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

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• Mendelssohn On Mull 2011

By working together with experienced professionals on a varied programme to a tight time schedule, fourteen young professional musicians are being given a taste of what they will face in their future careers. By providing fellowship with musicians from other traditions, and with artists from other disciplines, their horizons are broadened. By living alongside other equally talented young people in an island setting of such beauty, they gain a better perspective than their intensive and sometimes lonely training has so far provided.

There is an astonishing range of concerts and recitals to choose from, and audiences are welcome to sit in on rehearsals at the Aros Hall, Tobermory. Whether your taste is Mendelssohn or Mozart, Brahms or Beethoven, the festival brings to the island a chance to hear and learn in a setting of great natural beauty and interest.

Thomas Duncan's portrait of Mendelssohn.

DID THE city fathers of Edinburgh have the slightest idea about what they were starting back in the dark post-war days more than sixty years ago when it was decided to start an arts festival to attract visitors to the capital? It took a few years and a fringe to become established, but once it did, every corner of the land jumped in on the act to the extent that nowadays summer has become a time of intense activity deciding which festivals to attend of the tempting selection each week.

One of the real delights of festivals is the way that they throw up the unconventional, indeed often the totally bizarre, happenings that would never be experienced during the regular artistic season. As June turns to July our country offers contrasting gatherings on opposite coasts.

Does one elect for a former bishop and chairman of the Scottish Arts Council reciting poetry to a flute accompaniment in St Fillan’s Cave in the East Neuk of Fife? Or is it preferable to brave the rain and the midges to witness members of the choir Ensemble 1685 from Coventry performing Mendelssohn inside Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa? Poor Felix may have been too seasick to enter that cathedral of a cavern during his Highland tour one hundred and eighty years ago, but at long last his music has completed the journey.

Edinburgh’s renowned Festival was well into middle age by the time that Leonard Friedman, the esteemed founder of what is now the Scottish Ensemble, decided to set up an annual week of intense mentoring for exceptionally gifted young string players in a peaceful and beautiful location.

There are few places on this planet more peaceful or more beautiful than the island of Mull, with its plethora of village halls and small churches so ideally suited to the intimacy of a chamber music festival. To encourage an audience to attend, Friedman decreed in the original trust deed that all concerts should have free admission and that the costs of the festival should be met by donations and fundraising. And that is a major task, as the total cost is not far short of £50,000.

For the past nine Festivals, Friedman’s mantle has been worn by the world renowned Levon Chilingirian, leader for nearly forty years of the string quartet that bears his name, and Professor of Violin at London’s Royal College of Music. Few musicians are capable of matching him in the role of directing and leading the team of mentors who, within a week, release such brilliant playing from the chrysalises of the young professionals that are selected to congregate on the island.

They come from all the airts, this cheerful crew of emergent stars; seven lads and seven lasses; six violins, five violas and three cellos; four Scots, four English, three from South Africa, a Dutchman, a Portuguese and a Russian; five studying in Glasgow, five in Manchester, two in London, one at Cambridge and one doing a PhD at Sheffield.

The five mentors are just as diverse; three violins, a viola and a cello; two Armenians, two English and a Hungarian; four based in London and one in Lisbon. Add to the mix the excellent choir Ensemble 1685, and a very ardent collection of Friends of the Festival, and the message is clear; music is a language which strides over national boundaries and unites people in a common culture.

By now the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival format is well established. Some time before the opening event, director Levon Chilingirian compiles his programme, selects the young professionals and divides them into three groups. They are sent the music so that they can learn it, but they do not meet up until the last Saturday in June when they come together in Tobermory and the hard work begins.

Sunday is the day when the audience arrive on the island, just in time for the Friends’ Reception at An Tobar where acquaintances are renewed and the choir performs, leaving the players rehearsing for their first performances on the Monday. This year we enjoyed a new commission for Ensemble 1685, All right, it was an eagle by Matthew Print, setting words by the Mull poet Jan Sutch Pickard.

Dervaig became renowned as the home of Mull Little Theatre, now moved to a brand new production centre at Druimfin, a couple of miles south of Tobermory. But for a music performance space the new village hall is an excellent replacement, providing all the facilities that Group Three, mentored by Gaby Lester and Sam Barsegian, could possibly need for the first public concert of the Festival.

A highly satisfying seafood salad at the Bellacroy Inn, next door to the hall, induced the ideal sense of contentment to relish the programme of Haydn and Mendelssohn that enhanced the Monday afternoon.

Of course 2009 is the year in which we commemorate bicentenaries for both Mendelssohn and Haydn. The former was born on 3 February in 1809 and the latter died a few months later on 31 May, although other than for programming considerations, there is no reason to suppose that the two events are connected.

Chilingirian had selected the set of three quartets Opus 74 that Haydn had composed for his second visit to London in 1793 for the groups of young professionals to display their skills without the mentors’ contributions. And for the third of the set, in G minor, the quartet of Ian Watson, Tiago Neto, Clare Fox and Deborah Chandler rose to the occasion with style and enthusiasm.

