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IN TOWN THIS MONTH: CLASSICAL MUSIC<br />
Beatrice Philips<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Chamber Music Festival founder<br />
“Really quite strange<br />
to think that this is the<br />
5th LCMF! Sometimes<br />
when I’m thinking<br />
up the programme<br />
I feel such pressure<br />
– ‘How can I fill eight<br />
concerts with music<br />
as wonderful as it was<br />
last year?’ - but then<br />
I realise how much<br />
great music there is<br />
in the world and it’s<br />
a different pressure;<br />
how to choose what<br />
gets omitted. As funding<br />
for the Arts is being<br />
cut, I feel strongly<br />
about the importance<br />
of producing cultural experiences of the highest<br />
quality possible, as often as possible, and for as<br />
many people as possible. I believe it should be a<br />
part of all of our lives, whether we are musicians<br />
or not.”<br />
The words of <strong>Lewes</strong> Chamber Music Festival<br />
founder and director Beatrice Philips speak<br />
volumes as to why this festival has been so exciting<br />
and so successful. Her passion for music is<br />
infectious, and the audiences clearly respond to<br />
that as well as to the excellence of the performances<br />
on offer.<br />
Bea again: “What I love best is when audience<br />
members tell me they have discovered a new<br />
composer or a new piece during the Festival that<br />
they absolutely loved. As long as we [musicians]<br />
are discovering new things and inspiring each<br />
other then that will be communicated to audiences,<br />
making everyone a winner.”<br />
This year the festival presents eight concerts<br />
spread over three days with a wide variety of<br />
musicians in two favoured <strong>Lewes</strong> venues - the<br />
All Saints Centre and St John sub Castro. It’s an<br />
expensive task.<br />
“All our funds are<br />
made up of individual<br />
donations<br />
from supporters,<br />
local businesses and<br />
ticket sales, as well as<br />
through our Friends<br />
and Patrons system.<br />
Although being a<br />
Friend of LCMF<br />
is only £30 a year,<br />
having this regular<br />
assurance makes a<br />
huge difference.”<br />
But of course, most<br />
importantly, there is<br />
the music itself.<br />
On Schoenberg’s<br />
Verklaerte Nacht: “I first discovered it at MusicWorks<br />
chamber music courses when I was<br />
16. I couldn’t believe my ears. Subsequently<br />
it became an incredibly special piece of music<br />
for me, and I have been dying to perform it in<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> for years.”<br />
On Bartók: “His music is often performed in<br />
all-Hungarian programmes or treated as a specialist<br />
subject, when I think it is perfect played<br />
alongside Beethoven and many other composers<br />
who Bartók himself would certainly have known<br />
and studied.”<br />
And on French composer, Gabriel Pierné:<br />
“Alasdair Beatson (pianist) discovered Pierné’s<br />
Piano Quintet, Op. 41 and insisted we sight-read<br />
through it one night a couple of years ago. It’s<br />
really bonkers but also incredibly beautiful, and<br />
full of little glimmers of Fauré, Debussy and<br />
others. It’ll be a treat.”<br />
Surely just one of many to look forward to in<br />
this year’s <strong>Lewes</strong> Chamber Music Festival.<br />
Paul Austin Kelly<br />
Fri 17-Sun 19, leweschambermusicfestival.com<br />
Photo by Anna Patarakina<br />
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