We celebrate our 70th anniversary with a concert on the 18th November and will be delighted to welcome back the Tempest Quartet (Viv McLean - piano, David Le Page - violin, Clare O'Connell - cello and Jack McNeill - clarinet).

The Music Society began life as the North Cumberland Recital Club and presented a first concert in November 1951: Frederick Grinke, violin and Kendall Taylor, piano. The venue at that time was the Carlisle and County High School Hall.  

Much was made of the 40th anniversary celebration in November 1991 when the illustrious Allegri String Quartet performed.

No fanfares were blown for the 50th anniversary in November 2001, but the wind trio who played on that occasion had a local connection: Sam Haywood on piano. The other musicians were  Katharine Spencer, clarinet and Benjamin Hudson, bassoon.

The theme of a clarinet and a local connection continues for our 70th anniversary with the presence of Jack McNeill.
Please see the  2021/22 season page for programme details.
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Staying positive is about as far as it goes in terms of anticipating future concerts. We continue to be hopeful of presenting concerts in March and April, but there are no guarantees.

The plight of musicians deprived of the opportunity to perform live is an ongoing tragedy. With this in mind, Ripon Concerts have produced a book, From Duet to Decet.  All proceeds from book sales will go to Help Musicians (formerly The Musicians Benevolent Fund). It has been written by Ripon Concerts chairman Roger Higson and artist Roger Chapman, who is also responsible for the illustrations.

£10 per copy plus £2 p&p. If you are able to help by buying a copy, you can find it online at www.riponconcerts.co.uk

 
The Covid pandemic has had repercussions far and wide. For 40 years St Cuthbert's Church has been the venue for Carlisle Music Society concerts, but this autumn our committee decided unanimously in favour of a move to the Fratry Hall at Carlisle Cathedral.

We were very happy at St Cuthbert's and were always made to feel welcome there but in recent times, for various reasons and particularly in light of Covid restrictions, we began to consider other possible venues. It seemed serendipitous that at last the newly refurbished Fratry Hall was open for bookings.  We believe that this historic building which offers excellent facilities, comfort and accessibility, will be a fitting home for the Society. In a sense the move represents a return home as most of our concerts between 1969 and 1979 were held in the Fratry Hall. Our piano is now installed there on the dais, ready for our next concert.

We are longing for the time when we can once again enjoy live music in the company of others, and are very excited at the prospect of welcoming audiences and musicians to the Fratry Hall at the start of a new era for the Society.

​Permission was granted by the Cathedral for this photograph of the Fratry Hall interior. It was taken before the Society's piano was moved there. More information about the Fratry project, including a video, is available here.

We shall  get our 2020 concerts off to a great start with the Solem String Quartet on January 16th.  Please see our 2019-20 Season page for more about the Quartet and their programme.

One of the programme items is Bartok's String Quartet No. 5. Committee member Howard Cheesman has authored a Listener's Guide to approaching this work.
Bartok Fifth String Quartet – Listener's Guide.
Even though Bartok’s six string quartets are held in high regard and he is acknowledged as a major C20th composer, audiences rarely get the chance to experience and become familiar with his music other than in recordings. On the 16th January we have the opportunity to hear the 5th String Quartet. These notes are intended to act, not as programme notes, but as a short listeners guide to approaching the work.
This work came after a compositional silence in which only folk music-based pieces occupied him. It launches his final creative outpouring and was clearly a significant undertaking. As it was written within only a month, it must have been gestating in his musical imagination for some time. In nature it is mostly innovative while the 6th and final Quartet is more reflective and consolidates his musical style.
Here are some fingerprints that may prove helpful in approaching the work:
Folk Music; Bartok was an avid collector and chronicler not only of Eastern European folk music but of Algerian and Turkish indigenous music as well. However, you will fail to hear obvious folk style melodies in this work. His approach was to assimilate their character within the musical style he forged. There is no hint of rural nostalgia about his relationship to folk music but rather a desire to incorporate its elements into his dynamic and forward-looking musical language. What you may hear are melodies formed from unusual scales, a focus on certain (augmented) intervals, rhythmic vitality often based on asymmetrical groupings ( 4+2+3 in Movement 3), drones, motifs that revolve around a anchoring note, just to list some of the most noticable aural features.


