Seaton Music

03/05/2024

On Thursday 23rd May at 7pm, Ruth Molins will come to Seaton with her collection of flutes and will perform with pianist Alex Wilson. The programme is largely by women composers – including Ruth herself – but John Rutter and Arthur Butterworth get a hearing as well. Please note the earlier starting time – doors open at 6.30pm and the music starts at 7. In an extended interval, the Annual General Meeting of Seaton Music will take place when you will hear about how this current season has gone and about plans for next season, Seaton Music's 74th. There will also be news about a new ticket price and subscription scheme designed to encourage folk to become members even if they cannot come to every concert. Admission to this special evening is free for everyone – and there will be complimentary refreshments as well! The bar will be open as usual.

01/05/2024

17/04/2024

***TOMORROW NIGHT***
Please come along if you love world class live classical music.

25/03/2024

SeatonMusic welcomed a young horn player to Seaton Gateway on March 21st. Zoë Tweed, a recipient of the Sir Elton John Scholarship from the Royal Academy introduced us to some unfamiliar but exciting pieces of music mainly by European composers of the 20th century.
The horn sonata by Charles Koechlin which started the programme featured hints of the hunting horn from which the french horn has descended. Julian Chan, who accompanied Zoë in the sonata then played a piano sonata by Alban Berg. Julian’s virtuoso playing of this sometimes atonal but romantic music was spellbinding. Recently, Julian was awarded First Prize and Sonata Prize at the Nanyang International Music Competition, Singapore.

Music by two lesser known French composers, Jean Michel Defaye and John Michel Damase followed and were greatly enjoyed with moments of urgent driving rhythms as well as expressive moments.
Julian’s second solo choice was the introduction and Allegro also by Damase. This exciting music thrilled the audience with percussive elements and beautiful running passages.

The last piece was by the Belgian composer Jane Vignery. The Horn Sonata in three movements allowed the horn and piano to work as equal partners complimenting each other. Prior to the piece, Zoë demonstrated the effects that can be achieved when using a mute or hand stopping technique that Jane Vignery had indicated.

Unexpectedly, the duo concluded with a delightful encore, A Felicidade, a beautiful Brazilian song composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and arranged by Zoë. The pulsating bossa nova beat from the piano, lyrical horn playing and at one point lovely singing from Zoë brought the concert to a magical end.

SeatonMusic’s next concert is on Thursday 18th April at 7.30pm and will feature the welcome return of popular pianist Sarah Beth Briggs who will play a varied programme of piano music. Don’t miss it! Tickets are £18 – under 19s and full-time students FREE. Details at www.seatonmusic.org.

Report by Tricia Lewis. Photos by Angela Willes

21/03/2024

***TONIGHT*** The Gateway Theatre Seaton
Tickets available on the door.

Young French Horn player Zoë Tweed and pianist Julian Chan visit the Gateway Theatre, Seaton for the first time on Thursday 21st March at 7.30pm when they will perform a varied programme. Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (who was influenced by Fauré and himself taught Massenet and Poulenc) wrote many pieces for trumpet and horn and his Sonata for horn and piano will open the concert. Julian will perform Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata, an accessible and highly emotional work from 1910. We will also hear Jean-Michel Defaye’s showpiece Alpha and three short neo-romantic works by Jean-Michel Damase before Belgian composer Jane Vignery’s Horn Sonata Op 7 (described as the sonata that Ravel would have written if he’d written a horn sonata!) brings the concert to a resounding close.
Zoë was the recipient of the Sir Elton John Scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music and has gone on to perform with various orchestras across the UK including working as Guest Principal with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. She has also performed with London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She has a passion for chamber music and comes to Seaton with Julian Chan who has established a reputation as an outstanding and versatile chamber musician, having started to study the piano at the age of 3! They visit Seaton with the generous support of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
This concert is part of Seaton Music's ongoing charitable objective to encourage young musicians - it is a concert not to be missed!

Tickets are £18 – purchase online at www.seatonmusic.org or at the door. Admission for under-19s and full-time students is FREE!

