As winter slowly gives way to spring, so it comes to be that we have passed the halfway mark in the Inverurie Music concert series, hard though it may be to acknowledge. After wonderful concerts from Rossano Sportiello (October), the Chiara Trio (November) and the Scholfield Clarke Duo (February) it was the turn of leading violinist Madeleine Mitchell and wonderful pianist Nigel Clayton to begin the second half of the series and the start of the final concerts of another fantastic year. And they did not disappoint, bringing a varied and thought-provoking concert to the good people of the Garioch.

The concert began with Beethoven’s uncharacteristically frothy and optimistic Violin Sonata No. 2, performed with verve and wit by the duo. The opening movement so full of spirit and charm, with classical effervescence and poise coursing through its twists, turns and embellishments. The light and wistful middle movement soon progressed to the Allegro piacevole finale with its buoyant, syncopated flourishes providing some of the most concerted playful music the composer would ever write. The love of this music was obvious for both players as they traded knowing glances amidst the classical comradery, much to the joy of a large and receptive Aberdeenshire audience. The Beethoven was followed by music of a very different cast, James MacMillan’s A Different World from 1995. Mitchell gave a very informative summary of her professional relationship with MacMillan (arguably Scotland’s greatest living composer) and how this piece and the later Kiss on Wood came to be written for her. What followed was a gripping performance of this colourful and gestural work, full of dark corners and radiant climaxes; the dramatic and explosive ending bringing an audible gasp from some audience members as Clayton’s low fortissimos engulfed Mitchell’s final utterances.   

Mitchell again introduced the next piece, a work familiar to many, but perhaps not in the guise it was performed in this delightful programme. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending is one of the most well-known and well-loved pieces of British music, regularly taking its places atop myriad polls and tables of musical endeavour and achievement. However, it is rarely heard in its original arrangement of violin and piano (though the Inverurie Music audience might remember it being performed in 2019), stripped of Vaughan Williams’s warm and bucolic orchestration. If the original is in technicolour, then this version is in a finely-detail monochrome – the colours may be dimmed, but the light becomes even brighter – no more so then in the soaring cadenzas that characterise the work, without the string accompaniment the lark feels even freer, less tethered to the corporeal and perhaps ascending to even greater heights. This beautiful performance was greatly received by a raptured audience.

The second half of the concert began with the second piece by MacMillan, Kiss on Wood from 1993. Similarly to A Different World, it began with powerful dissonances but soon relaxed into MacMillan’s characteristic blend of Scottish folk-modality and plainsong quotations. This short work was written directly after arguably his most influential work Seven Last Words from the Cross, and themes and fragments of that piece permeate Kiss on Wood no more so than in the final notes gently fading into silence. The concert ended with a spirited and enthusiastic performance of Grieg’s wonderful Violin Sonata No. 3, one of the Norwegian composer’s most enduring chamber works. Like the Beethoven that started the concert, two spirited outer movements flank a much more ephemeral slow section, all of which were performed with gusto and precision from Mitchell and Clayton. The audience were understandably wanting more and following the fireworks that ended Grieg’s sonata we were treated to an expressive and yearning arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise from our duo and a poignant and reflective end to this wonderful evening of music-making.

©Phillip A Cooke 25/03/24