Blog
Happy Christmas from the Sacconis
As Christmas approaches, we thought it high time to send out a newsletter to keep everyone up to date with recent events and exciting things to come. It has been a busy year, and as it draws to a close, we feel it has been the most exciting to date.
We felt so privileged to be able to start our own festival in Folkestone, and we couldn’t have hoped for a better start. The church proved to be a really wonderful venue, and Folkestone itself charmed our friends who were visiting for the first time. The warm sunny weather certainly lifted everyone’s spirits, allowing people to enjoy scenic seaside walks during the day. The town is continuing to improve at a pace, and this regeneration is set to continue, with a new arts centre to be open by festival time next year (15th-17th May).
The festival was a coming together of two strands; the traditional performances, which took place mainly at St Mary’s Church, with its welcoming atmosphere and warm acoustic and the education and outreach projects. These outreach projects are set to grow, but even in the first year, we reached out to a large audience who would not normally have had the chance to experience chamber music. It is difficult to pick out highlights, but the still, attentive group of teenage refugees, who listened intently to an hour of string quartet music was poignant and reminds us of the potency of live music. Thinking back to the concerts in the church, the Schubert quintet on the last night with Guy Johnston will remain in our memories and left us feeling ecstatic but exhausted! We’re enormously excited about next year.
Aside from the festival, we’d like to share with you a few other memorable musical events from the past year. Firstly, we were very excited to be invited to play in Madrid for the very prestigious Liceo de Cámara festival. There, we performed all three Haydn op. 54 quartets and premiered Robin Holloway’s 2nd quartet. This was a very prestigious concert, playing Haydn in the same series as many other quartets that we greatly admire, and presenting a piece that was written for us by one of our greatest British composers. Words can’t express how honoured we feel to have had this amazing piece written for us.
We also made our Vienna debut at the Musikverein, where we performed in the stunning Brahms Salle. It is always so exciting to play in venues that are steeped in rich musical history. We took a break in our rehearsal and wandered next door to the main hall where we were thrilled to find Daniel Barenboim conducting the Vienna Philharmonic!
Performing alongside Acoustic Triangle on our “3 Dimensions” tour of the UK cathedrals and abbeys has been a wonderful experience. The trio’s bass player and leader, Malcolm Creese has done a marvelous job in organising and publicising this unique venture. The music-making is exhilarating and challenging, with part written, part improvised works from composers Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock. The compositions allow spontaneity and freedom to flow freely within a comprehensive structure. Each building we play in has a completely different shape and acoustic, so each performance is approached in a fresh, unique way. Improvising is such an important medium for expressing one’s self, and as classical quartet players it is very good for us to be exposed to and included in this excursion away from the written page!
Many of you will have heard about the brand new concert hall in London – Kings Place. We were very fortunate to give their first chamber concert earlier this year, in order to demonstrate the ambience and acoustic to the members of the London Chamber Music Society, who will move from Conway Hall to Kings Place from next year. We were amazed by the hall’s sleek architecture and impressive acoustic. The owner of Kings Place, Peter Millican has some really exciting and visionary plans for the hall. We are delighted to be curating a series of concerts there between 4th – 7th March 2009.
We are very happy to say that we have recently become resident quartet at Imperial College London. Through this we will be giving several recital throughout the year, plus coaching ensembles from IC. This sits well with our continuing relationship as New Genearation Artists just up the road at the Royal College of Music.
It’s been a long time since we were in the studio as opposed to on the stage, so we are delighted to announce the imminent launch of Sacconi Records. Early next year, our first disc on the label will be released, with the three Haydn op.54 quartets. This will be followed by a disc with the Lalo and Ravel quartets, plus a little extra! Keep an eye on the website for the release dates.
Happy Christmas!
Ben Hancox, Hannah Dawson, Robin Ashwell, Cara Berridge