In the 50 years since its inception, the International Musicians Seminar has cultivated a strong sense of community, finds Charlotte Smith
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
The windswept Cornish coast is home to some remarkable coves and beaches – some expansive, sandy and family-friendly, some rugged and rocky with swift tides and crashing waves. Prussia Cove, named after the famous 18th-century smuggler and self-styled ‘King of Prussia’ John Carter, is small and secluded, with rock pools, a cave and granite fishing huts built into the side of the cliffs. There’s also a long, deep gully which forms a miniature natural harbour. For those brave enough to risk the bracing temperatures, this is a great spot for swimming and snorkelling on calmer days.
It’s with this remote slice of seaside heaven that the Hungarian violinist Sándor Végh fell in love when invited to perform in Truro Cathedral by his student Hilary Tunstall-Behrens.
‘Here is the perfect place,’ he wrote. ‘The sky, the sea, always the tide comes and goes… perhaps nature will help [musicians] ease their knotted rhythms, and breathe.’ Thus, the International Musicians Seminar was born in 1972 – three weeks of masterclasses open to international conservatorylevel students up to the age of 30, away from the distractions of the world. To this, Open Chamber Music seminars were added in 1975 in which students play alongside established artists, and in 1996 Végh invited cellist Steven Isserlis to become artistic director, a role he has performed with aplomb to the present day.
Of crucial importance to the IMS is its home of Porth-en-Alls House, a neo-Elizabethan building originally designed by architect Philip Tilden in collaboration with Tancred and Brian Tunstall-Behrens (uncle and father to Hilary) as a much larger mansion. Still owned by the Tunstall-Behrens family, the house’s warren of rooms over three floors play host to simultaneous violin, viola, cello, piano and chamber music masterclasses during the day, and to impromptu chamber readthroughs in the evenings, while the grand dining hall, with its high, cathedral-like ceiling, is the perfect venue for communal meals, enabling professors, students and staff to sit side-by-side at long tables.
As the years have gone by, the IMS has forged strong ties with leading composers, including György Kurtág, Brett Dean, Jörg Widmann, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Thomas Adès, the latt
