Silver Lining Concerts –

11am & 5pm, Sunday October 4, Martinborough Town Hall

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the saying goes. For the Martinborough Music Festival (MMF) team it has certainly turned out to be a truism.

Last month’s STAR saw the annual Festival in September cancelled because of Covid 19. The border regulations put in place to control the virus meant that our overseas musicians would not be coming – quarantine requirements made their visit untenable.

As we went into lockdown, there was a huge question mark over whether we would be able to hold a festival of any sort at all. This is when the silver lining began to show itself. Due to the diligent efforts of New Zealanders observing the restraints of lockdown which resulted in no community transmissions, the Covid curve was flattened sufficiently so events could take place without attendance restrictions. The MMF team together with the gifted and resourceful MMF Artistic Directors, Vicki Jones and Wilma Smith, began working on a plan for a “two concerts on one day” programme to make up for the cancelled Festival. 

Cancellation of the annual Festival meant that the date for the two-concert performance had to be rescheduled. This turned out to be a continuation of the silver lining for MMF. The NZSO musicians who were unavailable to participate this year because of conflicting schedules were now available. All top-drawer players, they have participated in the MMF before. For our Artistic Directors, this provided a seamless transition from the offshore musicians to those from the NZSO. 

NZSO Vesa-Matti Leppänen concert master (violin), Nicholas Hancox (viola), Ken Ichinose (cello) and Matthias Balzat (cello) will join the other NZ based string musicians, Monique Lapins (violin) and Gillian Ansell (viola). The Schimmel Grand keyboard will once again be graced by the hands of the much-loved concert pianist, Diedre Irons.  The silver lining is completed with this stellar line-up. 

Dohnányi (Serenade in C Major, Op 10 for string trio), Rachmaninov (Trio Élégiaque No1 in G Minor), Tchaikovsky (String Sextet in D Minor “Souvenir de Florence”, Op 70), Dvorák (Terzetto in C, Op 74), Mozart (String Quintet No 4 in G Minor, K516) and Brahms (Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op 34) are the works being performed over the two concerts. Favourites of Vicki Jones are the Brahms, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Tune into the playlist on Spotify via the MMF website to check out excerpts from these and the other chamber music compositions. 

Visit the MMF website for booking details www.martinboroughmusicfestival.co.nz

      Winifred Bull

Photo caption  NZ Symphony Orchestra concert master, Vesa-Matti Leppänen