Our 2024/25 season got off to a stunning start on 26th November 2024 with a superb recital by the internationally acclaimed pianist Leon McCawley, playing to a highly appreciative capacity audience. Showcasing composers from Bach (arranged Liszt) to Rachmaninov, this was a wide-ranging tour de force. The early Beethoven A major sonata Op 2 No 2 sparkled with Haydnesque wit and clear articulation, in complete contrast to Rachmaninov’s brooding Etude-Tableau in A minor Op 39 which followed it. Before the interval there was a remarkable transcription by Liszt of Bach’s Organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV543, with fortissimo left hand octaves mimicking the organ pedals, and drawing on the full resonant resources of the Royal Over-Seas League’s Steinway Model D. After the interval, we had another complete change of mood, with Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso Op 14, followed by his Six Songs Without Words Op 19b, including the well-known Venetian Gondola song. To finish, there was the impassioned and highly virtuosic G minor sonata by Robert Schumann. As Leon McCawley reminded us in his introduction, the first movement is marked “as fast as possible”, but this does not prevent Schumann from adding “faster” and “still faster” as instructions to the pianist later in the same movement! Finally, we had more Schumann in an atmospheric encore: the Prophet Bird from Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) Op 82.

This was playing of the very highest calibre, by a pianist at the peak of his artistic powers, and completely at home and able to inhabit the very different sound worlds of a wide range of different composers.

Our spring concert on Friday 7th March 2025 featured the horn player Ben Goldscheider, together with violinist Callum Smart and pianist Richard Uttley. This was the first time we had had a horn trio T our concerts, and we were treated to a very varied and wide-ranging programme. The concert opened with Mozart’s Horn quintet K 407 arranged for horn trio by Ernst Naumann, which was followed by the horn trio Op 44 by Sir Lennox Berkeley – the first time that these musicians had performed this in public! The piece contains extended lyrical writing, and a wonderful theme and variations as the last movment, but is also very much of the 20th century, including influences from Berkeley’s contemporary, Benjamin Britten. After the interval, Ben Goldscheider and Richard Uttley played Nachtstuck (Night Piece) by Mark Simpson. This was written for Ben Goldscheider in 2021, and depicts the frightening and disturbing aspects of the night, rather than its more tranquil aspects. The composer makes considerable demands on both players, with virtuoso writing for the piano matched by the horn player having to switch rapidly between entirely different timbres. Finally the trio played the well-known horn trio Op 40 by Brahms, which brought the evening to a rousing conclusion. This was a superb and varied concert by three extremely talented and versatile musicians, and was very much appreciated by our audience.