FOUR young musicians at the threshold of their professional careers were the guests of Kendal Midday Concert Club on Wednesday, February 5, in a concert generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

The varied programme contained music by Johann Christian Bach, Mozart, Schumann and Benjamin Britten.

All four musicians, Katherine Bryer, oboe, Jessica Coleman, violin, Marsailidh Groat, viola, and Donald Robinson, cello, are the recipients of various prizes and all have already gained much experience as orchestral and chamber musicians. Unsurprisingly, then, their performance in Kendal reached a high standard.

They began with a charming quartet by J. C Bach, the youngest son of the great J. S. Bach. The work was typical of the ‘galant’ style which was fashionable around the young Bach’s time: tuneful music with more song-like melodies in short phrases over a reiterating bass line, in contrast to the more contrapuntal textures of the baroque era.

The melodic lines were clearly delineated by oboe and violin but on occasions the viola line could have had more prominence. Cellist, Donald Robinson, held his bow further down the stick ensuring a lighter sound but providing a firm, well-shaped bass line in support of the upper three parts.

After a lovely aria-like Adagio by Mozart, beautifully played by all four players, came Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy Quartet, a work written when the composer was in his late teens and a student at the Royal College of Music. In its construction it reveals the composer’s precocious talent and his command of instrumental writing. It is technically difficult but the four players were undaunted by this and produced a very convincing performance. The sinister march-like opening, was carefully controlled, rhythmically precise and well- balanced. Britten’s score is peppered with dynamic markings ranging from ppp to ff which all four players fully observed.

Schumann’s song ‘Mondnacht’ followed the Britten in an instrumental arrangement by Colin Matthews. Katherine Bryer’s cor anglais replaced the human voice in this highly effective arrangement. Her lovely legato line, so well controlled, was gently supported by the sensitive accompaniment, originally written for piano but here imaginatively distributed among the three strings.

Finally came a joyous performance of Mozart’s well-known Oboe Quartet. The oboe, of course, has the most prominent role in this work but the strings play more than a supporting role, coming into prominence at several points in the first movement and again in the slow movement. Their playing was immaculate and the performance one of sheer delight.

Clive Walkley