Many will know The Callia Quartet from its frequent performances at the Rotherhithe Thames Tunnel as it is one of their favourite venues, and where they have built up quite a large fanbase, but their next concert will be in Bloomsbury where there will be world premieres for the audience to look forward to, writes Michael Holland.
The musicians came together through the combined love of the music of Haydn when Hartmut Ometzberger and Lucy Melvin were students under the tutelage of violin teacher Emanuel Hurwitz, whose own string quartet was the first to record all 68 of Haydn’s String Quartets – ‘a remarkable feat in those days,’ says Lucy. Hartmut’s partner Chrisoula (viola) and cellist David Kadumukasa joined and the four have now worked and played together for a long time, forming a strong bond.
Lucy Melvin teaches violin at Southwark’s Kingsdale Foundation School and during lockdown entertained her neighbours with alfresco concerts outside her Sydenham home. But overall the pandemic was not a good time for them. Concerts were cancelled, including the world premieres of three pieces by composer Thomas Hewitt Jones they had commissioned. Plus, with the Ometzbergers based in Vienna, the debacle of Brexit added a whole raft of problems on top of Covid.
The group was previously called the Chamber Players Ensemble as they all had connections to the Chamber Players course, but over lockdown they felt they needed an individual identity and agreed to change the name to Callia, the Greek word for Beauty. Lucy explains, ‘It was inspired by a sculpture of a huge plait which stands strong against all the elements by the Greek Artist Kalliopi Lemos (the name Kalliopi means beautiful voice). The cutting off of the plait is an act of defiance and an emancipation of thinking…Not that any of us are Greek, but we liked the way it sounded.’
I asked Lucy how they chose the music for concerts: ‘The programmes for each concert always have a wonderful way of coming together over discussions with each other – discussions with other colleagues, music which we have always loved playing, and then we also try and add something new into our programmes because it is really great to have a wide mix.
‘When Hartmut is over in London for one concert, we will start thinking towards the next concert. We always try and include a Haydn quartet in our programme, because musically, that is where so much started from.’
For the Bloomsbury concert, there will be a two movement piece by the African-American composer Florence Price (1887 – 1953). ‘We performed this in March this year,’ begins Lucy, ‘and it really is beautiful. It was rediscovered in 2009 when her derelict holiday home was purchased and the new owners discovered a filing cabinet full of manuscripts. This piece was re-edited in 2017, so our March performance could have been the first UK performance. It is a real beauty and definitely deserves many more performances, so we are glad to be able to include it in our programme again.’
Also scheduled for Bloomsbury will be the premieres of one of the Thomas Hewitt Jones commissioned pieces and Wendy Hiscocks’ Summer Air.
‘The invitation from Wendy to premiere Summer Air came about this year,’ says Lucy. ‘I was performing her solo violin piece Caprice and got to know her well. The Caprice is a very evocative piece of music for solo violin, capturing birds in flight. Summer Air for string quartet, is equally descriptive and recalls a magical moment when Wendy saw insects flying and seeds floating in the sunshine light in a summer meadow.’
Lucy revealed that future plans may involve a fifth member to play on another Hewitt Jones composition written for string quartet and oboe: ‘I have been in discussion with oboist James Turnbull, and we are looking at availability for all five of us for that. It was a piece written right in the depths of lockdown, and so there are some moments of intense emotion, but it emerges into something light and positive feeling towards the end.’
The Bloomsbury concert sounds more and more exciting.
The Music Room, 49 Great Ormond Street, WC1N 3HZ Sunday 6th November 5pm. Admission: £15
Booking: www.ticketsource.co.uk/callia-quartet/
Follow @callia_quartet on Instagram for any future concerts and updates on our events. www.calliaquartet.co.uk
