Kendal Midday Concert Club, Wednesday March 4

Making a debut appearance at Kendal Midday Concert Club was the clarinettist, Jack McNeill with the Gildas String Quartet.

Jack now lives in Kendal but he enjoys a busy career as a freelance musician with an interest in contemporary music; he is involved in a wide range of musical collaborations with orchestras and contemporary music groups.

The Gildas String Quartet has given many recitals in major concert halls throughout the UK and performed in major concert halls at international festivals. The quartet also has a strong interest and involvement in contemporary music, as was obvious from this programme.

Two relatively unknown and perhaps obscure works were on the menu: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet Op.10 and a contemporary work by David Bruce curiously entitled ‘Gumboots’, a work which he describes as ‘an abstract celebration of the rejuvenating power of the dance’.

First came Coleridge-Taylor’s quintet, a work which, using the familiar harmonic language of the late nineteenth century, proved to be very accessible. It is skilfully crafted with the thematic material shared out between all five instruments throughout each movement.

Although written when the composer was only 20, this is no apprentice work: its thematic ideas are striking and show signs of originality. According to our informative programme notes, his most familiar but now largely forgotten oratorio ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’ was performed at the Mary Wakefield festival in 1900 and again in 1901 under the composer’s direction. On the evidence of this quintet perhaps it is time for a revival of interest in this composer’s music.

David Bruce has described ‘Gumboots’ as being among his most successful pieces and listening to this exciting performance, played so brilliantly, it is not hard to see why this should be so. The slow, lyrical, introspective first movement opens with a haunting duet between bass clarinet and viola, so sensitively played by both players.

The second half consists of five frenetic dances which get wilder as the work progresses, each exploring a range of different techniques possible on a stringed instrument to produce a fascinating palette of colours.

The title is derived from the South African folk tradition of dancing in gumboots and this influence can be heard in the rhythmic structure of the piece.: intricate, irregular rhythms appear throughout; at one point, for example, polyrhythms from the Cameroon form the basis of a dance. Touches of humour become apparent as the dances progress.

‘Gumboots’ is a challenging piece for any group but the quality of the playing by the Gildas Quartet and Jack McNeil was first-rate and was met with enthusiastic applause from the large audience.

Clive Walkley