited the club on three occasions in company with other such distinguished musicians as Julian Bream, Osian Ellis, Gerald Moore and William Pleeth while the famous Bartók and Janáček quartets (with original members) came in the 1950s and the Takács Quartet (in their original formation) in 1987.
As an aside, one recital that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I’ve always remembered fell on the 25th February 1967 (a birthday treat for me, in fact, I was 27) given by the now legendary Austrian-born pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, who won a ‘special prize’ at the Second Van Cliburn International Piano Competition the year before he came to Norwich at the age of 21. His programme for the Music Club comprised Mozart’s Fantasie K397; Beethoven’s Sonata Op.31/3; Schubert’s Sonata in A D664; Chopin’s Etudes Op.10; Debussy’s ‘Pour le Piano’.
The founder and artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival, less than an hour’s drive from Vienna, Herr Buchbinder performs annually at the festival’s open-air stage the Wolkenturm (Cloud Tower) and the Auditorium concert hall often appearing with leading European orchestras such as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
The festival runs this year from 14th August to 6th September and Herr Buchbinder will be performing with the Danish National Symphony. And this year, too, the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall (formerly the Reitschule) opens to the public. A ‘box-in-a-box’ construction it safely ensures structural independence within the historic walls of the restored riding school.
However, the opening concert of Norwich Chamber Music’s 2026-27 season (Saturday, 12th September, 7.30pm) features Trio Gaspard offering a delightful and entertaining programme comprising Haydn’s Piano Trio in A flat major, No.14, Fauré’s Piano Trio, Rihm’s Fremde Szene II and Brahms’ Piano Trio in C minor, No.3, Op.101.
What promises a lovely and inviting violin/piano recital falls on Saturday 26th September featuring pianist Joe Tong and violinist Fenella Humphreys playing Beethoven’s Sonata in G, No.3, Op.30, Joseph Phibbs’ Violin Sonata and César Franck’s Sonata in A major, composed in 1886 for violinist Eugène Ysaÿe as a wedding gift.
The work’s famously demanding on both musicians featuring a stormy second movement and a joyful finale and is widely considered a cornerstone of the chamber repertoire celebrated for its cyclical structure and romantic intensity. A couple of works by Sibelius completes the programme: Sonatina, Op.80; Four Pieces, Op.115.
Highlights of the new season also include the Pavel Haas Quartet (Sunday 25th October) performing Pavel Haas’ String Quartet, No.3, Janáček’s String Quartet, No.1, Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ and Dvorák’s String Quartet in A flat, Op.105.
There’ll also be weekend dedicated to the music of Britten and Schubert featuring the Piatti Quartet offering a rather nice programme (Saturday 14th November) comprising Britten’s Three Divertimenti, Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor, D804 (Rosamunde) and Britten’s String Quartet No.1 in D major while the acclaimed tenor, James Gilchrist accompanied by the outstanding pianist, Anna Tilbrook, will perform a wide-reaching programme in their concert on Sunday 15th November to include songs, of course, by Britten and Schubert.
Furthermore, Leon Macauley’s piano recital (Saturday 10th October) features Mozart’s Sonata in G major, K283, Fanny Mendelssohn’s Notturno in G minor, H337, Beethoven’s Sonata in C major, No.3, Op.2, Grieg’s Ballade in G minor, Op.24, Fauré’s Nocturne in E flat major, No.4, Op.36 and Chopin’s Ballade in A flat major, No.3, Op.47 while on Saturday 5th December the Leonkoro Quartet play Haydn’s String Quartet, No.5, Op.76, Britten’s String Quartet, No.2, Op.36 and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, No.6, Op.80.
Come the new year, mezzo-soprano, Helen Charlston, accompanied by Sholto Kynoch, will include in their programme (Saturday 30th January) Schumann’s Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) composed 1840 and renowned for being the composer’s best-known song-cycle. The text for its 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine written in 1822-23.