In truth, any worries about lack of rehearsal time were unfounded. For Mendelssohn’s E minor quartet Op 44/2, Gaby Lester took the first violin chair with Ian Watson playing second, while Sam Barsegian took over the viola role from Clare Fox to deliver an enthralling performance. The third work of the concert was Mendelssohn’s B flat major quintet, Opus 87, for which Tiago Neto replaced Ian Watson and Clare Fox took the second viola part. It was stunning, especially the hauntingly emotive Adagio e lento that had the audience absolutely gripped.

The other two groups opened their accounts on Monday evening, with Marcia Crayford’s team playing at the new venue of the Mull Theatre Production Centre at Druimfin, and Levon Chilingirian’s group heading to the fairytale setting of Glengorm Castle. There, in the traditions of this unusual festival, more and more people squeezed into the Drawing Room, leaving the overspill sitting out in the Hallway and half way up the main stairs.

Once again, as with Gaby Lester’s group, the young professionals had bonded very quickly, even though they had a wide difference in the levels of their experience. Michael Gurevich, Emma Stevenson and Willem Mathlener have all been seen on the chamber music circuit or in the ranks of the national orchestras, whereas Josephine Robertson and Feargus Egan have but one year of college experience under their belts.

The young professionals Michael, Josephine, Willem and Feargus had prepared the Haydn quartet by themselves, this time Op 74/1 in C major, and like their colleagues gave a performance that could have graced any concert hall. Mendelssohn’s contribution to the programme was his posthumously published quartet in F minor, Opus 80, a wonderful composition for which Levon Chiligirian and cello mentor Pal Banda were joined by Michael Gurevich and Emma Stevenson.

After prolonged and well-deserved applause the cramped audience exploded out into the interval like champagne from a shaken bottle to marvel at the views across to Ardnamurchan and the islands of Coll and Tiree in the evening sunshine. More delights were to come in the form of Dvorak’s melodious String Sextet in A major, passionately played under the leadership of Chilingirian. And even after all the euphoria left by Dvorak, there was still time to get back to the Mishnish Hotel in Tobermory to watch the last games of Andy Murray’s epic five setter under the new Centre Court roof.

The same programme was repeated by Levon Chilingirian’s group on the Tuesday afternoon in the Community Hall at Craignure to the accompaniment of a lawn mower echoing through the doors that had to be left open on this summer afternoon. Certainly the playing was a bit crisper than the previous evening, but there was not the ambience and audience rapport that there had been at Glengorm Castle.

And then the weather broke.

Tuesday evening was at Salen Church for Marcia Crayford’s group playing in the still, warm, damp atmosphere to a packed audience and countless midges; just the same as for Gaby’s group a few miles away in the tiny church at Gruline.

Group Two was the group with only one mentor, Marcia Crayford, to encourage the young professionals, Amanda Lake, Emile de Roubaix and David Edmonds from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Zhanna Tonaganyan from Russia studying at the Royal College of Music in London and violist Christine Anderson studying at Glasgow.

This was their second run through the programme of Haydn’s Quartet in F major Op 74/2, Mozart’s String Quintet in C major K515 and Mendelssohn’s first string quintet in A major Op 18, written for a house party when the composer was a mere 17 years old. The group had started to develop a good level of ensemble and played with confidence and enthusiasm, although perhaps a second mentor to share the work load would have raised the performance level.

Wednesday is the day when the Festival traditionally changes its routine as the players start work on some of the special pieces of music for later in the week. The only concert is in the evening in Tobermory Parish Church, when each of the groups plays highlights from their programme. This offers the perfect chance to join the members of Ensemble 1685 for a cruise to the island of Staffa and to explore the famous Fingal’s Cave.

You know that expression about the best laid schemes……? Well, this was one of them. Great, I thought. Get to Ulva Ferry and enjoy a light, if liquid, lunch in the pub before the sailing. The parking area is packed with the cars of people staying on Ulva, so you walk the half mile or so to the ferry, and find that the pub is on the other side of the water and that it is going to cost a fiver before you even have the chance of ordering a pint and a cheese sandwich!

Then the rain starts. And on Mull, what does rain mean on a still, warm day? Midges! The man-eating variety; the macho ones that are attracted to insect repellent. Eventually, when everybody is wet through, hungry, thirsty and scratching, the Island Lass arrives and off we all go into the mist, fighting to get to the coffee dispenser.

Certainly the boat is sea-worthy, but not a lot of attention has been paid to keeping the rain out of the main cabin. Seventy minutes later we sail into Fingal’s Cave and marvel at the basalt formation before going ashore at the jetty a few hundred yards away.

