Rochdale Music Society Concert: the Pleyel Ensemble

For the first of its series of four Spring Concerts, the Rochdale Music Society members of the Pleyel Ensemble brought two of the world’s most cherished chamber music works to Heywood Civic Centre on 11 March.

This Ensemble, formed in 2011, is a group of seasoned musicians based in Manchester who get together in various combinations to provide a very wide range of musical experience to share with those privileged to hear them play.

On this occasion the musicians who came to make music were the violinists Elsie Ewins and David Greed, the violist David Aspin, the cellist Heather Bills and clarinettist Jane Hilton. Their offerings were the Clarinet Quintets of Mozart and Brahms and the Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola by Martinu, an unusual, but telling juxtaposition.

The two Quintets have much in common, both being inspired by their composer’s encounter with a clarinettist - in Mozart’s case Anton Stadler and in Brahms’s Richard Mühlfeld - whose playing stirred their imagination into producing music of the highest order which they probably didn’t expect any more than their future performers and listeners were going to do!

Mozart died very young and his last years were troublesome. But in the course of them he found space to construct two works of exquisite design and expression for clarinet:- the Clarinet Concerto and this Quintet, both in the key of A major (most suitable for instruments ‘in A’, as players will confirm).

Filled with delicious melodies and delightful instrumental interplay, the Quintet will always appeal to audiences. When the performance is as artistically and technically accomplished as this one was, its appeal will be even greater.

The clarinet playing of Jane Hilton was finely tuned and shaped to every note and phrase of the music and the other players all demonstrated their skills as chamber musicians of the highest stature. It was an enchanting experience.

What do you play after the Mozart Quintet if you are going on to play the Brahms Quintet in the second half of your programme? A Good Question, answered on this occasion by a Very Good Answer: Martinu’s Madrigals for Violin and Viola which were inspired by some Mozart Duos performed by two of the composer’s friends, to whom they are dedicated.

Elsie Ewins and David Aspin provided an exemplary demonstration of how this exciting and passionate music, which demands some extreme concentration and exceptional musicianship, should be played.

Brahms’s Quintet came about as a result of the composer hearing in 1871 the playing of clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, who persuaded Brahms to come out of voluntary retirement and compose some more. Brahms went on to produce not only this remarkable work but also two Clarinet Sonatas and a series of piano pieces all of which are among his most masterly creations.

To review the performance of this music by the Pleyel Ensemble on 11 March 2023 is a privilege. It is with the greatest possible thanks to these five musicians, who have clearly got to the heart of its celebration of the sadness of things in a world where nothing lasts for ever yet in the meantime inexpressible delights are sometimes to be encountered, that I do so.

They may well have explored this music together many times of the years and become so familiar with it that it no longer poses insuperable challenges to their technical prowess, but the fact that they are able to get together and produce a performance of such commanding finesse and powerful impact throughout as this was, is testimony to their depth of appreciation of music’s capacity to overwhelm and satisfy and their ability to share this with their audience.

Long may such music making continue!

The Music Society’s next concert will be on 22 April when pianist Patrick Hemmerlé will bring a programme of Classical and Romantic masterpieces to Heywood Civic Centre. Details of tickets can be found on the website www.rochdalemusicsociety.org.

Graham Marshall