11/03/2024

Young French Horn player Zoë Tweed and pianist Julian Chan visit the Gateway Theatre, Seaton for the first time on Thursday 21st March at 7.30pm when they will perform a varied programme. Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (who was influenced by Fauré and himself taught Massenet and Poulenc) wrote many pieces for trumpet and horn and his Sonata for horn and piano will open the concert. Julian will perform Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata, an accessible and highly emotional work from 1910. We will also hear Jean-Michel Defaye’s showpiece Alpha and three short neo-romantic works by Jean-Michel Damase before Belgian composer Jane Vignery’s Horn Sonata Op 7 (described as the sonata that Ravel would have written if he’d written a horn sonata!) brings the concert to a resounding close.
Zoë was the recipient of the Sir Elton John Scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music and has gone on to perform with various orchestras across the UK including working as Guest Principal with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. She has also performed with London Sinfonietta, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She has a passion for chamber music and comes to Seaton with Julian Chan who has established a reputation as an outstanding and versatile chamber musician, having started to study the piano at the age of 3! They visit Seaton with the generous support of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
This concert is part of Seaton Music's ongoing charitable objective to encourage young musicians - it is a concert not to be missed!

Tickets are £18 – purchase online at www.seatonmusic.org or at the door. Admission for under-19s and full-time students is FREE!

27/02/2024

Splendid trio concert in Seaton.

The fourth concert in this season’ exciting series of concerts by Seaton Music took place at the Gateway, Seaton on Thursday 22 nd February and featured the renowned Hague String Trio - Justyna Briefjes violin, Julia Dinerstein viola and Miriam Kirby cello. A very appreciative audience was treated to a delightful programme played to the highest possible standard by a brilliant ensemble. The concert opened with a most stylist and elegant performance of Divertimento No 109 by Haydn in which the players brought out the outstanding beauty of the composer’s delicate writing. Dame Ethel Mary Smyth was probably the first Englishwoman to achieve fame as a composer. She was a supporter of the Women's Suffrage Movement and generally recognised as a forceful personality. She overcame severe family pressure not to embark upon a musical career but thankfully she did resist and produced some wonderful pieces. She met many famous composers in her time in Leipzig including Brahms, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky and in the brilliant performance we heard in Seaton of her impressive and romantic String Trio Op 6, we certainly picked up many nuances of these composers and some distinct Slavonic influences. The highly passionate performance was enthusiastically received.

The second female composer to feature in the concert was Emmy Frensel Wegener who born in Amsterdam in 1901. Although serious illness reduced her output, Wegener did write some very interesting works including the Suite for String Trio in 1925. The performance by the Hague Trio was adventurous, whimsical and enchanting in which the instrumentalists admirably conveyed an atmosphere of a sparkling Commedia del Arte much to the delight of the audience.

The final piece in the Seaton programme was Beethoven’s magnificent String Trio Op 9 No. 3 often rated as one of his very best early compositions. Beethoven deliberately chose the key of C minor as his special domain for the expression of intense feeling and in the first four notes the players instantly set the mood with that early suggestion of some more dramatic works to feature in Beethoven’s later music also in the same key. This was a beautifully crafted performance by the trio in which the three instruments blended so well with lovely contrasting textures in the Adagio con espressione, added vitality in the bite of the Scherzo and the highly developed rhythmic texture of the final rondo. The audience would not let the trio depart to Dutch shores before a final encore. This was truly a wonderful evening’s music and all credit to the enterprising organisers of Seaton Music! The next concert is on Thursday 21st March Thursday at 7.30 p.m. featuring Zoe Tweed French horn with pianist Julian Chan in another fabulous programme.

Tickets are £18 – under-19s and full-time students FREE! For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.seatonmusic.org.

Report by Roger Hendy. Picture by Angela Willes

11/12/2023

SeatonMusic concluded 2023 in festive form on Thursday 7th December with a spectacular concert presented by the London Handel Players to the largest audience of the season so far. Both musicians and audience had battled terrible weather to be there which made the occasion all the more special!

Since making their debut in Handel’s Parish Church, St Georges in London, they have brought the music of Handel and other baroque composers to a wide audience. In Seaton, they included traditional carols from Europe and the UK and also brought music from the Messiah. A lovely harpsichord was provided for the occasion by Andrew Garlick from Chard. This, played by Silas Woolston together, with the violins and violas of Adrian Butterfield, Oliver Weber and Rachel Byrt created an atmosphere of times gone by.

