I should welcome Billy as the latest entrant to the Cherwell24 blogging community. His funereal post on how McCain’s going to be six feet under before he's even finished in the White House made us rather depressed, but here’s something about the younger generation to get us a in a bit more of an optimistic mood.

Those of you who don’t waste all the day reading blogs (ahem) might not have seen this. Barack Obama’s campaign HQ is ‘decorated’ with a nice poster of the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

What’s this got to do with the topic of this blog? Good question. Hold on.

Yesterday I took the trip up to Marburg (nice university town) to interview an activist from Die Linke, the hardline socialists who’ve just won their first rural West German state seats. The party are holding a congress in May to mark the 40th anniversary of 1968, the year that student activism (especially on the far left) was born. You’ll hear more about the interview in due course, but I’ll mention one thing a few things now.

He denied the aim of the “1968-Kongress” was to glorify 1968 (the name’s just a coincidence, I assume), and when I asked him if his party were in fact communists, he gave a five-minute response about there being loads of different strands of thought in his party. You can usually tell more about a politician from what questions he or she doesn’t answer than from any actual responses, so I took it as a “yeah, kind of”. And did he condone the German anti-capitalist terrorists of the 1970s? No, they were wrong, he said.

Which is why the official poster for the congress he’s helping to run is plastered with photos not only of Guevarabama, but also the Red Army Faction’s martyr and hero, Rudi Dutschke.

At least they’ve got Obama’s support, I guess.

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February 14th sees the release of “I’m Alright Now”, the newest single from English singer-songwriter David Ford. Thematically, the single sits between the somewhat petulant “Go to Hell” and the chorus-intensive emotional ballad “I don’t care what you call me”. The first few seconds of the song are promising, with cautious violins gradually giving way to guitar and drums. Unfortunately, the listener is reminded within a few more seconds that David Ford is not a particularly gifted lyricist. This would not pose a great problem were it not for the fact that Ford’s songs, due to their heavily melodic nature and the artist’s promise of "brutally honest” self-condemnation, rely largely on the quality of the lyrics.

In “I’m Alright Now”, David Ford indulges his propensity for starting small and building up to a rhapsodic climax. The verses serve as respite from the intensity of the choruses, which invite the listener to “sing along when [their] heart’s finished bleeding”. This song, on the first listening, is relatively disappointing. On the second listening, it seems marginally more palatable as the listener presumably knows what to expect. Post-third listening, it quickly seems tedious and melodramatic. To sum it up, Ford’s “I did things of which I am not proud” seems quite appropriate as a sentiment, considering the quality of this single relative to the artist’s obvious potential and considerable intelligence.
by Nick Maxfield 

The Maggini String Quartet gave a solid performance of a diverse and challenging programme at the Holywell Music Room, as part of the Oxford Chamber Music Society’s 2008 concert series.

The first piece, Haydn’s String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20 No. 5, was briefly was described by the quartet’s cellist Michal Kaznowski as a ‘contrast of light and dark’. The performers enhanced the frequent trade-off of major and minor keys with rich dynamic contrasts throughout all four movements. Balance amongst the players was perhaps a little uneven at times, with the lower strings sometimes obscuring first violinist Lorraine McAslan’s mellow sound.

The highlight of the concert was John Ireland’s Sextet for Clarinet, Horn and String Quartet, for which the Maggini quartet were joined by clarinettist Robert Plane and hornist David Pyatt. The influence of Brahms’s clarinet quintet and horn trio shows throughout Ireland’s opus, with the rich and sonorous blending of string, wind and brass making the listener yearn for more chamber music with such instrumentation. The quartet will be recording this work for Naxos later this year, hopefully raising awareness of this composer’s fascinating early work.

The final piece on the program was Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, op. 44, no. 2, cited in the program as being ‘one of our literature’s greatest quartets’. Violist Martin Outram offered a strong and rich opening melody. The fiery fourth movement demonstrated the quartet’s outstanding technical skill, especially in virtuosic fast passages at the exhilarating climax.  The quartet’s encore, William Alwyn’s ‘Novelette’, brought an enjoyable afternoon to a close.

The Oxford Chamber Music Society presents its next concert on 2 March with the Duke Quartet performing works by Steve Reich, Bartók and Ravel. Anyone under 23 years old can obtain a free ticket on the day through the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust upon presentation of ID.

by Aaron Mertz

Click here to listen to the Quartetto di Cremona performing Haydn op.76 n.4 Sunrise Menuet.

Four men, three unshaven, enter the room wearing dark suits: certainly not looking like the kind of people you’d like to meet down one of Oxford’s alleys on a dark night. They are, however, the members of the Cremona string quartet, who performed at the Holywell Music Room last Sunday.

The quartet’s intimidating aura was continued by the aggressive opening to Bartok’s string quartet number four, with the slipping of the cello spike at the end of the second movement adding to the drama of the piece. The interesting techniques used by Bartok (such as hitting the string with the wood of the bow) were carried off well by the quartet, and the humorous fourth movement (which is almost entirely pizzicato) induced quiet smiles from the audience at the end.

