The Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) under the leadership of Lakshman Joseph de Saram stands tall in Sri Lanka’s classical music industry. The Society has held many interesting and successful performances and concerts mostly in collaboration with the Goethe – Institut. This long-standing and acclaimed music partnership which began in 2012 has been beneficial for classical music lovers and also students of classical music.
On Saturday June 15 the CMSC will hold a performance at the Goethe - Institut with it’s principal players. The concert which will commence at 7 p.m. will see Surekha Amerasinghe, flute, Lakshman Joseph de Saram, violin, Ursula Nelius, violin, Othman H. Majid, viola, Saranga Cooray, violincello, and Nilanthi Weerakoon, contrabass.
The programme for the evening will be the Flute Quartets of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Christian Bach and the Flute Quintet of the first accomplished American female composer, Amy Beach, born in 1857.
To elaborate a flute quartet is a musical term for a type of chamber music group. They are normally found in a form consisting of a flute, a violin, a viola and a cello. This form is closely related to the string quartet, but with a flute in place of the first violin. It is generally believed that this type of chamber music reached its pinnacle around the middle of the second half of the 18th century. As a point of interest I’d like to quote the view of an international critic regarding Amy Beach and women composers. “Women composers today are certainly more in their freedom to express themselves though it will be a greater struggle for them than for men, which is why they have strived to be better than men – which often they are! and Amy Beach is a shining example of those efforts. Her music is certainly up there with the best.”
The CMSC appears courtesy of Fairway Holdings, the Society’s Premier Sponsor.