23 – 26 June 2022 – Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival

Please click here to download our 2022 Festival booking brochure.

1 FESTIVAL OPENING

Thursday 23 June, 8pm

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Magnus Johnston, Ori Kam, Hannes Minnaar, Christopher Murray, Gary Pomeroy, Heath Quartet 

• Beamish Carnival Samba – Floreant!
• Haydn String Quartet in F minor, Op.20 No.5
• Schumann 6 Etudes in Canonic Form, Op.56 (arr Kirchner) for violin, cello and piano
• Beethoven String Quintet in C major, Op.29

Composed midway through his exploration of the string quartet (he composed 18 in three years between 1769-1772), Haydn’s Op.20, one of the Sun Quartets, is followed by Robert Schumann’s rarely performed Canonic Studies. Baroque in flavour, these studies – originally written for the pedal piano (a piano with additional pedal keyboard, which the Schumanns purchased to facilitate organ practice at home) – are performed here in Kirchner’s arrangement for piano trio. Beethoven’s only full length string quintet, a transitional work from his early style to second period, was composed in 1801, as he confronted the reality of his hearing loss. We open with Sally Beamish’s festive Carnival Samba, composed in 2003 for the Florestan Trio.

VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

2A+B HEATH QUARTET / YOUNG COMPOSERS

Expertly led by Sam Glazer, with performances by members of the world renowned Heath Quartet, we are delighted to present some of the new works composed by children from our partner primary schools in their workshops during the summer term in two interactive public concerts for all ages. Please note there are limited spaces for audience members to attend. Please indicate on the booking form if you would like to attend one of these concerts.

2A YOUNG COMPOSERS IN PEASMARSH 

Friday 24 June 10.30am

Members of the Heath Quartet, Sam Glazer, children from local primary schools

VENUE Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

2B YOUNG COMPOSERS IN WINCHELSEA

Friday 24 June 1pm 

Members of the Heath Quartet, Sam Glazer, children from local primary schools

VENUE St Thomas’ Church, Winchelsea

Education work at the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival is generously funded by Rother District Council, High Weald Arts Society, Sussex Community Foundation, the Rudi Martinus van Dijk Foundation and The Kowitz Family Foundation.

3 ORCHESTRAL CONCERT – VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

Friday 24 June, 8pm

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, James Crabb (soloists) 

Eloisa-Fleur Thom (director)  

12 Ensemble 

• Haydn Cello Concert No.1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1
• Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op.10
• JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major, BWV1048 (including a Slow Movement by Sally Beamish)
• Beamish    Seavaigers for violin, classical accordion and strings

Presumed lost until 1961, when the manuscript turned up amongst other papers in the Prague National Museum, Haydn’s early cello 

concerto is now considered fully authenticated and has claimed its place as an important work in the cello repertoire. Britten’s Frank Bridge Variations, a pillar of 20th Century string writing that launched Benjamin Britten’s career internationally, precedes Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, a work at the centre of the Baroque canon. Composed, unusually, with a brief Adagio (or violin cadenza) where a slow movement might have been, it is heard here with Sally Beamish’s improvisatory slow movement. The concert concludes with Sally Beamish’s evocation of the beauty and drama of the North Sea. Written in collaboration with soloists in the Celtic tradition (specifically Scottish fiddle and Celtic harp), the score of Seavaigers leaves space for soloists James Crabb and Anthony Marwood to depict their own perilous sea voyage. 

VENUE: St Mary’s Church, Rye

4 SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT

Saturday 25 June, 11.30am 

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Magnus Johnston, Ori Kam, Hannes Minnaar, Heath Quartet

• R Schumann Märchenbilder, Op.113 for viola and piano
• JS Bach 2-part canons from Art of Fugue, BWV1080
• Kurtág Signs, Games and Messages (excerpts for string trio)
• JS Bach Ricercar a 6 from ‘a Musical Offering’, BWV1079
• Brahms String Quartet in C minor, Op.51 No.1

Despite the first signs of mental turmoil on the horizon, Schumann’s gorgeous miniatures are full of beauty as he revisits the fantasy world of his earlier piano music. A selection of Kurtág’s exquisite Signs, Games and Messages, in which the composer looks for the purist musical expression through the most minimal means, follows Bach’s 2-part canons; published posthumously in 1751 for unspecified instrumentation, the Art of Fugue explores the contrapuntal possibilities contained in a single musical idea. Based on a single theme given to him by King Frederick the Great, Bach’s fugue in six voices is considered the high point of his remarkable collection of canons and fugues for solo keyboard, performed here by string sextet. Brahms’ first string quartet, preceded by 20 sketches of quartets that did not make it to publication, is the perfect example of the composer’s technique of developing variation, with an entire work developing from a single motif. 

VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

5 EARLY EVENING CONCERT

Saturday 25 June, 6.30pm

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Magnus Johnston, Ori Kam, Hannes Minnaar, Gary Pomeroy, Heath Quartet

• Mozart String Quintet No.1 in B flat major, K.174
• Britten String Quartet No.3 in G major, Op.94
• Korngold Suite for two violins, cello and piano left hand, Op.23

Mozart’s first viola quintet, in which the young Austrian explored the rich, dark tones of the instrument that so fascinated him, precedes Britten’s final major work. Completed in Venice during what he may have realised was to be his last visit, and premiered at The Maltings in Snape two weeks after his death, Britten’s third quartet references the composer’s opera Death in Venice, and is full of personal significance. Composed at the age of 32 (a late work in the scheme of things – the prodigious Korngold’s ballet, The Snowman, took Vienna by storm when he was just 11), his remarkable Op.23 was commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, determined to resume his career following the loss of his arm in WWI.  

VENUE Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

6 LATE NIGHT CONCERT – JAMES CRABB: TANGO AND FRIENDS

Saturday 25 June, 9.45pm

• Piazzolla (arr.Crabb) 3 Tangos: SVP; Tzigane Tango; Preparense
• McPherson Stramash
• Scottish set Mary Scot; Cuckold out of the Amery
• Gardel (arr.J. Williams) Por una Cabeza
• Piazzolla (arr.Crabb) Chiquilin de Bachin (acc, vln)
• Piazzolla (arr.Crabb) Escualo

James Crabb, Richard Lester, Anthony Marwood, Gary Pomeroy

Join world famous classical accordionist, James Crabb, and festival directors Anthony Marwood and Richard Lester, for an atmospheric night to remember including a celebration of the fiery Argentinian tango.

VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

7 SUNDAY MORNING CONCERT – GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

Sunday 26 June, 11.30am

Hannes Minnaar

• JS Bach Goldberg Variations for keyboard, BWV988 

‘The musical richness and internal logic of the variations had kept me refreshed and grounded….. The opportunity to share this music turned the series of concerts into an emotional reunion with my audiences.’ – Hannes Minnaar on performing the Goldberg Variations during 2020

Following his critically acclaimed tour of churches in the Netherlands, pianist Hannes Minnaar brings his performance of Bach’s divine Goldberg Variations to Peasmarsh.

VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

8 SUNDAY AFTERNOON – MUSICAL TALK: SALLY BEAMISH AND JAMES CRABB

Sunday 26 June, 4.30pm

Prolific composer and celebrated viola player, Sally Beamish, and world famous accordionist, James Crabb, discuss their lives in music. Illustrated with musical performances. 

VENUE Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

9 FESTIVAL FINALE

Sunday 26 June, 7pm

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, James Crabb, Magnus Johnston, Ori Kam, Hannes Minnaar, Heath Quartet

• Haydn String Quartet in B flat, Op. 50 No. 1
• Korngold Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Op.11 for violin and classical accordion (transcribed by J Crabb)
• Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34

Originally for small pit orchestra, and later expanded for the concert hall, Korngold arranged his lush and imaginative incidental music for violin and piano for a production of Much Ado which was so successful that the run was extended beyond the availability of the musicians. It is heard here performed by violin and classical accordion. Beginning life first as a string quintet, the young Brahms’s Op.34 was reimagined, following some constructive criticism from Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann, as a sonata for two pianos, before finally emerging as the piano quintet that we know today. 

VENUE: Church of St Peter & St Paul, Peasmarsh

photos: Walter van Dyk

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