As an island, Staffa differs from Mull in a number of ways; it is a lot smaller, there is less shelter, the rain is wetter and the midges are bigger and more ferocious. But we are a determined bunch and we slip and slide our way over the rocks back to the cave where the choir sing a couple of works by Bach and Mendelssohn, then climb up to explore some of the higher parts of the island that are hidden by the rain. Eventually our boat returns to collect us and we return to Ulva Ferry where that pub is still on the wrong side of the water like a mirage destined never to be reached.

Thursday during Mendelssohn on Mull week is Iona day, which means an early start from Tobermory to get to Fionnphort for the short crossing to the holy isle, or as the locals call it, God plc, so commercialised has it become over recent years. It was a beautiful drive down through Mull with shafts of sunlight beaming on the mountains and we arrived at the ferry just as the rain started.

I did notice a difference with the midges on Iona. They cross themselves before launching an attack. But the beautiful Abbey provided shelter so the assembled supporters were able to dry out as the musicians once again gave a performance of the highlights of their group programmes. This was followed by one of the special pieces that the whole ensemble had prepared, a memorable rendition of Haydn’s Seven Last Words From The Cross.

As I noted earlier, music is a culture that crosses national boundaries. On Iona it also crosses natural species. One of the most attentive members of the audience was the Abbey cat as she carefully explored her way through the performers as they played, even stretching up onto Pal Banda’s cello to check that the remains of her ancestors were being treated with respect.

Thursday evening is when the groups give the third and last performances of their set programmes. Groups One and Two stayed down in the Ross of Mull to play at Creich and Bunessan, while Group Three headed back for what is probably the most spectacular of all the venues, Duart Castle, home of Sir Lachlan Maclean.

Over the years the Festival has regularly enjoyed the generous hospitality of Sir Lachlan, and this concert always attracts a sizeable audience who pack into the Great Hall of Duart Castle to enjoy the playing in what must be as near perfect a traditional setting for chamber music.

The Friday always produces a couple of essential events in the Festival Calendar. In the afternoon the youngsters of the island, who have been working all week with Maggie Miller and her team at the Mull Children’s String Summer School, give their showcase concert in the Aros Hall in Tobermory to the delight of parents and friends, and in the evening there is the traditional closing event, the Classical Ceilidh.

But this year, Friday produced a couple of other special occasions. At lunchtime the Mendelssohn on Mull Trust were the guests of Argyll and Bute Council, The Tobermory Forward Group and members of the Tobermory community in the spectacular new harbour building, Taigh Solais. There, Councillor Mary Jean Devon acknowledged the contribution that the Trust had made to Mull over the years and Duncan Swinbanks told of the research he had done following the discovery of a letter in his mother’s papers telling that Mendelssohn had stayed at her house in 1829.

While there he had written to his father with a sketch of the music for the Hebrides Overture and describing the places that he and his companion Carl Klingemann had visited. Duncan had traced the original to the New York Library, along with several hundred of Mendelssohn’s other letters. A facsimile was produced and sent to Tobermory, where it was framed and presented to Marilyn Jeffcoat, the Chairman of the Mendelssohn on Mull Trust.

The Coventry based choir, Ensemble 1685 have been something of a fixture at the Festival for the past few years where they spring up in the most unlikely places. Under the direction of the ever energetic Richard Jeffcoat they gave their last concert of the week in the attractive Kilmore Church at Dervaig with a programme of religious works by Haydn and Mendelssohn, including a solo from Elijah by soprano Becky Clowes and the ever popular O for the wings of a dove.

I would like to have been able to report on the Mull Children’s String Summer School Concert, but on the way back from Dervaig to Tobermory an inconsiderate driver of a Chelsea tractor decided to ignore a passing place and force me off the road before speeding over the horizon. The incident cost me £127 for a new tyre as well as any chance of hearing the result of all the hard work by the children.

But the Classical Ceilidh in the Aros Hall that evening made up for it. This is the event when the young professionals and the mentors present their party pieces and the public get to enjoy the extra works that have been prepared. Performances that stood out were Josie Robertson’s playing of Eddie McGuire’s Prelude 21, Ninian’s Chant, Debs Chandler playing Mendelssohn’s last ever composition, and Sam Barsegian and Andy Jeffcoat playing a four-handed piano performance of Ellington’s C Jam Blues.

The first half ended with Schweitzerleid from Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No 11, and proof that the claims on the international news that music is dead following the passing of Michael Jackson to be completely unfounded as a selection of his ephemeral music was performed in a hastily arranged confection for string ensemble.

The second part opened with the second world premiere of the week, a specially arranged version of the Hebrides Overture for string orchestra by Jonathan Cohen, and very effective it is too, with the bulk of the normal wind and brass parts being taken up by the violas. To end the Ceilidh there was one of the greatest pieces of chamber music ever written, Mendelssohn’s Octet Op 20, but in a novel manner, as each movement was played by a different group of musicians, a bit like a relay race. It was the perfect way to bring our stay on the island to a close, even if it was not quite the end of the Festival.

