In a powerful counterpoint to a week of sobering reports on arts funding, a major new cultural initiative launched in London with a night of celestial music. The veteran violin dealers J&A Beare have established a new Cultural Trust, and its inaugural event was a sold-out chamber music festival concert at Cadogan Hall.
A Supergroup Assembles for a New Cause
The launch of the Beare Cultural Trust marks a significant expansion of the firm's long-standing support for musicians. For nearly 50 years, J&A Beare have provided loan instruments to students and professionals. Their new Trust aims to offer masterclasses, scholarships, and practical support for string players on a broader scale. The biennial mini-festival, featuring both Beare's instruments and an international roster of artists, represents its flagship public offering.
The lineup for the opening concert was nothing short of stellar, marshalling some of the finest string players of the current generation. The stage gathered violinists Janine Jansen, Ning Feng, and Alexander Sitkovetsky, the renowned Quatuor Ébène, violists Timothy Ridout and Amihai Grosz, and cellists Kian Soltani and Daniel Blendulf.
Monumental Works Meet Collegiate Intimacy
Such an assembly of musical talent demanded repertoire of equivalent stature. The programme delivered profoundly, pairing two landmark works: Schubert's String Quintet in C major and Schoenberg's 'Verklärte Nacht' (Transfigured Night). The former, composed in 1828, was Schubert's final chamber work; the latter, from 1899, boldly stretched the boundaries of harmony.
For the Schubert, the Quatuor Ébène were joined by cellist Kian Soltani. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, who added a second viola, Schubert's quintet gains its unique, grounding sonority from an extra cello. Soltani provided that essential anchor, his playing a corporeal guide-rope through the famous Adagio, a defiant life-force in the Scherzo, and a steadying presence in the finale's convulsive dance. The resulting dialogue between the quartet's Gallic elegance and Soltani's digging intensity was compelling.
Surrendering to a Transfigured Night
Where Schubert's quintet peers at the edge of life, Schoenberg's sextet stands at the precipice of tonal harmony itself. The piece sets a dramatic narrative where a woman confesses to her lover that she carries another man's child. Violinist Janine Jansen, who recorded the work in 2013, has since softened her approach. Here, her moonlit, silvery tone glinted above the ensemble, contrasting beautifully with the bronze warmth of violist Amihai Grosz, to draw out the score's transformative mystery.
The performance was characterised by a collegiate intimacy, allowing Schoenberg's supple, revolutionary score to find its own shape without undue force. It showcased the supreme skill of an ensemble capable not only of wrestling such complex music into submission but of surrendering to it completely.
The concert served as a potent reminder of the transformative power of live music, even as the sector faces documented challenges. The Beare's Chamber Music festival concluded with a second concert at the Wigmore Hall, cementing the promising debut of a significant new patron in the UK's cultural landscape.
