News
The Schools Music Project 2009 took place on March 4-6 with the Chroma Ensemble and seven schools. For further details see Education page.
VALENTIN BERLINSKY
Members will have noted with sadness the death on 15th December of Valentin Berlinsky, the long serving cellist and mainstay of the Borodin Quartet. Mr Berlinsky, as he was always known, was 83 years old, and was a member of the quartet from its foundation in 1955 until his retirement in March 2007. Perhaps the greatest musical moments in the Club’s history were the two visits from the Borodin Quartet in March 2004 when they played the complete Beethoven cycle and then again in 2006 when they performed the complete Shostakovich cycle in the Centenary year. Mr Berlinsky had a close relationship with Shostakovich and The Times obituary said “Berlinsky’s final cycle came in 2006 on the anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth. They were bracing, haunting performances that chilled the soul, with only the characteristically sweet strains from Berlinsky, now white haired and shrunken, offering some comfort amid the work’s darkest corners”. It was the Norwich cycle that was to be his last and we all remember him with great affection.
The following was printed in the ‘Lives remembered’ section of the Obituaries in The Times on Friday 16th January:
ROGER ROWE WRITES: Valentin Berlinsky’s stamina was well demonstrated on a visit to Norwich in January 2006 at the age of 81 and still a very active member of the Borodin Quartet. During the course of a long flight from Moscow to Norwich, via Amsterdam in the depths of winter, the quartet were delayed on the runway for more than 4 hours waiting for de-icing equipment to arrive. It was well after midnight by the time I met him at the airport, and despite lack of sleep and food he was clearly determined to complete an exhausting musical schedule. He was on the podium later that evening to perform the first in a series concerts of the complete Shostakovich Quartets – the last time he did so in England. Despite his sometimes very frail appearance, no-one who was present will ever forget the haunting performances the quartet gave, still very much under his guidance, as if his friend Dmitri Shostakovich were sitting by his side.
The Schools Music Project 2009 took place on March 4-6 with the Chroma Ensemble and seven schools. For further details see Education page.
VALENTIN BERLINSKY
Members will have noted with sadness the death on 15th December of Valentin Berlinsky, the long serving cellist and mainstay of the Borodin Quartet. Mr Berlinsky, as he was always known, was 83 years old, and was a member of the quartet from its foundation in 1955 until his retirement in March 2007. Perhaps the greatest musical moments in the Club’s history were the two visits from the Borodin Quartet in March 2004 when they played the complete Beethoven cycle and then again in 2006 when they performed the complete Shostakovich cycle in the Centenary year. Mr Berlinsky had a close relationship with Shostakovich and The Times obituary said “Berlinsky’s final cycle came in 2006 on the anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth. They were bracing, haunting performances that chilled the soul, with only the characteristically sweet strains from Berlinsky, now white haired and shrunken, offering some comfort amid the work’s darkest corners”. It was the Norwich cycle that was to be his last and we all remember him with great affection.
The following was printed in the ‘Lives remembered’ section of the Obituaries in The Times on Friday 16th January:
ROGER ROWE WRITES: Valentin Berlinsky’s stamina was well demonstrated on a visit to Norwich in January 2006 at the age of 81 and still a very active member of the Borodin Quartet. During the course of a long flight from Moscow to Norwich, via Amsterdam in the depths of winter, the quartet were delayed on the runway for more than 4 hours waiting for de-icing equipment to arrive. It was well after midnight by the time I met him at the airport, and despite lack of sleep and food he was clearly determined to complete an exhausting musical schedule. He was on the podium later that evening to perform the first in a series concerts of the complete Shostakovich Quartets – the last time he did so in England. Despite his sometimes very frail appearance, no-one who was present will ever forget the haunting performances the quartet gave, still very much under his guidance, as if his friend Dmitri Shostakovich were sitting by his side.