Ben Schoeman and Tessa Uys will play the amazing transcription for piano 4-hands of Beethoven's famous Ninth Symphony in a concert at the Spire Church, Farnham, GU9 7QU at 4-00pm on Sunday 6 April. The concert will last approx one hour and has been arranged by TBS Concerts.

In the years before recordings, when CDs, iPods, Spotify, and YouTube were unknown and live concerts the prerogative of the wealthy, piano transcriptions were widely admired, making making music such as Beethoven's symphonies available to a generation of listeners who might not otherwise have come to know them. Amongst the most illustrious of such transcriptions were those by Franz Liszt and  the German/Polish composer Franz Xaver Scharwenka.

Tessa Uys has a very personal connection with the music, as her concert pianist mother, Helga Bassel was from Berlin, the city where Scharwenka lived. In the 1930’s along with thousands of Jews she fled the city seeking refuge in Cape Town where her daughter was born. By a stroke of good fortune, she had been able to take not only her beloved Blüthner piano with her but also her collection of piano music including the Scharwenka transcriptions, which were eventually bequeathed to Tessa. In 2004 the piano was returned to the Blüthner factory in Leipzig for restoration and finally gifted to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, thus completing a journey from Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa to a new era back in Germany.

The complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies has never been presented in this format and leading publications such as BBC Music magazine, Gramophone, International Piano Magazine and The Sunday Times have unanimously praised Uys and Schoeman for their “enthralling” and “ground-breaking” recordings of these beloved works.

Ben and Tessa played this work last year for TBS to such great acclaim that we have arranged this repeat performance.

Full details and written programme are on www.tilbach.org.uk or call Sue on 01252 613130.

All are welcome and the concert is free entry with a retiring collection where the recommended donation is at least £10, but donations are not expected for children and students. Music lovers who are unable to make a donation are still most welcome.

If you plan to attend please register via the website, www.tilbach.org.uk, although this is not essential.

Please always check the website shortly before the concert in case of any last minute changes beyond our control.

We run concerts in Farnham with top professional musicians. We also run a series of Conservatoire Concerts in Godalming, which aims to provide performance opportunities for students and young professionals.  See  conservatoireconcerts.org.uk

Farnham Sinfonia  is now a separate charity but used to be part of TBS. See  www.farnhamsinfonia.org.uk

01252 613130

www.tilbach.org.uk