String writing: Bartok’s music sounds unique and very individual. As it has little to do with any other C20th ‘movements’ or styles, this can pose a problem for the listener unfamiliar with his work. One aspect of this difference was his ceaseless search for new and expressive sounds on traditional instruments. The 5th Quartet contains the maximum number of innovative string techniques that he was ever to use within one composition: too many to list here! These are not aural gimmicks but part of his sensitivity to the sound world he was trying to create for expressive purposes. The 2nd and 4th Movements are a case in point. As a lover of nature in general, it could well be that he was responding to the sonic world around him. Are the flutterings, chirping, rasping, clicking sounds that appear in the musical fragments of these two movements an invocation of natural sounds? What some commentators refer to as his “night-music” (Nachmusik).


Structure & Symmetry: This aspect was very important to Bartok but is not overtly heard as much as it is sensed, possibly unconsciously, by the listener. Elaborate structural proportions lie beneath the surface of most of his extended compositions. This is not an intellectual approach as to how to organise musical material in time but a use of those ratios and numerical proportions that lie behind the natural world e.g. the Golden Section, Fibonacci series, and the other principals that are found in the structure of veins on a leaf, the spiral of a shell, the construction of a pinecone, etc.
In the 5th Quartet the use of 5 Movements allows him to create an ‘arch-like’ structure; the 3rd movement being the pivot around which 2 & 4 and then 1 & 5 group themselves. This can be heard in many ways; the musical material of 1 & 5 is related, 2 & 4 share materials and styles (in fact 4 is a rhapsodic variation of 2).
The 3rd pivotal movement has unique musical material and is a type of Scherzo and Trio but also contains its own ‘mini-arch’ of A – B – A with the outer sections in an asymmetrical time signature but the central section is based on a symmetrical rhythmic grouping. And we are only just scratching the surface here but that’s probably enough to go on with! Happy Listening!
Howard Cheesman

French pianist Patrick Hemmerlé will play for us at our concert on November 14th in St Cuthbert's Church, Carlisle.

Patrick is no stranger to Cumbria, having played for Keswick Music Society in 2017 and at the Lake District Summer Music Festival in 2018. A review of his Keswick performance praised his technical accomplishment but also the “warmth of tone and beauty” in his playing. He was described as a “thrilling performer” at the L.D.S.M.F.

We are fortunate to be able to present Patrick in concert given that he performs on the international stage and has a busy schedule. In October he gave concerts in Paris and Los Angeles. In December he will give concerts in Cambridge and in Richmond, US. 

Patrick has recorded three CDs, which have been well received by the international press. His fourth CD, for release next year, is a pairing of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and Fischer's Ariadne Musica.

See our 2019-20 page for details of the concert programme.

Remember: on November 14th Patrick will be in Carlisle. Don't miss him!
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The nights are lengthening and the mercury is dropping on the thermometer but let's not be downhearted at the waning of summer; the approach of autumn means that the concert season is almost upon us. We hope that you'll enjoy our forthcoming season, which this year comprises two solo piano recitals and concerts by a string quartet, a piano trio, a saxophone/piano duo and a violin/piano duo. Details are available on the Concerts page of this website, also in our annual concerts leaflet. The latter is widely available in venues in and around the city.

Have you considered taking out a subscription? Only £67 for six concerts and you receive subscriber benefits - see our Tickets page for more information. With individual concert tickets at £14 that means that even if you can attend only five out of the six concerts you still save money. If you are inclined towards philanthropy then absorb the fact that subscriptions are a great way to support  the Society.
Our aim is to continue providing high quality chamber music in Carlisle and the surrounding area. We simply want people to experience and enjoy it. Under18s and full-time students are granted free entry to our concerts and that presents a great opportunity for young people.
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Come and join us!