In April 2020 I spoke to Lucy Melvin, 2nd violinist with the Callia Quartet, when she was entertaining her neighbours with open-air Lockdown Concerts from her Sydenham street. This month, she is working on a concert with the Callia Quartet, oboist James Turnbull and composer Thomas Hewitt Jones, writes Michael Holland.
The concert will be performed and recorded at All Saints, West Dulwich and streamed on 4th March 8.00pm, and will be available to view online for one week. The Callia Quartet give an annual concert at All Saints, normally to a packed church. This year, alas, there will be no physical audience, but they are embracing the world of streamed concerts, and this will be the first of two performances they will be streaming this spring.
When their 2021 concert at All Saints was planned, London had entered Tier 2, and a restricted audience was still allowed to attend concerts at that point. By the end of last year, London had bounced up and down through the tiers several times. The third national Lockdown, however, meant that it was clear that it would not be possible to welcome an audience to this concert, but in this large church, they would still be able to play and record safely.
‘I thought planning concerts out of doors during the first 2020 Lockdown was a fun distraction, but there was also great unpredictability in performing outside,’ remembers Lucy. ‘I now realise that that unpredictability was nothing compared to planning a Callia Quartet concert during the current Lockdown, but perhaps that experience last year prepared me well for this one’.
All Saints is a well-ventilated church, with plenty of space for the performers to distance from each other. ‘The naturally rich acoustic of the church will be a pleasure to perform in once again, as the last time I gave a concert it was for the final street concert in June, ‘ Lucy says, adding. ‘We are so thrilled to be able to perform this programme’.
The violinist goes on to say that, ‘Hewitt Jones’ piece, Introduction and Allegro, is very symbolic of the time which we are currently in, with a brooding and intense introduction, emerging into a joyful allegro; it is scored for full string quartet and oboe… There is very little music written for this combination, so will provide a lasting legacy for mixed chamber music. Hewitt Jones’ new work and Haydn’s op 103, his final string quartet, are contrasted in the programme with two very youthful works by Mozart and Sibelius: Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and Sibelius’ String Quartet No. 1.’
This concert will be available to view online from 8.00pm on Thursday 4th March for 1 week. Tickets are free, though donations may be made. Bookings can be made at www.ticketsource.co.uk/callia-quartet/.
Their second concert this season will be at 6.30pm on Sunday 18th April, at Conway Hall, and will be streamed on Conway Hall’s YouTube channel.
Details of this concert can be found at: https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/online-sunday-concerts-callia-quartet/
Check out the quartet here: www.calliaquartet.co.uk