Various Venues, Isle of Mull, 3-9 July 2011

IN THESE days of financial austerity with demands on the pocket increasing day by day, it is hard to believe that the event established in 1988 by Leonard Friedman to take a group of young professional musicians to a place of natural beauty, for inspiration and mentoring, could be going from strength to strength – and still managing to put on fourteen top quality chamber music concerts for free.

Artistic Director Levon Chilingirian, a non pareil when it comes to drawing out the very best from his musical colleagues, chooses the fourteen young professionals, the team of mentors and the programmes of music for the week that will take everyone involved that step further towards a distinguished career in the world of chamber music.

The Aros Quartet formed on Mull last year

He selects the players by offering the experience to those of exceptional talent from all the British conservatoires, and sometimes from those further afield.  How his plans are paid for is another matter, of which more later.

The first Saturday in July sees everyone congregating in Tobermory; old friendships are re-established and new ones made over a welcoming meal.  Of the emerging artists, usually about half have taken part in Mendelssohn on Mull before, but such is the reputation of the festival that all know what to expect.

Chilingirian Quartet

2011 sees the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Chilingirian Quartet and it had been hoped that all four members would be able to act as mentors.  It was a special pleasure to welcome violinist Ronald Birks and violist Susie Mészáros, but cellist Philip de Groote had just undergone an operation on his hand so the regular cello mentor Stephen Orton was denied his sabbatical and the team was completed by violinist Marcia Crayford, whose memories of Mendelssohn on Mull go back to the early days.

Many people wonder why so little Mendelssohn is played at an event called Mendelssohn on Mull.  The answer is simple.  He wrote only a handful of works for small string groups so these are only programmed every few years.  But the popular finale to the week is regularly one of his String Symphonies, composed in his youth but demonstrative of his boundless capabilities.

The hard work took place on the Sunday and the Monday of the week as the musicians, divided into three groups, got their teeth into works by Mozart, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Haydn and Bruckner, ready for a first performance on the Monday evening.

Each of the three groups performs their programme three times, on the Monday, the Tuesday and the Thursday, at various venues across the Isle of Mull.  Audience favourites are Glengorm Castle, Duart Castle and Salen Church, although the halls at Dervaig and Craignure, and the lovely churches at Bunessan and Creich have a special appeal.

Equally special are the concerts when everyone comes together to play selected highlights in Tobermory Parish Church, Iona Abbey and at the finale in St John’s Cathedral in Oban.  On top of that, almost as a catharsis to all the hard work, young professionals and mentors gather for a Classical Ceilidh on the Friday evening when a series of party pieces precede Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No 11 in F major.

The first group of Patrick Curlett, Rebecca Yerevag Greenstreet, Christine Anderson, Jennifer Ames and Ariana Kashefi were mentored by Levon Chilingirian.  At first sight a programme of Mozart and Beethoven might seem like food and drink to musicians of this quality, but all three pieces, Mozart’s D minor Quartet, Beethoven’s very first quartet and his Quintet in C major presented challenges of detail and interpretation which were met with technique and sensitivity.

Here was Mozart exploding out of his youth and displaying his genius, while Beethoven showed a boisterousness and abandon that was hitherto unheard of.

Group Two had the pick of the musical programme.  Josephine Robertson, Rosemary Attree, Louisa Tatlow, Kay Stephen and Feargus Egan were mentored by Ronald Birks and Stephen Orton to play Mozart’s C minor Quintet, the lush Sextet from Capriccio by Richard Strauss, and the magnificent C major Quintet by Schubert.

I was lucky enough to be able to sit in for their rehearsal in Craignure and to admire the sheer subtlety with which the mentors brought out the very best in the youngsters by playing with them rather than preaching at them.  The actual concert performance was rewarded with a well deserved standing ovation.

During the 2010 Festival, the Aros Quartet was formed.  Strangely enough this was the first time in Mendelssohn on Mull’s history that there had been a sufficient bond within a group for them to take their playing together beyond Mull.  For visa reasons there has had to be one change of line-up, but Amy Tress, Julia Rogers, Emma Stevenson and Sabina Sandri Olsson returned to Mull to form Group Three under the mentorship of Marcia Crayford and Susie Mészáros.

Their sense of rapport and ensemble immediately set them in a class apart as an established quartet.  Last year they were excellent; this year they were outstanding and to hear the rarely performed Bruckner String Quintet in F major was one of the highlights of the week.

Wednesday evening sees the concert in a packed Tobermory Parish Church when each group plays a few movements from their programme, and it has become a tradition for Mendelssohn on Mull that Thursday is Iona Day, as everyone makes the trek across from Tobermory, through the roadworks carefully timed for the tourist season, to Fionnphort and the short ferry crossing to Iona.

Iona Abbey

At a morning concert in the Abbey each group plays a couple of slow movements, followed by all congregating for an extract from Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on The Cross.  Of all the times I have heard the Schubert Quintet, I have never heard its haunting ‘Adagio’ played so sublimely in such a suitable setting.  Luckily BBC Radio Scotland was there to record it, so tune in to Classics Unwrapped with Jamie MacDougall on Sunday 17 July.

Mendelssohn on Mull receives no public funding for the week of exceptional music that it presents.  Each year the cost is roughly the same as buying a brand new BMW 5 Series car, but while a car’s value depreciates, the values of developing fourteen careers go up and up as the years progress.

The original Trust Deed stipulates that admission to all concerts is to be free, but fortunately it does not stipulate that getting out at the end is free!  Audience donations, with Gift Aid, the generosity of the Friends of Mendelssohn on Mull, a small group of Guardians, a number of charitable trusts and sheer hard work fundraising mean that this charismatic event can take place each summer.

Its value is not just musical.  Each year the number of people that come to Mendelssohn on Mull result in a contribution to the local economy of the island of well over £100,000.  Every year there is a financial question mark hanging over the festival, but every year the dedication and commitment of the musicians, the organisers and the trustees ensure that the future is secure.

© James Munro, 2011

Links

• Mendelssohn On Mull 2011