cyntillating sounds: w

a column on the state of classics

Vitamin T, the sequel

No, not the movie, just the last little bit of a great Tromp competition I had the pleasure of

witnessing Saturday night…into Sunday morning. My Vitamin T turned into a super booster

as three string quartets battled for 40 thousand Euros in prizes, contracts and master classes.

I had not had the pleasure of hearing any of the three who had survived the first, second and semi-final rounds so I was a blank check of expectation as they settled into one chosen work and

the obligatory (and specially written) Starry Night by Steve Martland.

And it was the piece by Martland that made the difference in who went home with what,

and indeed who will go on tour. For a major prize it is the Tromp Tour, Vitamin TT for short.

The best prize any young talent can get is of course the chance to play, and play again:

worth so much more than money.

Non-performing winners at Vitamin T were a list of Dutch composers whose string quartets

were obligatory in the second round. Accompanied by a lecture entitled It ain’t much if it ain’t Dutch

by Emile Wennekes (Chairman of the Jury) who had selected the native repertoire, getting these

notes out onto international music desks is an important sideline to this contest.

No local contestants made it through unfortunately, but there was a local guru,

the great cellist Anner Bijlsma was a member of the jury.

Clearly there was a slight European taste in the outcome, despite two American jury members,

Mary Rowell and Ida Bieler, as a few well established ensembles from the US did not make it

to the end.

First up at the finales bat was the cool, calm and collected Amaryllis Quartet with members

from Germany and Switzerland, whose Martland was close to note perfect, and that is

something very, very difficult. In the multitude of repetitions and minimal but

massive harmonic shifting within the piece, it would be tough to just keep your place on the page,

let stand make well-tuned sense of Martland’s waves of percussive sound.

Written for quartet plus Marimba, star musician Colin Currie had the daunting and slightly

thankless task of ‘accompanying’ the piece three times, consciously letting the contestants

lead the way.

Second up was the Heath Quartet, three lads and a lady from England and South Africa.

Their Debussy was spot on riveting, not a blemished intonation or uncontrolled phrase to be heard,

perfect balance and a clearly united interpretation, gorgeous.

Then came their Martland where not only did they make sense of the longish piece,

they made music of it. Now this performance could make a stand in both a classical hall

and a funky summer rock festival: string rhythms gone young and wild. Their Martland put

Heath over the top: they took home the first as well as other prizes including the Public's Prize.

The third finalist, four women from Ireland and England, the Callino Quartet, reminded us

poignantly of how truly wonderful a composer Mendelssohn was, is! Their warm, expressive

and risky performance of his quartet Opus 80 was a crowning glory to the evening.

What a level of performance these quartets brought to the proceedings, simply wow!

The evening came to a close with a cry for help from composer Martland who had

spent the competition week working with high school kids in the area. He was shocked

and appalled at the lack of general musical knowledge he encountered there, as well

as the fact that the kids didn’t even catch on to his Van Gogh inspired title Starry Night…

'here in Holland!’

Steve Martland called upon his fellow composers to shake up politicians and get

some improvements into the Dutch schools. He received a first pledge of action toute suite

from the new Mayor of Eindhoven Rob van Gijzel in attendance so let’s hope the Tromp

Competition and Festival can pump some Vitamin T into politics and education in the near future.

The unusually high level promises a great future for the genre of string quartet, and for this Tromp

International Competition. Considering this year’s contestants, Tromp, now held biannually,

should in the future gather every year. Keep those vitamins coming!

See for all the results and festival news: tromp

cyntillating sounds: w

Vitamin T, the sequel

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