Past Performances
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Peter Barritt decided to organise a weekend of musical events in Shrewsbury to help raise funds for the humanitarian relief fund DEC Ukraine. The Keyboard Charitable Trust kindly put out a message to the young artists it assists, to ask for volunteers to play without charge in support of the victims of war.
Three pianists volunteered their services and a series of recitals in St Alkmunds Church, St Chads Church and Shrewsbury Abbey were performed during April to July 2022. Pietro Fresa, Maria Linares and Dinara Klinton kindly gave recitals. A total of £20,000 was raised thanks to our generous audience, the churches of St Chads, St Alkmunds and Shrewsbury Abbey, who hosted these recitals without charge, and to our wonderful pianists who all played without payment.
Pietro Fresa
Pietro kindly offered to help raise funds for DEC Ukraine. Pietro has become a firm favourite in the town.and Pietro said: “I find the idea of playing for Ukraine a beautiful idea, and I really love the people and environment in Shrewsbury”. Pietro played The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 by Brahms and the Andantino from Schubert'a penultimate sonata D959. As before, Pietro's recital was a triumph and the concert was concluded by a superb performance of the Faure Requiem by St Chads Choir.
Maria Linares
Maria Linares is a young Spanish pianist from Valencia, currently studying at Birmingham Conservatoire. She offered to play two recitals at St Alkmunds Church as she was preparing for an important competition in Barcelona, The Maria Casals International Competition.
In her first recital she played Scarlatti's Sonata in E Major K.380, Sonata in B Minor K.27 and Sonata in G Major K.427, followed by Iberia (Book 1) by Albeniz. She finished the recital with a beautiful rendition of Chopin's Barcarolle Op.60 and Scriabin's Sonata No 4 Op.30.
In her second recital, delayed by her catching COVID, she played Bach's Prelude and Fugue No.4 and Debussy's Etude No.5. We were then treated to more ravishing spanish music from Catalan (The Miniaturas Prosopopeyicas) and from Albeniz, The Cantos de Espana Op.232. Appropriately, she finished with Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody S.254. By this time, Maria had built a considerable fan base, some of whom vowed to pray for her success in Barcelona. Despite doing great justice to her talent, divine intervention was conspicuously absent when they awarded top prize to someone else.
We follow Maria's career with our interest and best wishes.
Elisabeth Brauss played in St Alkmunds Church in November 2021, a programme she repeated a few days later at the Wigmore Hall. She had recently finished her time as a BBC New Generation Artist and had just won the Terence-Judd Halle Award, which involves performing with the Halle Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder.
Elisabeth chose a programme to illustrate the development of the Sonata form, beginning with Mozart's haunting Sonata No.8 in A Minor, written soon after the sudden death of his mother while she was travelling with Wolfgang. She then played Ravel's Sonatine and finished the first half with Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No.3, also in A Minor. After the interval, she gave a ravishing account of Brahms' Four Piano Pieces Op.119 and finished with Schumann's Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Scenes from Vienna), Op. 26.
Elisabeth not only looks like an angel, but plays like one, too. She has a delicate and sensitive touch, but can easily deliver bravura and acrobatics on the keyboard when the music demands. Undoubtedly a star of the future. Her Mozart is divine. She has a generous nature and plays with all her heart. She said she would happily play her recitals for free, I suggested she didn't necessarily mention this to her agent.
Anna Fedorova visited Shrewsbury in October 2021 and performed in the beautiful church of St Alkmunds to a capacity audience who gave a standing ovation at the end of her recital. She started her recital with a ravishing performance of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata before playing a selection of Nocturnes and Waltzes by Chopin...
On Sunday November 3rd 2019 we were lucky enough to persuade Martin Roscoe to play a recital in St Alkmund's Church in the historic centre of town. He is a performer at the very top of his game. He has recently completed recording the entire 32 piano sonatas written by Beethoven, plus 3 other sonatas not usually included. We were very grateful to Martin for the helpful advice and support he had generously offered to one of our young international pianists.