They started their programme with the poignant sound of a sopranino recorder, played by Rachel Brown who approached the stage from the back of the hall whilst playing the first verse of In Dulci Jubilo. This set the scene for the evening. In the second half we were treated to an explanation of some of the less familiar instruments, in particular the voice flute and two unusual Baroque flutes as well as an oversized viola which would have been played in the seventeenth century, held across the body instead of under the chin. Effective percussion elements were provided by Silas and Rachel on the cabassa and castanets. A lovely encore completed the delightful evening with handbells ringing out above an accompaniment of strings. Mince pies were enjoyed and all that might have been missing was possibly Bob Cratchit to wish us ‘Merry Christmas one and all.’

Seaton Music’s next concert will be on Thursday February 22nd at the Gateway when we will welcome the Hague String Trio with a programme of music by Haydn, Beethoven, Dame Ethel Smyth and Emmy Frensel Wegener. Tickets are £18 – under-19s and full-time students FREE! For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.seatonmusic.org.

Words: Tricia Lewis
Picture: Jude Taylorson

07/12/2023

TONIGHT!!!

A great pre-Christmas entertainment!

25/11/2023

A great pre-Christmas entertainment!

17/11/2023

The Zemlinsky Trio visited Seaton Gateway on November 16th as part of the current season of Seaton Music concerts. Emma Abbate (piano), Evva Mizerska (‘Cello) and Peter Cilgeris (Clarinet) are all soloists of distinction, and as a trio they presented a delightful programme of music allowing the three instruments to blend together. This was especially true in the Brahms Trio in A minor. The cello and clarinet exchanged melodic ideas in an intimate way which was charming. The evening had begun with two pieces by F***y Mendelssohn for cello and piano.

At Seaton Music, we are committed to including works by female composers, many of whom have been under appreciated in the past. We heard the Fantasia in G minor and the Cappricio in A flat major. These gentle pieces evoked the atmosphere of culural soiree. F***y was an admirer of Beethoven and we then heard Beethoven’s Trio in B flat Major, one of his earlier works. The third movement was a set of variations on a ‘pop’ tune of the day from an opera L’Amor Marinaro with an enjoyable melody that was heard to good effect on each of the instruments in turn. Peter then introduced us to two pieces by an English female composer Cecile Sarah Hartog. He had come across three of her compositions and uncovered some interesting details about her. She belonged to the Society of Women Musicians in the early 20th century and was active as a pianist, composer and writer of songs. The two pieces Peter played were Chateux d’Espagne 1 & 2, attractive and delicate works.

Next month sees Seaton Music in festive mood when we anticipate an evening of Baroque Christmas music presented by the renowned London Handel Players on 7th December at 7.30 at the Gateway Theatre. One not to be missed with a rare opportunity to see and hear a harpsichord on the Seaton stage. Tickets are £18 (FREE admission for under-19s and full-time students) - visit www.seatonmusic.org for more information and to book.

Report by Tricia Lewis. Photo by Angela Willes.

06/11/2023

23/10/2023

Seaton Music started it’s 73rd season on Thursday 19th October 2023 with a wonderful concert featuring Julian Trevelyan at the piano. His programme included a set of 10 variations by JS Bach described as in the Italian manner. Next we were treated to an exciting performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata in A, one of his ‘War’ Sonatas. In it’s four movements we experienced the ferocity of war, the precision of military disciplines as well as more reflective themes and lively toccata ending. The final piece was the Fantasie in C major by Schumann which was started as an expression of his feelings for his eventual wife, Clara. The work was extended into three movements in order to raise funds for a Beethoven monument in Bonn. Our lovely Steinway was certainly given a ‘work out’ especially in the Prokofiev and the Schuman that called for a huge variety of tone colours and even at one point, required that the fist should be hammered onto the keys. Happily, the piano survived this onslaught and we look forward to hearing it played again on Thursday Nov 16th when the Zemlinsky Trio, Piano, Cello and Clarinet will be with us for an evening of music by F***y Mendelssohn, Cécile Sarah Hartog, Brahms and Beethoven.

07/10/2023

The 73rd Seaton Music season is not far off! There is an exciting variety of concerts in prospect.

We begin with the exciting young British pianist Julian Trevelyan on 19th October. Julian performs regularly throughout Europe and the UK. In the current season he has given five performances of Bartók’s 1st piano concerto with Musikkollegium Winterthur, and two performances of Lutosławski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini for piano and orchestra with I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan. Solo recitals have included performances of Beethoven’s Diabelli variations in Festivals in London, Cambridge, Munich, Paris, Switzerland and Vienna.
His recording of Mozart’s piano concertos 23 and 24 with ORF Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, directed by Christian Zacharias was released by Alpha Classics in October 2022.

