Chester season promises large scale mixed with intimacy

Oct 7 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

WHILE all eyes in the arts world have been on Liverpool for the past year, it’s easy to forget that there’s plenty of music being performed all around the region.

This week sees the start of this year’s Chester season which – as always – combines some large-scale performances in the cathedral with an outstanding series of chamber concerts given in the delightful St Mary’s Centre, adjacent to the castle in the city centre. The opening concert in the Celebrity season is given by the Manchester Camerata Ensemble, always a popular group on its Chester visits, tomorrow night.

This concert includes two quintets by Mozart – the string quintet and the clarinet quintet – as well as Brahms’s Second String Quintet.

The celebrity concerts continue at monthly intervals and include performances by violinist Jennifer Pike, accompanied by Ian Pike on the piano.

The Sirenian Singers give the pre-Christmas concert and will be performing music from six centuries including what they intriguingly call “unusual Christmas pieces” in their programme.

In the New Year, there’s a chance to hear an extremely wide-ranging and challenging programme, including saxophonist Amy Dickson with pianist Catherine Milledge while the Barbirolli Strinq Quartet will make an appearance and, in March, Dmytro Onyshenko – a prize-winner at the Moscow Inter-national Tchaikovsky Piano Competition – brings his astounding talent to Chester.

Interspersed with the Celebrity Concerts, Chester Music Society Choir will be performing under their conductor, Graham Jordan Ellis. In November, they give their own tribute to Vaughan Williams, who died 50 years ago this year, and include his stirring Sea Symphony in a concert which also includes works by Elgar and Finzi.

Next year, they perform Rossini’s intriguing Petite Messe Solennelle as well as a programme of Baroque classics by Bach and Handel in the early summer.

* FOR more on Wednesday’s Celebrity Concert at St Mary’s Centre, contact 0151-339 7326.