This week, we were delighted to welcome our Strings Music Fellow for this academic year – the eminent violinist, composer and conductor, Marcin Markowicz. Marcin, himself an international soloist and chamber musician, is also Concertmaster of the Polish Radio Orchestra, Founder of the world-class Lutoslawski Quartet and Professor of Violin at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
During his two days in school, he took violin masterclasses for the most talented violinists in the Prep and Upper School. He also offered invaluable chamber music coaching for our string quartets and piano trios and was our guest adjudicator for this year’s Junior and Senior String Prizes.
On Wednesday lunchtime, Marcin, together with Head of Piano, Mrs Bantock, treated violinists from across the school, as well as staff and visitors, to a truly magical lunchtime recital. The duo’s performance featured a diverse repertoire, which crossed centuries and showcased Marcin’s innate musicality, physicality and sheer technical brilliance.
The concert began in the early 20th century with Korngold’s Suite from Much Ado About Nothing, Opus 11. It then moved back in time to the 1600s with Biber’s Sonata Representativa in A Major. Biber was an early Baroque composer who, Marcin told his audience, was “completely crazy”. This piece, he said, was “like talking a walk through a zoo” with its representations of different bird and animal sounds found within the staves, including florid trills for the tune of the nightingale and some comical glissando ‘meows’ of a cat.
The recital concluded with a performance of Pärt’s Fratres, a fine example of European minimalist music, where one note can be as important as an entire phrase, although, in this instance, the piece was fiendishly difficult, with arpeggios of notes played at lightning speed!
If you would like to watch the recital for yourself, you can do so below:
Head of Strings, Mr Bantock, enthused, “What an absolute pleasure and honour to experience such phenomenally outstanding musicality and creativity from two outstanding performers. Shimmering multitudes of ever-evolving colour and light enraptured a spellbound audience in this not-to-be-forgotten gem of a concert.”
You can read more about Marcin Markowicz and our other Music Fellows here.