He is a busy man! He will be going on to perform in Bavaria on Sunday the 22nd. We are privileged indeed to host him in Seaton.

His programme will consist of Bach's Aria variata alla maniera Italiana BWV989, Prokofiev's Sonata No 6 Op 82 and Schumann's Fantasie Op 17.
The bar will be open before the concert and during the interval.

Tickets are £18 and will be available at the door - either cash or card.
Alternatively you can book in advance through the website or by buying tickets (cash only) in SEATON at:
Passiflora, 3 Cross St, EX12 2LH 10am-4pm - 7 days a week
Owl and the Pyramid Bookshop, 10 Fore St, EX12 2LA 9am-5pm Mon-Sat
and in AXMINSTER at:
Archway Bookshop, Trinity Square, EX13 5AP, 9am-5pm Mon-Fri; 10am-4pm Sat

You can still join Seaton Music for only £90 for all six concerts - six for the price of 5! Join through the website - www.seatonmusic.org - or at the October concert.

Admission is FREE for under-19s and full-time students.

We look forward to welcoming you on the 19th. Do tell your friends and neighbours!

23/09/2023

Now it's easier to buy Seaton Music tickets in Seaton and Axminster. Buy them now (cash only) at
Passiflora, 3 Cross St, Seaton, EX12 2LH 10am-4pm - 7 days a week
Owl and the Pyramid Bookshop, 10 Fore St, Seaton, EX12 2LA 9am-5pm Mon-Sat
and at Archway Bookshop, Trinity Square, Axminster, EX13 5AP
9am-5pm Mon-Fri; 10am-4pm Sat

We look forward to welcoming you to our outstanding classical concerts!

19/09/2023

Only one month to go before the opening concert of Seaton Music's 72nd season. Tickets are £18 - but you can purchase membership of Seaton Music for only £90 - that's six wonderful concerts by some of the very finest musicians for the price of five! Just visit the website www.seatonmusic.org.

18/08/2023

All set for the 73rd season! Buy tickets (£18) and membership (£90 for all six concerts) through the website; www.seatonmusic.org

22/05/2023

The audience at Seaton Music’s final concert of the season on 19th May was treated to a virtuoso performance by Polish pianist Lucas Krupinski. From the first rippling arpeggios of the Fantasy Op 17 by Robert Schumann, Lucas delighted with lyrical playing, energetic chords and rapid scale passages. With lovely tone colours he evoked the emotions which Schumann himself had no doubt felt.

The programme then took us to the music of French composer, Maurice Ravel and his Sonatine, a simple title for a piece of music which encompassed a wide range of styles, including a real tour de force in which Lucas demonstrated his mastery of the piano and left the audience breathless. He went on to bring us 4 of Chopin’s Mazurkas Op 33 which included the popular no2 in D major that is always a joy and especially so on this occasion when Lucas interpreted music of his homeland in such an engaging way. Finishing with another piece by Chopin, the scherzo in B flat from op 31, Lucas treated us to an exciting performance of this well-loved piece, concluding as it does with a fast-moving section that seems to use every one of the piano keys before arriving at the final ringing note, which was followed by highly appreciative applause.

A member of the audience was heard to comment ‘It never sounds like that when I play it’. Certainly, we were very privileged to hear Lucas and look forward to welcoming him again. Indeed, he will be at Sidmouth Parish Church on June 29th with Devonian violinist Joel Munday and Polish cellist Kacper Novak.

Seaton Music will open its next season on October the 17th with another superb evening of piano music, this time from Julian Trevelyan. Membership of SeatonMusic costs only £90 which gives admission to all six concerts in the season.

All information about the season and how to join is at www.seatonmusic.org.

Review by Tricia Lewis
Photo by Angela Willes

24/04/2023

Top Pianist plays virtuoso music at the Gateway

One of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists enthralled his SeatonMusic audience at The Gateway on 20th April with his performance of works by composers who were also virtuoso pianists. Martin Jones had been booked to come two years ago, but his concert then was cancelled by Covid restrictions.

His programme opened with a piece by ‘the inventor of the piano recital’, Franz Liszt. Based on a work by a virtuoso from the past, these Variations on a Theme of Bach showed Liszt’s original creative imagination, and also his fantastic technical skill.

