Launch Concert (Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky chamber works)

Upon setting up The West Riding Ensemble in May, 2024, David Milsom and fellow director, Anton Nikolaev started to plan an official launch concert for the group. Given shared enthusiasm for the music of Shostakovich, a work by the composer was both symbolic and essential. Equally, the choice of a large-scale ‘romantic’ chamber music keyed into joint enthusiasms, and here, David finally had the opportunity to perform Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, which had hitherto eluded him.

Preparing the concert was a logistical challenge. Firstly, the WRE team planned this inaugural event at the same time as setting up all the infrastructure needed for a new enterprise: bank accounts, card payments, ticket sales, advertising, social media, programme design, and much more. This included devising the WRE logo which, like everything else, was a collaboration: an initial idea by David was perfected by WRE member and David’s mentee and protégé, Maria Nikolaeva, symbolically displaying a complex and inter-related web of musical collaboration, including teacher and student, fellow performance colleagues, and ‘musical friends’. (The ‘shape shifting’ complexities here have fuelled the inspiration of composer Ian Crew who attended the launch concert and is writing a new ‘concerto grosso’ at David’s suggestion for WRE. Its two ‘concertino’ solo violin parts will be performed by David and Maria. This work is due to be premiered in late 2025).

A Steinway grand piano was loaned for the occasion in a very generous act of sponsorship by Sherwood Phoenix Pianos of Mansfield.

With the interruption of the summer creating further challenges, the two works were put together each in two rehearsals before the day of the concert. Owing to her residency in Paris, Alice Power was unable to rehearse the Shostakovich with the string players until the day before the concert. The Tchaikovsky sextet rehearsals prior to the day each only involved five players, due to availability - the work only finally came together on the day itself!

This would be a substantial challenge for any professional artist, especially in a group convened specially for this event and at the very start of WRE’s activities. That it was accomplished with such aplomb by David’s mentee, Maria, is a testimony to her fine instincts as a chamber musician, the identification of which by David was key to starting the ensemble. Whilst there are many opportunities for young players to perform in ensemble contexts (such as youth orchestras), chamber music opportunities can be rather harder to arrange. That Maria was able to play with a fully professional ensemble has enhanced her playing enormously; after this highly successful concert, Douglas Badger, fixer for The Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Skipton Camerata, engaged both David and Maria for a professional orchestral concert, showing how WRE can impact the learning experiences and networking of young players.
A key element to the success of this concert was the method of preparation. To mitigate limited quorate rehearsal time, David and Maria practiced together regularly, also helping to craft their artistic collaboration – a method that is being used to prepare the February 22 quartet concert. In this latter event, however, roles at least partially reverse, as Maria is leading and David playing second, facilitating Maria’s independence of musical thought and providing the opportunity for her to have a full and equal say in artistic and interpretative decision-making in the ensemble as part of what David terms ‘ecosystemic music-making.’ All of this is based in David’s three decades of instrumental teaching, and his practical as well as academic expertise working in Higher Education.

The Tchaikovsky will be recorded professionally for video in May 2025, alongside Shostakovich’s 8th quartet. A repeat performance of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet in Paris with Alice Power is in the planning stages, contingent upon sponsorship and donations to help support travel and accommodation costs.