Oxford Chamber Music Festival

Holywell Music Room

Friday 28 September 2007, 1 pm

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)
Priya Mitchell (violin)
Vladimir Mendelssohn (viola)
Lars Anders Tomter (viola)
Jan-Erik Gustafsson (cello)
Pieter Wispelwey (cello)
Zoran Marković (double bass)
Julius Drake (piano)
Janne Thomsen (flute)
Philippe Berrod (clarinet)
Bram van Sambeek (bassoon)
Olivier Darbellay (horn)
Jana Bouskova(harp)

Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for harp with flute, clarinet and string quartet
Franz Berwald: Grand Septet in B flat major
Michael Berkeley: Last Breath, for flute and harp (UK premiere)
Edward Elgar: Sonata in E minor for violin and piano, Op. 82

What the critics say

Giles Woodforde, Oxford Times, 4 October 2007

As Oxford Chamber Music Festival artistic director Priya Mitchell pointed out in a programme note, the number has an almost limitless range of connotations – seven wonders of the world, and seven deadly sins among them.

In this lunchtime concert, the number turned up first in Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro – it’s scored for seven players. But it isn’t a case of seven equals, for the harp gets the solo spotlight – the work was commissioned by a harp manufacturer. Here, Jana Bouskova (pictured) produced a breathtaking array of different tone-colours and effects, sometimes even making the harp sound as if we were listening to it outdoors. If the original harpist was as skilled as this, the commissioning manufacturer must have been thrilled.

From well known Ravel to a rarity: Swedish composer Franz Berwald’s Grand Septet in B flat major, first performed in Stockholm in 1828. Like the Ravel, the work was played with tremendous flair, zest, and commitment – a testament to Priya Mitchell’s policy of engaging top-class musicians who really want to work together. But the performance invited a question: why on earth isn’t this gloriously sunny and melodious piece better known? Berwald certainly provides a dash of inner warmth to help combat long, dark Scandinavian winters.

A small niggle – wouldn’t the Berwald have provided an ideal finale to the concert? As it was, it came second, to be followed by two smaller-scale works.

First of these was the UK premiere of OCMF composer-in-residence Michael Berkeley’s Last Breath, scored for harp and flute (Janne Thomsen). Both gently lyrical and strongly attacking, the music to me suggested various different types of wind blowing through trees, sometimes warm, but at other times distinctly chilly.

Finally, in this most varied and satisfying concert, Priya Mitchell and Julius Drake played Elgar’s Sonata in E minor for violin and piano, in a powerful, and raw-edged performance that sometimes suggested Brahms rather than Elgar.

Selected concerts from this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during the week beginning November 12.