Bach & Brahms 01, St Andrew's and St George's West, Review

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Rating (out of 5)
4

This was the first of three consecutive concerts of Bach's Gamben Sonatas and Brahms' cello sonatas in the recently magnificently renovated St Andrew's and St George's West church. There was a very respectable number of music lovers in the audience to hear the cello played by someone who started her lessons at the age of six. One of the advantages of this venue is the raised dais so everyone can see the performers at work and watch Anne-Isabel Meyer's masterful cello playing.

The programme notes told us that Bach's Sonata No 1 in G major is an arrangement of his Trio Sonata for two flutes and basso continuo firstly for harpsichord and now evolved to the piano, played for us by Chris Harding. And that development of the original work has the pianist on a par with the cellist in the music making. I loved the slower Andante, the third of the four movements.

Brahms' Sonata in E minor is his first surviving duo-sonata. Indeed his cello and piano sonatas are the most highly rated from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Anne-Isabel Meyer is now very much on the London music scene. Dunfermline born pianist Chris has been a familiar face on the Edinburgh piano scene.

Well worth going to the Wednesday and Thursday concerts!

Concert Tuesday 12th August 2014 at 4.30, and on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th August at 4.30pm