Amy Beach Piano Quintet at 2024 Verbier Festival

[Wheesht]

While too many major festival still 'distinguish' themselves by a dearth of works by unsungs, there is a ray of hope every now and then. For instance, at this year's Verbier Festival in Switzerland, a truly excellent group of young talents of the Verbier Festival Academy played the Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor by Amy Beach in the Academy Presents series yesterday, 4th August.

Before they played the quintet, violist Dillon Scott gave a brief speech in which he introduced the composer and said that many more works by Amy Beach ought to be heard in future.

The Academy soloists were:
Victor Yuanhan Lu, piano
SongHa, violin
Alexandra Weissbecker, violin
Dillon Scott, viola
Constantin Heise, cello

They couldn't have made a better argument for the work and for the composer than with their utterly compelling, finely nuanced performance full of vigour as well as subtlety.