Harmoniemusik - Classical Music at the Parish Church of St Columb Major
21/23/25 August 2018
The classical music group Harmoniemusik will again visit the Parish Church of St Columb Major with this their twenty seventh consecutive visit.
Harmoniemusik’s ‘Classic Cornwall’ series has secured a loyal and enthusiastic following since its first concerts in August 1992, when it began to promote this annual celebration of outstanding chamber music in the attractive surroundings of the Parish Church at St Columb Major, an historic setting noted for its beautiful acoustic.
Since its formation in 1991, Harmoniemusik has given more than three hundred concerts in the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond, has made a number of CD recordings (which are broadcast from time to time on Radio 3) and has become renowned for its distinctive repertoire and performance style.
Classic Cornwall 2018 features five favourite quintets; Schubert’s wonderful ‘Trout’ quintet for piano and strings and Samuel Barber’s evocative wind quintet ‘Summer Music’ (Tuesday); Brahms’s epic clarinet quintet (Thursday) and Beethoven’s sparkling quintet for piano and wind, together with Ibert’s witty and stylish wind quintet ‘Trois Pièces Brèves’ (Saturday).
Two highly attractive and romantic piano and wind sextets, by Leopold Blumer (Tuesday) and Joseph Jongen (Saturday) also feature.
Music which might be new to St Columb audiences includes a first performance in St Columb of a Haydn Piano Concerto (Thursday), and performances of Britten’s haunting Phantasy Quartet for oboe and strings (Thursday) and Hummel’s Variations for flute bassoon and piano (Saturday).
The ever-popular baroque ‘fix’ comes in the form of a Corelli concerto grosso (Tuesday), a lively Vivaldi flute concerto (Thursday) and a trio sonata by CPE Bach (Saturday) – all new works in the Harmoniemusik repertoire.
Delicious refreshments will be available in the Columba Centre (Church Hall) both before (from 6pm) and also during the interval of each concert.
Tickets are available now from Hall for Cornwall (01872 262466), or by post from Joan Smale, 36 Trewithen Parc, Newlyn East Nr Newquay TR8 5NG. Prices are £14 / accompanied under 16s free and with a three concert season ticket available for £35 – with a saving of £7.
- The St Columb Festival was founded in the early 1970s by Cornish born Richard Cooke, whose father Canon Cooke served at the Church for many years.
- Harmoniemusik performs at other venues in Cornwall and also widely within the United Kingdom and abroad, most recently in tours of Belgium and Germany in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2015 and concerts at the Festival held at Oloron St Marie in South West France in August 2009, July 2012 and July 2016. They return to Berlin in June 2019 for a series of concerts.
- In July 2015 Harmoniemusik were invited to perform at The Janacek Festival at Hukvaldy, in the Czech Republic, giving a concert of Janacek’s music on Janacek’s birthday at the Church where he was organist and a second concert which was recorded for broadcast on the Czech classical music radio channel.
- In May 2017 Harmoniemusik were invited to perform William Walton’s Façade at The Dulwich Picture Gallery at their prestigious concert series and have also been invited to perform at a number of music festivals in 2017 throughout the United Kingdom.
- Harmoniemusik has also visited Cornwall on a number of occasions to give free seminars and workshops to pupils at Treviglas Community College in Newquay and the St Columb Major Community Primary School. The policy of free admission to the Classic Cornwall concerts for accompanied under 16s is aimed at increasing access to classical music for children in the hope of inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners.
For further information please contact Mark Lacey markrichardlacey@aol.com or 07768 867735 or visit the Harmoniemusik website: