Brahms, Dohnanyi & Bartok

Bartok - Violin Sonata No 2
Dohnanyi - Serenade

Joachim - Scottisch Melodie
Brahms - Piano Quartet Op 25

Peter Sheppard Skærved (Violin) ) Morgan Goff (Viola) Jessica Hayes (Cello) Aaron Shorr (piano)

Wilton's Music Hall Classic Series
Monday 11th July 2011, Pre-concert talk 7pm, concert 7:30pm

Denied Heritage Lottery Fund grant and facing possible demolition* whilst still awaiting completion of restoration, the Wilton's Music Hall residency of the Kreutzer Quartet has succeeded in achieving loyal regular audiences at this special venue, with its evocative, battered ambience and excellent acoustics.

This was a typically reourceful programme, with Aaron Schorr (who has recorded Beethoven Explored with Peter Sheppard Skærved) in Bartok's challenging 2nd Sonata of 1922, and the Brahms quartet illustrated below.

In one of his wide-ranging off the cuff pre-concert talks (don't miss those!) he drew links between such disparate figures associated in England as Jelly D'Aranyi and Peter Warlock with Bartok, and in the previous generation Anglophile Joachim; all too complicated to summarise here...

The high spot was the Dohnanyi string trio, a rarity but one of the finest ever for a difficult medium, and the roisterous conclusion of the evening was the Rondo alla Zingarese.

My illustration features a fifth participant in the performance. The page-turner (not always an easy task) was Wilton's artistic director Frances Mayhew, who was thanked and praised by Peter S-S at the end as the leader of a team which has done everything imaginable for Wilton's, to create a varied programme and ensure they will succeed in bridging the funding shortfall to keep this precious historical venue going.

Peter Grahame Woolf

* David Suchet opening a campaign to save Wilton's [Evening Standard 13 July 2011]