What it is to be hissed at by a performer in the middle of a concert: “Too soon” he said. “Sorry!” I whispered, and didn’t sin again. At the end of the concert there was warm applause, and the pianist kindly acknowledged my contribution: turning the pages. But how hard it is to pay attention to the performance itself when your eyes are glued to the page and you’re petrified of missing a turn-over. It’s all very well when the music is slow, but in fast passages the eye sweeps down the page, and no sooner have you turned once but it’s time to stand up to turn the next!
Before the concert it was fun to hear a stream of exclamations as audience members walked in, only to find a new seating arrangement. This was the choice of the violinist Madeleine Mitchell, who clearly felt that this put her more in touch with the audience. And, of course, that’s what turned out to characterise the evening, with violinist Mitchell and pianist Nigel Clayton constantly communicating with each other, and together delivering the music for the delectation of the audience.
The first item was Beethoven Violin Sonata no.10 in G, op.96: a substantial and varied work dedicated to Beethoven’s piano pupil Archduke Rudolph of Austria, who gave its first performance.
The other two works in the programme were written almost exactly a century later: in 1917 and 1918. The Debussy violin sonata takes less than a quarter of an hour, but we were spellbound by its changing moods and strange fragmentation. It was Debussy’s final composition and it savours of his trying to embody in it the energy he himself was lacking.
After the interval we were treated to the Elgar Violin Sonata op.82: a very tricky work in places, which our soloists delivered with panache. The warm applause encouraged them to round off with a short encore, but I can’t tell you what it was, because somebody took away my programme, on which I had written what it was!
It was a lovely concert, as attested to by the buzz of conversation afterwards, and this reviewer apologises for not having analysed the performance more eloquently, because of the exigencies of carrying out the seemingly simple task of turning over a new leaf!
Clifton Hughes