Well the timing was good; it was the eve of Spring which suited the program well and around fifty music lovers assembled to enjoy what was a stimulating and accomplished performance by two delightful pianists. The audience settled in to hear Monica Lozinskiené and Anna Szalucka exercise the Town Hall grand piano, drawing as they did many colours and moods from its well-trammeled keyboard.

This  was a wonderful exhibition of four-hand  piano playing with the first half of the concert comprising warm lyrical pieces from the late Romantic era.  Ravel ‘s Mother Goose and Debussy’s Petite Suite  preceded the delightful 3 Preludes written by George Gershwin in 1926. These last were arranged for piano for four hands by tonight’s performers.  Anna and Monica transmitted their enthusiasm and interest in the works through some introductory remarks, drawing us in to the intimacy and delicacy of what was to come. We all felt a warm glow as a succession of reassuring  melodies washed over us. The  Gershwin was lovely (and very Gershwin!) and brought the first half to a delightful close.

It was easy to feel so engaged with the performers that we  were not at all dismayed when they told us how challenging and unreassuring the second half was going to be, featuring as it did Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Stravinsky wrote a four-hand piano version of this work at an early stage. The performers reflected upon its eventual orchestration and the wild scenes that erupted when it was first performed in Paris in 1913. The program notes described pagan inspired savage rhythms, harmonic daring and mythical weightiness and that is exactly what we heard. The work was premiered shortly before the outbreak of World War I at a time of considerable turmoil in Europe. It is not trite to make comparisons with our own situation today.  The effect was stunning and so different from what had gone before as indeed it must have seemed to the audiences at the time of the premiere. The work was wonderfully executed; a tour de force no less. Fresh and furious by turns it inspired the performers to produce some virtuosic yet disturbingly expressive playing.

The concert was enabled by the Tunnel Trust; it was a privilege to attend it. Monica comes from Lithuania and Anna from Poland and both are currently based in London. I do hope we will see and hear them again.

Ian Clark (4 March 2025)