Normally the Saturday is a peaceful day, clearing everything up and checking out before the crossing to Oban and the Closing Concert in St John’s Episcopal Cathedral. For most of us everything was straightforward, but not for one of the team whose wallet had been misplaced during the week, lost or stolen we will never know, containing cash, cards, driving licence and ferry tickets.

It leaves an unpleasant memory, especially the attitude of the Calmac staff at Craignure who insisted that cash was borrowed from friends to purchase another ticket to get off the island. Thank goodness the welcome and hospitality shown by everyone else on Mull is more typical.

There was one more special feature to come. While Mendelssohn was in Scotland in 1829 he had his portrait painted by Thomas Duncan RSA. This painting has been in a private collection ever since, but was brought to Oban for display during the closing concert and to be seen by the public for the first time.

The idea of the Oban concert is to involve the Argyll residents who support the Festival but cannot make the journey to the island of Mull for the main series of concerts. The last event is always tinged with sorrow, but all the musicians taking part in the Festival put on an excellent performance of excerpts from their set programmes followed by a reprise of the new version of the Hebrides Overture and the “relay” octet, demonstrating just how much their playing has improved over the course of the week.

And we must not forget the very last Festival tradition – the excellent buffet in the Indian restaurant just along the road from St John’s Cathedral.

Over the past few years I have made so many friends at the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival that, for me anyway, when it comes to choosing a Festival to attend at the end of June, there is no choice. I’ll be back next year, hoping for sun and a light breeze to allay the dreaded midges, to witness fourteen more young musicians blossom into confident performers.

© James Munro, 2009

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• Mendelssohn On Mull

It did rather contradict my gloomy assessment of the effects of the recession on the arts scene last month, but I suspect it will prove to be a particularly productive blip rather than set the pace for the rest of the summer. (I neglected to mention in that survey that the Connect festival in Inverary wasn’t happening this year either, although they do hope to return next year).

It was great to see so much going on, and a great deal of it to a very high standard. I was very impressed with the two NTS Transform projects in Elgin and Thurso (the latter was particularly ambitious) that I had the opportunity to follow in some detail. To see the level of commitment and enthusiasm they got from often initially reluctant or suspicious school groups, and the equally enthusiastic participation of community groups in Thurso, was extremely heartening.

For a variety of reasons we were unable to plant anyone in the NTS Orkney project, Mixter Maxter, and just to round out our neglect of it, neither of our reviewers at the St Magnus Festival was able to see it. It was well-received by the critics (see, for example, Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman), and you can also check out some of the participants’ own blogs and videos at this site.

July is shaping up to be a little less frenetic, although that won’t be the case in Stornoway, where the Hebridean Celtic Festival will unleash its usual good times. The rather more sedate Mendelssohn On Mull festival also occupies its usual slot early in the month.

There is lots of grassroots activity as well. The Feisean programme is well underway around the Highlands & Islands , as are the ceilidh trials, including the Caledonian Ceilidh Trail. The Inverness Highland Games in the Bught Park includes some arts events among the sport.

I can’t say that Homecoming Scotland has impinged a great deal on my own sphere of activity, aside from the Burns 250th Anniversary flurry (much of which would have happened anyway) early in the year and the odd themed commission here and there, but the main event of the programme, The Gathering , takes place in Edinburgh this month, and may raise the profile a bit.

In our lead interview this month, Helen Slater caught up with dancer and choreographer Christine Devaney as she and her collaborators worked on developing a new show during a two-week residence at Eden Court Theatre in June.

We have also instituted a new function on many of the reviews and features, where clicking on the writer’s name in the © credit at the end of the piece will take you to a short biography and picture of the said writer (one or two have chosen to remain anonymous, and some others have not yet got round to it, so if you click and nothing happens, that’s why).

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

Levon Chilingirian

THIS YEAR’S Festival, celebrating 20 years since Leonard Friedman started taking young professional musicians to that heavenly island, stretched the concepts and the aims of the week long event. The format followed the traditions, in that all the events took place in the spectacular castles and churches of Mull, as well as community halls in Tobermory and Craignure, and not forgetting the idyllic Abbey of Iona and the final night in St John’s Cathedral in Oban.

As usual, the musicians were split into three groups, with mentors guiding them as they learned the works that director Levon Chilingirian had selected for this year’s programme. Last year’s mentors returned, violinists Chilingirian, Gabrielle Lester and Marcia Crayford, violist Samvel Barsegian, cellist Alasdair Tait and pianist Richard Jeffcoat. They were joined by Graham Mitchell who is Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music, member of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Principal Bass of the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

So what was new and different? In the past the selection of music has concentrated on the romantic and the classical. But this year, Mozart and Mendelssohn got no more than a passing appearance, Haydn was totally missing, and in their place festival goers were thrilled by some of the great chamber works of the late 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in a first performance of ‘Apparitions’ by Stephen Montague, a joint commission between the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, Dartington Summer School and the Idyllwild Summer Arts Program of California.