Following a month late (Sunday 21st February) comes Lumas Winds, a dynamic young chamber ensemble comprising recent graduates from the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music founded in 2018 after forming friendships while playing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain while star pianist Danny Driver (Saturday 6th March) offers what promises an exciting and ravishing programme comprising Handel’s Suite No.5, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.
One of the up-and-coming young piano trios on the European chamber-music scene today receiving national and international awards is the Davidoff Piano Trio whose concert on Saturday, 20th March, focuses on works by Haydn and Beethoven while they’ll also perform Dvorák’s Piano Trio in E minor, No.4, Op. 90 - commonly known as the ‘Dumky’. One of the composer’s most famous chamber works it’s highly regarded for its unconventional structure blending Bohemian folk melodies with fiery dance-like rhythms.
Closing the 75th season of Norwich Chamber Music (Sunday 11th April) falls to the celebrated Chaos String Quartet (founded in Vienna in 2019) whose programme includes Stravinsky’s Trois pieces, short avant-garde studies that revolt against traditional string writing and Fauré’s String Quartet in E minor, Op.121.
A three-movement, introspective work, it’s often described as ethereal and serene reflecting an ‘other-worldly’ style that matured despite the composer’s failing health and hearing. It was the only chamber work Fauré wrote without piano and was completed in 1924 just months before his death at the age of 79.
And to celebrate NCM’s 75th anniversary (Sunday, 10th May) a special anniversary event will be held at the Noverre Ballroom of the Assembly House (running from 2pm to 5pm) lovingly recreating the very first concert the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club promoted there on 26th May 1951 featuring the London Harpsichord Ensemble.
This exclusive event will open with a drinks reception followed by a short programme performed by Hannah Perowne (violin) and John Crockatt (violin/viola) while a finger buffet follows allowing guests an opportunity of meeting other like-minded chamber-music aficionados to swap stories, reflect on past glories while looking forward to new musical adventures with, of course, Norwich Chamber Music.
To add to the afternoon’s proceedings, David Balcombe (NCM Chair), Roger Rowe (President) and Richard Wigmore (Artistic Director) will touch upon the past, comment on the present and talk about the future of Norwich Chamber Music, a much-loved and treasured Norwich-based music society heading for its centenary. Many an English batsman would love to knock up such a tally!
Happy 75th birthday. Cake all round!
Do check out the Assembly House’s series of monthly lunchtime concerts on Thursday - further details
Norwich Chamber Music 2026-27 season.
Priority booking opens on Saturday 1st August for both season ticket holders and regular members.
Membership and ticket prices remain unchanged.
Tickets for individual concerts - £34 (NCM members: £29).
Under-18s (free admission); 18-30-year-olds (£10).
Season tickets for 12 concerts: £260
The season brochure will be sent to all on NCM mailing list in May. However, if you’re not on the mailing list and wish to be so, please email membership@norwichchambermusic.org.uk
www.norwichchambermusic.org.uk
The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.
Elsewhere on this blog
- Not so much Verismo: Eleanor Burke's somewhat abstract staging of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci for English Touring Opera provides a fine setting for Ronald Samm's powerful performance as Canio - opera review
- Wonderful joy, energy, & sheer engagement: Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers from English Touring Opera, directed by Liam Steel - opera review
- He is not here: composer Oliver Tarney introduces his St Mark Passion with its highlighting of voices that we do not normally hear from - interview
- Handel's Rinaldo recast as pacey drama by Royal Academy of Music with some star quality in the solo roles - opera review
- All-IN-4Art with Bettina Bermbach of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (DSM, the German Foundation for Musical Life) - interview
- French fireworks & German heroes: David Butt Philip & Friends gala at St Paul's Opera, Clapham - opera review
- Memories of a County Kerry childhood & a travelling Scot: Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman & RVW's Songs of Travel at Wigmore Hall for St Patrick's Day - review
- Home
%20Richard%20Hubert%20Smith%20(3).jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment