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Tom Morris and Aldeburgh Music
We recently enjoyed a week’s residency in Aldeburgh’s Snape Maltings with Tom Morris – director of War Horse and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre – discovering one of Beethoven’s late quartets, Opus 131. We were fortunate to have the rare luxury of the week’s work not necessarily having to culminate in a performance, so we were at liberty to pursue many different creative paths. Tom treated us like honorary actors, leading us through many weird and wonderful improvisation and co-ordination games, thus helping us to lose some of our inhibitions, and establish deeper connections with one another and ourselves. Often these games would flow into musical improvisations, resulting in a freedom that is often difficult to achieve, due to interfering and inhibiting thoughts. All of this was interspersed with some very detailed analysis of Beethoven’s Opus 131. We worked through the entire piece, trying to make sense of it in terms of plot, character and emotion – as one would with a piece of theatre. Opus 131 is the first late Beethoven Quartet that we have played together. From the outset (months prior to meeting Tom), we all felt a strong affinity with the work and each performance felt like an unbelievable privilege. However, I think we all felt that this week’s work culminated in a stronger, more vivid interpretation of the piece. On our final day, we decided to share some of the work we’d been doing with a select audience in Snape. Tom recited some beautiful prose by C.S Lewis (that eloquently put into words some of the emotions that are portrayed in op. 131), then we played a series of musical improvisations, and finally we performed the quartet in the round. It really was an infinitely inspiring week that we still haven’t left behind. We’re extremely grateful to the Aldeburgh Music for being so welcoming, and for providing us with the perfect place for such a project. Tom is taking over as Artistic Director of Bristol’s Old Vic this coming autumn. We’re very excited because he has plans for us to become the quartet in Residence. We’ll keep you posted of what this will entail!