It was so much more than a piece of music. Montague brought a team to Mull to present this multi-media event late at night in the spectacular setting of Duart Castle. Future performances in Devon and California will be able to benefit from the lighting effects in Montague’s concept as they will take place at night. Mull at midsummer does not offer the desired level of darkness, but that is nature for you. Nevertheless the select audience buzzed with excitement and gave the performance an enthusiastic welcome.

Once again, Levon Chilingirian had selected his young professionals from all the airts, with four returning for a second year. All the major British conservatoires sent participants, including four from Glasgow and six from Manchester, and all had come to this country to study. Only three were British, against four from South Africa, one from Canada and the rest from Europe. To quote Levon Chilingirian, “Music is a great leveller. People of all ages and cultural backgrounds enjoy its international language. Equally, musicians of greatly varying age and experience can achieve wonderful alchemy by joining in performances of chamber music.”

After a week exploring the beautiful island of Mull, on Saturday evening it was the turn of the mainland to enjoy the fruits of everyone’s endeavours in the very individual and atmospheric Episcopal Cathedral of St John. Each of the three groups selected a few highlights from their programme, starting with Chilingirian’s group performing two movements of Mozart’s D major Quintet, followed by the andante and adagio from Bartok’s String Quartet No 5.

Their playing was exquisite, as good as can be heard anywhere, and special mention must be made of the cellist Rowena Calvert from Rogart in Sutherland, who is destined to be a musical star of the future. Gaby Lester’s group chose two movements from Dvorak’s exuberant String Quintet Op 77, the one with the double bass, which left the audience smiling, and then an emotionally charged performance of Richard Strauss’s ‘Metamorphoses’, a work so intense and beautiful that the whole interval was needed to prepare for the next offerings.

They came from Marcia Crayford’s group playing excerpts from Shostakovich’s Quartettsatz D 703 and part of Dvorak’s other String Quintet, Op 97, written at the same time as his famous American Quartet, and similarly packed with native American motifs.

Tradition states that the final work of the final concert of the Festival involves all the musicians, mentors and young professionals. But not this year, as so much time had been taken up preparing for the Stephen Montague commission, and so it was that the audience enjoyed a very individual arrangement of “What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor”, or should it have been “Drunken Cellist”, played by the quartet who had given its premiere the previous evening, and featuring Festival Director Levon Chilingirian and the Highlands’ own Rowena Calvert.

And so the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival passes twenty in fine health. The mentors are already looking forward to next year and the opportunities to help a fresh team of young professionals develop at the outset of their careers. Artistically the Festival has shown that a thrilling week can be put together without relying on the classics, and this new direction bodes well for the future.

Robert Fleming, the Chairman of the Trustees, stands down at the culmination of his term having successfully guided this event for the past few years. His place is being taken by Marilyn Jeffcoat who inherits a Festival that can look into the future full of confidence.

© James Munro, 2008

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• Mendelssohn on Mull

JAMES MUNRO looks at the history and wonders about the future prospects of the Mendelssohn on Mull festival, and enjoys this year’s musical offerings at a unique island event

SCOTLAND’S HERITAGE is awash with legend superseding fact. William Wallace bore no resemblance to Mel Gibson; despite Shakespeare the country enjoyed considerable peace and prosperity during the reign of Macbeth ; and was Mendelssohn really inspired to compose the Hebrides Overture by the sight of Fingal’s Cave on Staffa?

There is evidence that says not, but it has been obscured beneath the romantic notion. That is just as well, or we would not be celebrating poor seasick Felix’s wave-tossed melody with a vibrant annual festival of chamber music during which established stars guide young professionals out of the chrysalis to blossom as confident performers. Let the chairman of the Mendelssohn on Mull Trust, Robert Fleming, explain.

“The Festival was started in 1988 by the violinist Leonard Friedman, and his idea was to get young musicians away from the hullabaloo of life, let them relax in a peaceful setting and enjoy making music together. It has progressed in the intervening period and the Festival is now world-renowned, although people still just stumble across it.

“We bring fourteen young musicians who are a mixture of post-graduate and post-post-graduates from the music schools in the United Kingdom, with some from other parts of Europe. They come together on the Saturday and by the Monday they are performing their first concert. By the end of the week the performers and the audience have shared in a communal experience, bringing together some of the best of Europe’s young musicians in beautiful venues ranging from Iona Abbey to the castles of Glengorm, Duart or Torosay, and the tiny churches and community halls across the island, fourteen venues in all.”

The young professionals divide into groups, each led by established performers who act as mentors. The sessions are not lessons or master-classes; they are in-depth rehearsals by professionals playing together where the experience of the mentors is devoured by the fledglings. Within forty-eight hours of the group coming together, they are playing their first concert as an ensemble, and after each performance the standard goes up and up.

One of the violin mentors, Gaby Lester, commented: “We put everything together so fast. To put together a Brahms quintet in one day is an achievement; but we do a Mendelssohn quartet as well. We ended up at 11.40 on Sunday night with the Mendelssohn as we were having such a nice time with it.

