Confident titans of classical music make for a wonderful weekend in Leamington

TWO days into this year’s festival and the young pretender, Piatti String Quartet, was ahead in the poll for the best concert performance. Smetana’s Quartet No 1 in the hands of future titans, a foursome of very bright young graduates from the Royal Academy and Royal College was “rarely, if ever, better played”, according to audience experts.

Then along came the present titans, Graffe String Quartet. Smetana’s String Quartet No 2 is very different from No 1, due in part to the increasing tinnitus suffered by the composer at the time and his worsening deafness. The Graffe interpretation of No 2 and delivery of Novak’s No 2 was “a notch above anything else”. And when pianist Jitka Cechova joined them to play Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A, the festival was raised to new heights thanks to her commanding yet charming presence.

Vocalists and soloists made their confident contributions – mezzo soprano Lucie Spickova - off to Glyndebourne for the summer - offering more Novak, Brahms, Mahler and Dvorak, who, like Smetana, suffered much sadness in his life, causing him to lean on his Catholic faith and the Bible of Kralice for inspiration.

Jitka returned on our traditional May Day to join the Smetana Piano Trio playing from the original, faded 1930s sheet music used by Josef Palenicek, founder of the trio. His son now plays cello and the ever popular Jana Novakova, violin. “You won’t hear a better performance of Novak’s Piano Trio No 2” commented members of the Dvorak Society; Dvorak’s Piano Trio was beautifully delivered and Jitka’s Coda playing in the Finale of Brahms’ Piano Trio, a brilliant and fitting tribute to the memory of the late Ann Low-Beer and capacity for hard work.

Following a disappointing organ recital at All Saints’ church, Gottlieb Wallisch made the very best use of the Fazioli grand with solo piano works by Brahms, Liszt and - a wonderful surprise, the start of an early Richard Strauss revival - his Piano Sonata in B minor which Gottlieb describes as “a symphony for the piano with both big sounds and small sounds”. Stunning!

Gemma Rosefield continued the early Strauss revival radiating a naturalness and impish fun playing his Cello Sonata in F accompanied by the incisive, yet light touch, Ian Brown. All eyes will be on Tim Horton on Tuesday night as he leads Ensemble 360 through the Strauss Piano Quartet in C at the end of the best weekend of the year.

Clive Peacock (writing on May 3)