Chichester concert marks 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan-Williams

Stockholm-based Simon is delighted to take up the new role with a concert series he has long enjoyed a happy association with: “I have had a nice relationship with the concerts over the last few years, and Anna Hill (who runs them) invited me to become involved in an advisory role. It gives me a chance sometimes to come and play but I'm also in contact, suggesting people who might also perform. We are obviously just coming out of the whole Covid thing so this is a good chance to be doing this.”

It's also another chance to work with Lawrence, a friend of long standing. They have performed together from London’s Wigmore Hall to New York’s Lincoln Center and have made many recordings together including Brahms, Arthur Benjamin and an all-French disc of works of Chausson, Ravel and Debussy.

For Chichester they will play: Ralph Vaughan-Williams: Romance; Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo Op 119, No 1 (Piano solo); Johannes Brahms: Viola Sonata, Op 120, No 2 in E flat major; Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder; Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo Op 118, No 2 (Piano solo); and Johannes Brahms: Viola Sonata, Op 120, No 1 in F minor.

“Working with Lawrence is rather special. We have worked together since we left college and that's 25 years ago. It has been a great musical partnership, but we are also great friends. We both spend a lot of time in different countries, but we have managed to keep working together in different guises over the years. And I think it works because of the fact that we have that history of growing up together and studying with the same people sometimes. We have common points of reference musically, but we also get on hugely well on and off the stage. It means that we know each other’s playing so well, you understand how people breathe, how people think about their music and we're both fascinated massively with a wide range of music. I do think we are very similar in a lot of ways but I would like to think that we challenge each other as well. He certainly challenges me! I feel that I'm learning all the time with him.

“Lawrence is one of the foremost viola players of the day. That’s unquestionable and it's wonderful to be playing with him in the UK so we wanted to present some of the main core repertoire for the viola which means the two Brahms viola sonatas that we are including. And it is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan-Williams, and I think it is right that he should be reassessed and that anniversaries are a good time to do that. There are the central pieces like some of the symphonies and also Lark Ascending that is everyone's favourite every year but there are so many sides to him as a composer on some of the other symphonies which are much more tormented, much darker and perhaps more interesting and probably give a more 3D sense of him as a composer.”

Tickets: Chichester Festival Theatre.