“As I’m the only mentor in my group it really pushed the students and we got so many styles and ideas going. For the Haydn quartet I left them to it and they put it together by themselves in the morning. After all they are not fourteen; they are all twenty-four, but we’ll need to do a little bit more work on it and jack the tempo up.” By the end of the week the performance was flawless.

For the past eight years the Festival’s Artistic Director has been Levon Chilingirian, internationally celebrated both as a performer and as a teacher. He is proud to have worked with Festival founder Leonard Friedman and continues with the same philosophy of using the Festival to develop talented musicians, rather than leading an event of established soloists.

He says that twenty years ago, Friedman believed that “music students on the whole tended to be blinkered, and on the whole didn’t know much about music, and on the whole didn’t know much about listening to each other, but these are horrible generalisations that do not apply to any of our young artists now. We get them away to an isolated and beautiful place like Mull with great chamber music venues so they can get to know each other, get to rehearse properly, and also get an extra dimension added to their lives and to their training as professional musicians.”

With such an international career, Levon Chilingirian is able to meet many young musicians to bring to Mendelssohn on Mull, but he still asks the Head of Strings at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama to nominate a number of participants. However Levon says, “more often than not the people he nominates are not Scots, which shows that RSAMD has become a truly international music college. I have lots of Scots friends and colleagues in London and I am very keen for them to come, especially Ali Tait who is our cello mentor.”

As well as from Scotland, this year’s young professionals hailed from England, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, South Africa and Armenia. The mentors are also from all the airts, with the three violinists, Levon Chilingirian, Marcia Crayford and Gaby Lester being based in London, the cellist Alasdair Tait living in Manchester, the accompanist Richard Jeffcoat coming from Warwick and the violist Samvel Barsegian having the most awkward journey from Brussels.

The troubles at Glasgow Airport that Saturday meant that Sam’s flight was diverted to Newcastle. Two taxis later, he just made it onto the last ferry to Mull from Oban and collapsed into a seat. The next thing he was aware of was the announcement that the boat was about to leave Craignure on the way back to the mainland. After desperate begging, Sam joined that exclusive band of people who have managed to persuade the crew of a Calmac ferry to reopen the passenger bridge!

In recent years, Mendelssohn on Mull has expanded to take on two added strands. Under the leadership of Maggie Miller, the first week of the school holidays is filled by an intense class for the young string players of Mull, of all standards, who put on a public concert on the Friday afternoon of Festival week. More variety, and not a little comedy, is provided by the real proof that the Festival has become established, its Fringe.

Maybe not as varied as its Edinburgh counterpart, but under the direction of Richard Jeffcoat, a motley band of itinerant singers perform in unexpected venues under the name of “1685” and have even been known to turn up to entertain during the interval of Festival concerts. There is something delightfully bizarre for a visiting family of holiday-makers to stumble across a performance of medieval madrigals in an isolated café.

To get the real feel of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival nothing can compare with actual attendance and joining in with its excitement, but perhaps a diary will give something of the flavour.

Monday 2 July

A leisurely breakfast in Inverness, then the journey down the Great Glen, past Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus, Fort William and across the Ballachulish Bridge into Appin and the road works! Despite the delay, there was plenty of time for lunch in Oban before the ferry. Took a look at the menu for the seafood restaurant on the north pier, but decided someone else could help pay for the Bentley parked out the back!

Mused about the paradox that most of the seafood harvested out of the sea on the West Coast of Scotland goes straight to Spain where it is enjoyed by Scots on holiday at half the price they are expected to pay for it at home. Had a plate of pasta instead for about the same as I would pay in Italy.

Caught the afternoon ferry to Craignure and immediately felt less stressed as Mull appeared out of the mist. Torrential rain as I reached Salen and was made at home by Maureen and John (and their dogs) at Glenaros Lodge. That evening it had dried up, but the midges were out, and I had to decide which concert to attend.

Levon’s group at Glengorm Castle, Marcia’s at Dervaig Hall or Gaby’s in Salen Church. I chose the latter and was lucky to get the last free seat. All three groups were offering quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn in the first half, followed by a larger piece by Brahms, Bruckner or Tchaikovsky after the interval.

For the Haydn quartet in D major (Op 20/4) the young professionals, Astghik Vardanyan, Vera Josephine Landtwing, Willem Mathlener and Robert Anderson, had prepared it for themselves without any input from their mentor. This was probably the first complete run through and more work on it was needed as it lacked pace and attack.

By contrast, for the Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor, the lead was taken by Gaby Lester, Astghik moved to second violin and Arun Menon took over the viola chair. The difference was remarkable, but as Gaby told me afterwards, they had been working on the piece until very late the previous evening. As indeed, the Brahms quintet (Op 88) when Willem rejoined the group was also well prepared and dynamic, although sadly missed by the member of the audience who had to leave to make sure the boat in which he had sailed from Tobermory was not high and dry!

