Clitheroe Concerts Society welcome pianist for stunning performance

Clitheroe Concerts Society has had many excellent concerts over its 67 seasons but none more memorable than Martin Roscoe’s programme on March 6th of piano music by Bach, Schubert, Mozart, Debussy, Ravel and Liszt.
By Ken Geddes
Published 11th Mar 2019, 08:49 BST
Updated 11th Mar 2019, 09:53 BST
Pianist Martin Roscoe played to a full house last Wednesday in Clitheroe. (s)Pianist Martin Roscoe played to a full house last Wednesday in Clitheroe. (s)
Pianist Martin Roscoe played to a full house last Wednesday in Clitheroe. (s)

The English Suite No. 3 was a forthright work, not challenging but easy to recognize the dance movements. The second piece, Schubert’s Hungarian Melody, reflects his introduction to the music of Zseliz where was working in the summers at the house of Count Esterházy and his family. The Hungarian Melody, written in 1824, is a wild Hungarian dance.

Mozart’s Sonata in A is well known for its last movement “Rondo alla turca” which was inspired by the 1783 craze in Vienna for Turkish-style music. This movement also contains a march which recalls the Turkish Janissary bands, forerunners of modern marching bands.

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Debussy’s three compositions, Pagodes took us to Indonesia; La Puerta del Vino to Spain and Le Dansa de Puck to Shakespeare and the court of Oberon, the fairy King. Think fairies-with-attitude suggested the programme! Quite a journey! With this and the Pavane pour une infant défunte by Ravel we had by now reached the beginning of the twentieth century, a journey in time also.

The final piece, Spanish Rhapsody by Franz Liszt, stepped back to 1845 Spain: an extremely challenging composition to play with rapid chords and octaves. Martin’s breathtaking playing thrilled the audience, which at the end exploded into a standing roar of applause. He came back to play the beautiful and peaceful Farewell to Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies. As he said “We needed something to calm us all down!”

The society’s next concert will be on Wednesday, April 3rd, with Yulia Chaplina and Yuri Kalnits. Violinist Yulia won the junior Tchaikovsky prize and pianist Yuri has been awarded two Diapason d'Ors for his recordings. London based, their playing and their musical work with young children are highly regarded.