Music by the sea: Postcard from Cornwall

Created by the weathering of rocks from thrashing waves, a cove is the result of thousands of years of erosion. Small, sheltered inlets are consequently formed, making for what we today use as beaches and paths, or in the case of International Musicians Seminar (IMS) Prussia Cove, the location for a three-week series of masterclasses, which have been held in the south-west of the Cornish peninsula every spring since 1972.

The idea for IMS Prussia Cove was born during a 1971 concert trip to Truro by Hungarian violinist Sándor Végh. There he met the violinist Hilary Tunstall-Behrens whose family owned an estate there named Porth-en-Alls. Végh decided that the residence, with its picturesque and sheltered coastal location, would be the ideal place to run musical seminars. On the proviso that Tunstall-Behrens took care of the organisation, Végh offered to teach there. And so began 50 years of alumni turned tutors, all constantly inspired by IMS Prussia Cove’s landscape and musical lineage. And just like the surrounding cove, the masterclasses feel intimate and welcoming, all the while being integrated into the international musical world. No better was this encapsulated than by IMS Prussia Cove former student and current tutor Thomas Adès about his own IMS teacher, György Kurtág: ‘When I told him I was off to IMS Prussia Cove, he said, “Say hello to the rocks!”’…