Past Performances
James Barralet performed Bach’s Complete Cello Suites over the weekend of Saturday August 12th at St Chad’s at 1pm and 6pm and Sunday August 13th at St Alkmunds Church at 4pm. James had a thriving career as a classical cellist before developing tinnitus and deafness which caused him to retire. He was invited to perform after Peter Barritt heard him performing a Cello Suite as a busker under Kingsland Bridge in Shrewsbury's Quarry Park. As he had fallen on hard times, all donations from the three recitals were given to James and both churches offered their premises without charge.
Shunta Morimoto played at St Alkmunds Church on 9th May 2023 at a lunchtime concert for young international pianists still in tertiary education. Aged just 18-years-old, Shunta has already performed at top venues in Japan, the USA and Europe. In 2022, he won the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition and has, since then, been performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven's 4th and Liszt 1st Piano Concertos. Shunta currently studies and lives in Rome, and he kindly fitted in a recital in Shrewsbury after performing over the weekend with the RPO.
Shunta plays with intense concentration and musicality, he disappears into his own sound world and was oblivious to the background noise of the town (reversing lorries, wailing ambulances, mobile phones). Each piece on his programme was played with great respect for the composer and for the era when it was written. He seemed as comfortable playing the baroque of Rameau as the spiky Sonata No.5 by Scriabin. His rendering of the Mozart C Minor Fantasia was magical. When rehearsing he sings along with the melodies, not so when performing, a perfect combination. The best pianists can make a piano sing, and certainly the baby Kawai sounded the happiest it has ever been under the caress of Shunta's fingers. I was glad to hear that learning the C Minor Sonata was on on the horizon, often played at the same time as the Fantasia, and one of Mozart's most divine works. By comparison, the 7 Fantasien by Brahms were lush and striking, full of emotional energy.
Maria Linares returned to play In St Alkmunds Church at lunchtime on the 13th December 2022.
She started by playing Chopin's final two Nocturnes Op.62, with her delicate touch, bringing out the singing and sad melodies. Maria is a sensitive pianist and plays with the emotional intensity that really suits Chopin's compositions. The second nocturne is one of his most beautiful and. Maria did justice to it in every way, giving the audience such an expressive and touching interpretation.
Her recital progressed with Medtner's Sonata Romantica, Op. 53 No.1, a complex work of late romantic Russian composition. It was an interesting journey into a lesser-known work with four movements, clearly close to Maria's heart. The piece showed the breadth of Maria's repertoire and she clearly excels in romantic compositions. It was a moving account full of emotional depth. The challenge of complex rhythms and keyboard acrobatics seemed to leave Maria unphazed.
The recital continued with a superb account of Schubert's Impromptus 3 and 4 from his set of 4, D.899. These were composed late in Schubert's life, a year before he died from syphilis. Again, these works are both technically demanding and lyrically beautiful. Maria played them with intimacy and subtlety.
This performance finished with a superb account of Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 30, a piece full of mystery in the post-romantic style typical of Scriabin's oeuvre. The programme was superbly conceived and played and Maria was given a tumultuous reception from the audience. She is rapidly becoming a Shrewsbury favourite and deservedly so.
The 21 year-old Lithuanian prodigy Milda Daunoraite made her first, and hopefully the first of many, visits to Shrewsbury to perform in the St Alkmunds Tuesday lunchtime recital series on 28th March 2023. This is the second of four recitals for exceptional young international pianists still in tertiary education. Milda currently studies at the Royal Academy in London on a full fees scholarship under Professor Tessa Nicholson, and she has already won numerous international competitions, as well as performing as a soloist at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Milda is remarkable for appearing to relish music stretching from baroque to contemporary repertoire.
Milda earned a standing ovation for her recital, which was absolutely deserved. The audience loved her playing, technically brilliant with interesting interpretations and a beautiful singing tone bringing out melodies. Her playing was completely faithful to the period during which the piece was composed. She seemed as comfortable with the baroque of Bach, as she was with the funky atonal rhythms of Bartok. Beethoven's Sonata "Les Adieux" was colourful and beautiful, with Milda's sensitivity and full dynamic range with all the necessary bravura when the music demanded. Her Scriabin Sonata No.2 was full of divine harmonies which sang out from the baby Kawai grand piano, the instrument clearly revelling in Milda's sensitive touch and sumptuous dynamics. Finishing on the funky Bartok just helped to illustrate the breadth of her musical understanding and empathy with different ages in which her programme was written. As Bartok himself hoped, his style sounded a definite advance on Schoenberg's, IMHO.