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Malvern Concert Club
Founded by Sir Edward Elgar in 1903
President:
Michael Kennedy CBE
Registered Charity 506329 Hon. Assistant Secretary: Ernie Kay MBE,
76 Graham Road, Malvern, Worcs. WR14
2HU Tel: 01684 567917 Email: ekmalv@tiscali.co.uk MALVERN CONCERT CLUB
- 106 years young
Did Sir
Edward Elgar ever imagine that the Club he and Troyte Griffith founded in 1903
to ‘bring the best of chamber music to his home area’ would be fulfilling
the same mission in 2008? Yet this
is the case and following the huge success of 2007-08, Malvern Concert Club
looks forward with great enthusiasm to its 106th successive season.
Last year included the Club’s 500th concert, a sell out recital by
the great British soprano Dame Felicity Lott with the eminent pianist Graham
Johnson. This, and the
concert of South American choral music by Ex Cathedra, both sold out the 600+
seat Forum at Malvern Theatres, and all the other events had more than
satisfactory, and highly enthusiastic. 2008-09
aims to maintain these high standards and the Club can report with pleasure
higher membership, which provides season tickets at a considerable financial
advantage, than at this point last year. Indeed
they are bigger than for any year since the Theatre’s reopening in 1997.
75% of our audience are members and thus have
season tickets. Nic Lloyd,
Chief Executive of Malvern Theatres, said, in a recent Birmingham Post
interview, that ‘we have a very strong music club here which promotes chamber
music, so here’s a good base [for a concert audience]’.
The Club is happy to endorse this view and welcomes the strong links with
its venue. We are in total control
of the choice of artists and programmes (and take full financial responsibility)
for our concerts but it is useful that our events fit into the total
presentations of a thriving arts venue and can take advantage of its publicity
facilities. To
satisfy and retain our large number of patrons, we have to fashion our
programmes with care and mix and match the new and contemporary with the
familiar. It is inevitably a high
cost, high income, operation by concert club standards and we must never be
complacent and always remember that each season starts with zero membership.
Adverse economic winds could well hit us but we do have a loyal and keen
arts community in Malvern. Apart
from one shining example, we have not been successful in attracting an audience
from local schools – ‘they are too busy making their own music’ is the
usual story. We are
grateful for continuing support from the Elmley Foundation and we have a small
number of welcome advertisers and business patrons – but over 80% of our costs
are met from the box office. Arts
Council and local authority aid is only available for very special projects and
then at a minimal level. The
2008-09 season begins with old friends, the prestigious Nash Ensemble on
25 September, this time playing Mozart’s greatest piano quartet and Dvorak’s
greatest piano quintet, plus the Mahler piano quartet which has not been heard
before at the Club. On 23 October
the Gould Piano Trio, with Robert Plane (clarinet) bring Beethoven and
Brahms followed by the intensely moving Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time,
written while he was in a German prison camp.
The concert celebrates this composer’s centenary. The Club
always seeks to promote rising stars and this season the prize winning
Anglo-Irish Carducci Quartet will, on 13 November, bring us their vibrant
and exciting performances of works by Haydn, Ravel and Mendelssohn.
On January 29 our Baroque concert features the great Steven Isserlis
playing baroque ‘cello with harpsichordist Maggie Cole in a feast of
Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. On 12
March, the concert by the Dante Quartet, a group whose recordings have
secured glowing reviews, celebrates several anniversaries. The fourth quartet of one of our Vice Presidents, John
McCabe, marks his 70th birthday and was written to mark the 250th
anniversary of the birth of Haydn, one of his great enthusiasms. The concert
also celebrates Purcell’s 350th and Mendelssohn’s 200th
birthdays There is
no solo piano recital this season, but this gave a window to engage the eminent
baritone, Roderick Williams, with Susie Allan, piano, to give a
song recital of works by Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven and Wolf on 7 May
to provide a rousing close to season 106. As
always, Club membership is attractive both for the sense of belonging to the
Club and for the ticket discounts; please ring Membership Secretary Jean Upton
01684 567993 for details. Tickets
for individual concerts are now on sale at Malvern Theatres, 01684 892277 or
on-line at www.malvern-theatres.co.uk
. The Club’s web site, with
further details of artists and concerts, is at www.malvern-concert-club.co.uk
Ernie Kay, Hon. Assistant Secretary (Publicity) 14 08 08 [ends
– further information from Honorary Secretary, Mrs Linda Jennings, 01684
561513] |
Send
questions or comments about this web site to ekmalv@tiscali.co.uk
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