fre Belfast Music Society presents its annual Young Musicians bas Belfast Music Society Concert THE PROGRAMME will feature Schubert's Trout Quintet and piano music by Liszt and Debussy. Our ensemble is being coached by Michael d'Arcy, one of Ireland's most respected string players and teachers. THE PERFORMERS: Jonathan McBride (violin) achieved joint first place in A Level music in N. Ireland 2002 and is studying in Glasgow - David Campbell (viola) is a member of the Ulster Youth Orchestra and is studying in Belfast - Niall Trainor (cello) is studying in Dublin with William Butt - Paul Sharpe (double bass) is studying in London with Tom Martin, and Michael McHale (piano) is reading Music at Cambridge and studying piano in London with Christopher Elton. Saturday 3rd January 2004, 7.30pm, Elmwood Hall, QUB All seats £5.00, Students £2.50, available from the Ulster Orchestra ticket office: Elmwood Hall, QUB. Telephone 028 9066 8798 Mon-Fri during office hours or may be reserved through our website www.belfastmusicsociety.org Details correct at time of going to press.

Young Musicians Concert CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862-1918 Estampes. Pagodes: La Soirée dans Grenade: Jardins sous la pluie. All the chief aspects of Debussy's art are present in this set of three musical pictures, composed in 1903. The composer takes his listeners on a whistlestop tour that leads from the pagodas of Java, by way of an evening in Spain, to, rather less romantically, but exhilaratingly, a rainswept garden. FRANZ LISZT 1811 - 1886 Rigoletto Paraphrase Liszt made many new versions for piano, of works by other composers, ranging from free variations to precise transcriptions, from full-scale symphonies to small- scale songs (including, incidentally, The Trout). These served to spotlight his pianistic talents, but also played an important role in publicising the originals - especially valuable for 'new' music. Thus this study on the quartet Bella figlia dell'amore from Verdi's Rigoletto, composed in 1859, eight years after the opera's premiere. FRANZ SCHUBERT 1797- 1828 Quintet in A, D667 'The Trout'. Allegro vivace: Andante: Scherzo and trio: Theme and Variations: Allegro giusto Schubert was the greatest song-writer who ever lived, and it isn't surprising, then, that the spirit of the song hovers over all his music. Sometimes, indeed, he used actual song melodies in his instrumental works - the Wanderer Fantasy, for example, or the Death and the Maiden quartet. Best known of all is the Trout quintet. This light-hearted divertimento was composed in 1819, commissioned by a cello-playing friend, Sylvester Paumgartner. It was he who suggested using the melody of the song for the fourth movement. I have never forgotten (how could I?) a music lecturer solemly assuring me that, technically, the Trout quintet was an appallingly bad work. How fortunate, then, that Schubert was writing for his listeners' enjoyment, not to pass an exam! Alec Macdonald. This concert is sponsored by Friends of Belfast Music Society. bas Belfast Music Society visit our website at www.belfastmusicsociety.org OXO ARTS COUNCIL of Northern Ireland Making Music THE SOCIA