Highgate Festival concerts in full flow

Halfway through our week of festival concerts the excitement amongst both players and audience has been palpable. At last – real, live concerts!

Here are the Corran Quartet who kicked us off with Dvorak’s delightful American quartet  and Bartok’s fast, furious and heart rending String Quartet No 1 in A minor – Joana, Laura, Rebecca (hidden behind Molly) and Molly, the cellist.

Night two brought us the Korros Ensemble, Eliza on flute, Camilla on harp and Nick on clarinet, with a delightful programme of short pieces. This included the first ever live performance of Elizabeth Poston‘s Trio written specifically for their unusual combination of instruments. To give you a little taste, here they are playing de Falla’s Spanish Dance no. 1.

Sadly, the weather was not great for the first two days so our plans to offer chilled white wine in the school quadrangle came to nothing, but Wednesday was a beautiful June day, perfect both for the Chineke! concert at Lauderdale House and especially for the London Mozart Players in the OMVED gardens.

Here are Chineke! who gave a wonderfully rousing rendering of Schubert’s Trout Quintet at lunch time. We were especially delighted to have Chineke!’s founder, Chi-chi Nwanoku, although, as she pointed out, her presence was necessitated by the fact that they did not have a second violin available so all instruments had to step up a notch: the viola played the second violin’s part, the cello played the viola’s part and ChiChi on the double bass, played the cello part!

The concert had been organised about by another Highgate resident, film composer Jennie Muskett who, over lockdown, had set up a brilliant on line concert programme, Music With Love, streamed into both our living rooms and into care homes. You will be able to hear the Chineke! concert on their YouTube channel as of June 30th.

And then we were all able to just nip up the road to the amazing OMVED gardens, awash in great drifts of stunning poppies, borage, daisies, cornflowers and bee smothered catmint.

The London Mozart Players treated us to two performances of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Souvenir de Florence’ and Mozart’s Divertimento in D in the the great glass houses where OMVED hold their workshops. And between their perfomances, two music students whose homes are in Highgate, played for us in the evening sun.

And then again in the OMVED gardens on Thursday evening, Stacey Cohen talked about and played some tracks from her new album, Wild Service.

So what more is there to come?

On Friday evening, the Alacris Quartet are in the Highgate Chapel playing Haydn and Mendelssohn – but I am afraid that one is sold out.

And more Mendlessohn (this time the Hebrides Overture) on Saturday evening along with some Bach and Mozart with Ensemble Luce at the Highgate Reform Church. As far as I know, tickets are still available, so check in with them.

And finally, to close the show on Sunday……

4pm – 5pm – John Caird and Sir Mark Elder in conversation at
Lauderdale House.

Two of the arts world’s leading figures, both of them Highgate residents, come together for an informal and enlightening Sunday afternoon conversation, comparing notes on their remarkable careers and the contrasts and overlaps between them.

Buy tickets here – £5 per ticket

…and then….

Madeleine Mitchell and her London Chamber Ensemble play

Schubert’s  String Quartet in No.13 in A Minor – the Rosamund Quartet and Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10

6.30 – 7.30pm – Highgate School Chapel

A few tickets still left here – £20 per ticket

What a fantastic week!!