Tuesday 3 July

The weather had cleared so the morning offered a little exploration and a gentle walk along the fantastic beach at Calgary. Then down to Torosay Castle for the reprise of the Monday evening concert in Salen. The room was intimate, and packed. What a joy it must be for the general visitor who suddenly finds a string quartet playing.

By this time the group had been able to rehearse the Haydn some more, and its delivery had improved beyond belief. Word on the grapevine was that the church at Gruline being used by Levon’s group in the evening was tiny, so get there early. So I did, and it is, but there was space to spare as most people had assumed the church would be full and had gone to hear Marcia’s group in Craignure Hall.

Because of the space in the chancel, the cellist Miranda Barritt sat in the centre of the quartet, changing places with violist Hannah Craib. It gave a very different and satisfying emphasis to the cello, with enhanced projection of its tone. Again, the opening Haydn quartet, this time the C major Op 54/2, was played without the mentors. Leo Schreiber took the first desk and was fully confident to lead the quartet in an accomplished performance.

For the Mendelssohn E minor quartet Op 44/2, he took over the second desk from Kirsty Orton as Levon Chilingirian joined the group and viola mentor Samvel Barsegian replaced Hannah Craib. The essence of Festival playing is that musicians are thrown together and have to perform as a unit straight away. This thrilling delivery was a prime example of how it should work.

In the second half, Hannah rejoined the quartet to perform the Bruckner String Quintet in F major. It is not a piece I had heard before, and I found the long third movement Adagio absolutely sublime before the presto finale brought the evening to a brilliant close.

Wednesday 4 July

A day of serendipity. People I had spoken to enthused so much about Glengorm Castle on the headland north of Tobermory, so I went to have a look. Levon’s group had played there on Monday evening to great acclaim. An enchanting estate run by the Nelson family who are great supporters of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, with a delightful walled market garden, a solid Victorian pile of a mansion with fantastic views and sumptuous accommodation, friendly Highland cows and a Steading Coffee Shop, Art Gallery and purveyor of delicious tracklements.

My delight overflowed as I sat on the terrace relishing a light lunch and a fresh coffee when a serenade of madrigals burst forth. I had chanced upon the Festival Fringe in the form of Richard Jeffcoat’s 1685 Singers. Half a dozen medieval (and I’m sure, bawdy) airs later, we were all encouraged to stroll through the castle grounds to the main hall to enjoy a couple of Dvorak piano duets and a selection of Schubert songs.

By this time, my face was familiar, so I managed to get into the Aros Hall in Tobermory to eavesdrop on some of the rehearsals, and I was stunned by the virtuosity of the party pieces being put together for later in the week. The evening concert was to be in Tobermory Church, and the harbour side restaurants were busy, so I joined the queue at the fish and chip van on the pier. This is no Greasy Pete’s; this is high quality fresh-caught fish and crispy, crunchy chips, cooked to perfection. If the Michelin inspectors ever get round to rating the humble chippie, this one will get three stars!

The evening performance was an opportunity for all the musicians to demonstrate to a large audience how their playing had developed since the start of the Festival. The programme opened with Gaby’s group playing their Haydn quartet, the third time I heard it in three days, and it was almost unrecognisable so much had it improved.

Levon’s group reprised two movements from their Mendelssohn quartet and the two final parts of the magnificent Bruckner quintet. After the interval, it was my first chance to hear Marcia’s group, and they played one of my favourite pieces, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. One word says it all. Wow! That fabulous final melody was still going round and round in my head as I fell asleep that night.

Thursday 5 July

An early start, and the drive across Mull to Fionnphort and the short ferry crossing to Iona for a morning concert in the Abbey of a selection of the slow movements from the pieces the groups had prepared. For an island that is primarily a place of retreat and welcomes the invasion of day-trippers as a necessity, the addition of a small orchestra and the Festival patrons practically resulted in overload.

But everyone was so helpful. Historic Scotland’s team at the Abbey made sure everyone was cared for, as the Abbey was packed out for the concert. The staff at the hotel were run off their feet catering for all who came in, and maintained the very high standard of their food. The clouds cleared, the sand between the toes warmed up, and the water was freezing! Truly, Iona is a little corner of Paradise.

For the evening concerts, Levon’s and Gaby’s groups stayed in the Ross of Mull to play in Creich Church and Bunessan Hall. If Gruline Church was small, Creich was tiny, but made warm and welcoming by the pictures by local children which adorned the walls, reminiscent of a school classroom.

My choice was to head for Duart Castle where we were received by clan chief Sir Lachlan Maclean for the concert by Marcia’s group, playing their programme for the third time. The Haydn quartet, one of his later ones, the E flat major Op 64/6, was played by the young professionals with the youngest of them all, the Swede Simona Bonfiglioli taking the lead.