Following the Bartok, the Italian quartet played one of Beethoven’s opus 59 ‘Razumovsky’ quartets: the vigorous ending of the first movement was particularly impressive technically. The very emotional second movement led into a gracious-sounding minuet: whilst this provided a release of tension after the previous movement, it was perhaps a little uninteresting serving more as a bridge between movements.

Whilst perhaps not to everyone’s taste, I believe that the macho nature of the quartet’s playing was well suited to these Beethoven and Bartok quartets. It was interesting to hear the quartet play the cavatina from Beethoven’s string quartet opus 130 as an encore and its passion contrasted greatly with some of their earlier playing.

The quartet’s music was fascinating to listen to, and their aura very much added to the experience. Should they come and play in Oxford again, they are a must-see for any chamber music listener.

The next coffee concert at the Holywell music room is next Sunday, February 17th, at 11.15am, and will feature cellist Gemma Rosefield playing sonatas by Beethoven and Chopin (tickets available from Tickets Oxford 01865 305305).

by Robin Thompson, Cherwell24 Music Editor

Oxford Philomusica play Tchaikovsky, 8/2/2008

“Worthless, unplayable”, said Nikolai Rubenstein of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto soon after it was written.  Yet it has become a keystone of the Romantic repertoire, and Rubenstein later admitted how wrong he initially was.

Stephen Hough’s rendition of the concerto was the highlight of the evening as the Oxford Philomusica (the University of Oxford’s resident orchestra) played a programme consisting of Prichard’s ‘Seven Pieces for Orchestra’ and Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto number one and symphony number six (‘Pathetique’).

Deborah Prichard (Worcester College) wrote ‘Seven pieces for string orchestra’ having been inspired by Chagall’s stained glass windows at Tudely Church, Kent.  The work was commissioned to commemorate the death of Sarah d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, who drowned in 1963 aged twenty-one.  ‘Seven pieces’ is palindromic in structure, with the first, fourth and final movements related and movements two and six, and three and five, mirror-images of each other.

Stephen Hough’s virtuosic playing stunned the audience so much that they applauded after just the first movement of the piece.  The contrast between the quiet, lyrical sections (such as the start of the second movement, which felt as intimate as much chamber music) and grand themes was brought out wonderfully by both orchestra and pianist alike.

After the interval, another large romantic work was perhaps a little much for the audience (especially given the uncomfortable seats in the Sheldonian theatre!), and the outpouring of emotion so typical of Tchaikovsky was a little hard to take in.  The symphony is based on life, growing out of nothing in the first movement and fading away at the end.  The ensuing silence showed the audience’s appreciation of the performance.

The Oxford Philomusica’s next concert at the Sheldonian Theatre will be on 6^th March, featuring a complete semi-staged performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni(tickets available from Tickets Oxford 01865 305305).

by Robin Thompson, C24 Music Editor

I think we all agree now that China and India are the economic powers of the future. But do the German media do justice to this, or are people over here left in a puddle of ignorance about Asia's emerging tiger and dragon? A fellow German year abroad student reports (in English!) for the radio station Deutsche Welle.

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95 per cent of international students rate Britain as being an “attractive or very attractive” place to study, research has shown.The study, undertaken by i-graduate, asked 11,000 students from over 143 countries about their perceptions of university life abroad.The US is still deemed the most attractive destination for foreign students, but the results of the study show that the UK is increasingly challenging US popularity.Many students view the UK as a safe place to study, where they may obtain reputable qualifications and receive high-quality teaching.
Read more in this week's Cherwell.By Sophie Pitman

Holywell Music Room, 3rd February 2008

Every Sunday morning at the Holywell Music Room some of Britain’s finest musicians come to display their talents. Yet whilst the concert venue is often full, very few students are present. Perhaps few students are interested in classical music? But this is hard to believe with hundreds across the university involved with various choirs, orchestras and other ensembles.

Then, maybe students cannot afford to go and see concerts? However, the £8 entry fee (including coffee at the King’s Arms following the concert) is a small one in comparison to the amount spent on nights out to clubs.

Last Sunday, the Adderbury Ensemble performed at the Holywell Music Room coffee concert. The group was formed in 1986, and after initially performing solely in the north Oxfordshire village of Adderbury, now performs throughout Europe. It also helped to set up the Oxford coffee concert series, and will record two CDs in 2008.

The concert opened with Vaughan-Williams’ ‘Phantasy’ quintet, a work for strings that is much less well-known than several of his other works written just after the end of the First World War. His love of the viola is clear from the opening theme of the first movement, and, judging by the audience’s excited chatter at the end the piece, the rendition was very well received.

The second and final piece of the concert was Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor, k. 516. Despite being well played, its tragic and grave nature made it unremarkable after the Vaughan-Williams.

Next Sunday’s coffee concert at the Holywell Music Room is at 11.15am, where the Cremona string quartet will be playing quartets by Beethoven and Bartok (tickets available from Tickets Oxford 01865 305305).

by Robin Thompson