At the brand new premises of Calcutta’s Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan in the reconstituted Park Mansions,  an evening of chamber music came with a special angle. Of the quartet who performed, it was the German Ambassador Dr. Martin Ney who was the flautist, the others being Marcus Placci, violinist, Burkhard Maiss, playing the viola, and cellist Bogdan Jianu.  It was an elegant rendering of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

They began with Mozart’s Flute Quartet in C Major for Flute, Viola, Violin and Cello, followed by a Beethoven string trio in G Major for violin, viola and cello in four movements. At the time of publication in 1799, the 28-year-old Beethoven regarded the trios as his best compositions.  Following a short interval, the rest of the performance was a Schubert Trio in B flat Major, and a Mozart Quartet in D major.

Ambassador Ney is known for his ability to keep up his musical proclivities alongside his diplomatic duties, never missing a day of practice and playing with many international orchestras and at least two concerts a year.  In 2010 he played the Holocaust Memorial Concert as a soloist with the before the General Assembly of the UN.

The evening was at the behest of industrialist Raghu Modi, Chairman of the Rasoi Group and a close friend of the German Ambassador, the latter acceding to his request with alacrity to do a program in Calcutta.