A teenager she may still be (just), but a stunning player nonetheless. Second violin was played by Sijie Chen, one of Levon’s students from the Royal College of Music and a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2004. The violist was Emma Stevenson, a final year student at RSAMD who has already been heard in the ranks of the Scottish orchestras. Her Glasgow colleague, Barbara Misiewicz, filled the cello chair.

By this stage in the Festival the quartet was well played in, and it received a vibrant performance. For the Mendelssohn piece, his supposed Op 81, the two mentors, Marcia Crayford and Alasdair Tait were joined by violist Jessica Beeston and Simona moved to play second violin. The work was never written as a quartet, but was four individual pieces cobbled together by his publisher after Mendelssohn’s death.

They comprised two of his last works together with earlier compositions. The Main Hall of Duart Castle was packed to capacity for this concert, but during the interval everyone had the chance to enjoy Sir Lachlan’s generous hospitality. In the second half, the group came together t

lay Souvenir de Florence. Twice in as many days! My cup runneth over!

Friday 6 July

The Friday of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival is party day. The groups have all played their regular programmes three times in varying venues, and individually the young professionals have also been rehearsing their party pieces for the Classical Ceilidh. But first it was time for Maggie Miller and her team, Marian, Heather and Rose, to show the achievements of the local youngsters that they had been coaching during the week.

The Aros Hall was filled with justifiably proud parents as both as an ensemble and as soloists these stars of the future took their early steps of public performance. Well done to Dougie, Amy, Rebecca, Georgina, Melissa, Alex, Charlie, Poppy, Nicola and especially to the wee scene stealer, Scott. The programme was varied, from Cielito Lindo to Ye Banks and Braes, from Stir Fried Centipedes to the Merry Widow. It was a charming afternoon.

Come the evening, it was time for the more adult musicians to strut their stuff in the Aros Hall, a highlight of Mull musical life. Whoever said that classical players were too serious needs their head examined. There was standing room only in the hall as individually and in groups all the Festival participants demonstrated their worth.

It was more than an evening of exquisitely played Mozart duets or Kreisler lollipops. There were songs from the 1685 Choir, there were musical tricks, there was sheer magic, there was a thrilling arrangement of the Shostakovitch Octet, for eighteen strings. There was a last example of the eccentric nature of the week for those who strolled out onto the waterfront of Tobermory bay during the interval.

Festival Friend Geoffrey Burford, impeccably dressed, had spent the day in mass preparation so he could serve up a delicious selection of dainty canapés and glasses of chilled fizz from the back of his car. Delightfully bizarre, but totally in keeping with the spirit of the Festival. And finally, there was the after-party party in the bar of the Mishnish Hotel (of which maybe the least said the better).

Saturday 7 July

The last day of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, but really one for packing up and making it back to the mainland, which is where the Festival trustees like to ensure that the word is spread. Ferry timings dictate that Oban and Lorne residents are denied attending concerts on the island, unless they can find a bed for the night as well. So for the Saturday evening the Festival takes over St John’s Cathedral in Oban and plays the highlights of the three programmes, plus the Shostakovitch Octet, for the benefit of the locals.

By this time, everyone was more than familiar with the programme and the result was phenomenal. All that was left was the late evening drive back up the Great Glen, and to slowly come down off Cloud Nine!

Whoever said “the best things in life are free” must have had the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival in mind. Leonard Friedman established it to develop young musicians rather than to provide a series of concerts for the people of the island, and so the tradition has become well established that admission to the performances is free.

Getting out is not so easy as there is always someone rattling the collection box, with good reason, and I should doubt that anyone would resent dipping into their wallets. Nonetheless, much of the time of Chairman Robert Fleming and his fellow trustees is taken up with fundraising, and there are several charitable foundations without whose support the Festival would flounder.

Then there is an active Friends of the Festival organisation who provide both financial and practical help. But public sector funding is thin. The educational programme for the children is supported with some money from the Scottish Arts Council, and some publicity is provided by Argyll and Bute Council.

It is no secret that the budget for the Festival is in the order of £50,000 which, to me, seems remarkably little for a week of fabulous music, from people of many races and countries, brought together in friendship and harmony, playing for an audience of which at least half holiday on Mull specifically for the Festival. When the parallel was drawn that £50,000 keeps our forces in Iraq for approximately fifteen seconds, Robert Fleming gave a wry smile and remarked “Unfortunately the Exchequer does not work that way”.

Is the future safe? Artistically, most certainly. Next year sees the twenty-first Festival and a collaboration is in place with Dartington International Summer School with help from the National Lottery and other funders for a new work by composer Stephen Montague. Levon Chilingirian’s position as Artistic Director is open-ended and Robert Fleming would be delighted if it is still open-ended after another twenty years.

On the business side, there is an energetic board of Trustees to generate the funding, there is an established audience who return year after year, there are local plans to expand on the choice of performance spaces. To return to the Michelin analogy, one star is worth a visit, two stars is worth a detour, three stars is worth a journey. Mendelssohn on Mull is worth a whole holiday, and I know where I will be spending mine next year.

© James Munro, 2007