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CECILIA ENSEMBLE

                                                          Elgar Concert Hall *****

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire graduate David Quigley, now a valued piano tutor there and at the University of Birmingham,(and I am proud to say a brilliant student of mine many years ago) has conceived a chamber ensemble whose opening concert on January 16 in the Elgar Concert Hall at the University proved a portent of an exciting future.

Named after the patron saint of music, the Cecilia Ensemble will be flexible in its personnel; for this Barber Lunchtime Concert the line-up was violinists Caroline Pether, Marie Schreer, violist David Aspin, cellist Nicholas Trygstad, all with awesome credentials, and Quigley himself.

Quigley delivered an engaging and well-informed introduction (perhaps slightly over-long) linking the two works: The Ghost Road, from the late string quartet “In a Chinese Mirror” by Granville Bantock, who succeeded Elgar as Peyton Professor of Music at the University; it was Elgar’s Piano Quintet which concluded the programme.

The Bantock proved actually one of the most appealing works I have encountered by this frequently grandiloquent composer, and it led so beautifully into the Elgar, seamlessly and inevitably.

These performances impressed with their empathy, their acute mutual listening, and their meticulous preparation which actually permitted total immersion and spontaneity. Quigley’s contribution in the Elgar awakened me to the fact that this was in fact Elgar’s only example of concertante piano-writing (where did that come from, I ask myself?), but in this account it was perfectly assimilated into the overall texture.

The future looks set fair for this exciting new kid on the block. Music societies, make a note of the Cecilia Ensemble.

Christopher Morley

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