Claude Debussy featured next. Three movements from Images created impressions – of the light on water (Reflets dans l’eau), of a stately formal dance (Hommage à Rameau) and of energetic movement (Mouvement). Martin Jones’s introduction gave some of his insights into the pieces.
The first half concluded with another virtuoso piece based on an earlier composer. The Australian-US ‘wild boy’ Percy Grainger, pianist, composer and much more, re-wrote the love duet from Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier in this dramatic paraphrase, full of colour and movement.

Isaac Albaniz is a significant figure in the development of Spanish music. El Albiacín is based on native music from Granada, imitating the guitar, and growing into a great late romantic piece.
The final piece was by a less well-known American virtuoso – Earl Wild’s Fantasy on Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Well-known songs from the opera keep coming through the dramatic, and technically demanding texture of this piece, in, as the programme note says , ’a veritable Lisztian treatment’.
That concluded the official programme, but an enthusiastic audience were delighted to be treated two encores.

SeatonMusic are presenting one more concert this season. On Friday 19th May, Lucas Krupinski will play music by Chopin, Schumann and Ravel. The concert starts at the earlier time of 7.00 pm in The Gateway, and between the two halves of the programme there will be the important AGM, and the chance to enjoy light refreshments. Admission is FREE – there will be a collection for Hospiscare.

Report by Peter Dawson

Picture by Angela Willes

03/04/2023

Another great concert in Seaton this month!

24/03/2023

MUSIC FOR ALL AT THE GATEWAY!

SeatonMusic welcomed nearly 100 primary school children from Seaton and Axminster who were enthralled by a special presentation on Thursday afternoon (23rd March). The zany-looking title of the musical duo gave a clue what to expect – B!z’art, pronounced like bizarre – something out of the ordinary but somehow familiar. Geoffrey Baptiste and André Roe are pianists , who trained at the Royal conservatoire in Brussels, and they regularly present concerts for children, travelling widely in Europe and further afield. They thrilled their audience at The Gateway with a lively hour’s light-hearted music, backing up their music with images on the big screen. Perhaps the light-hearted tone concealed the extraordinary technical and musical skill of the pair.

The musicians showed off their skills again in their evening concert with a programme of music dating from the end of the 19th and the 20th centuries from France and the USA. Some of it was written for children – Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite (evoking fairy tales) Fauré’s Dolly Suite (some which is well-known to all who grew up with the BBC’s Listen with Mother).

The programme opened with Eric Satie’s Eccentric Beauty, a parody of music hall clichés, with the odd sub-title of A Serious Fantasy. The second piece again fitted the description of ‘out of the ordinary but somehow familiar’. The Shaker tune Simple Gifts is well-known, but not so this set of variations by Aaron Copland which they played with (deceptive!) simplicity and sensitivity.
Other pieces further extended the range of moods and feelings - the evocation of opulent pre-war New York in Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs, the humour in Chabrier’s Souvenirs of Munich, the dreamy nostalgia and bizarre dance rhythms in Gazebo Dances by the modern New York composer John Paul Corigliano. The evening was rounded off with an arrangement of well-known tunes from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and, for an encore responding to the audience’s enthusiastic calls for ‘More!’, a vigorous Tango by Piazolla.

Thanks to SeatonMusic for bringing such a talented and entertaining duo to Seaton. It was an impressive range of styles, and artistry – something for everyone.

There is more great music in this, SeatonMusic’s 72nd season, on Thursday 20th April, when renowned pianist Martin Jones plays works by composers including Liszt, Debussy and Grainger.

Tickets are £17 and can be purchased on the website (www.SeatonMusic.org) or at the door by cash or card. Admission is FREE for under-19s and full-time students.

Report by Peter Dawson

Pictures by Angela Willes and Iain McDonald

10/03/2023

Fantastic concert coming up in Seaton! Book at www.seatonmusic.org

10/02/2023

ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST STRING QUARTETS PERFORM IN SEATON

For the four members of the Doric String Quartet the world is their stage – and they are more than ‘mere players’. Their schedule has included concerts in London’s Wigmore Hall, in major venues in Denmark, in Belgium, in the USA, in Japan and now (after a delay due to lockdown) also at The Gateway in Seaton. Their recent performance on BBC Radio 3 prompted a plug there for their concert in Seaton, where they treated an enthusiastic audience to works by Haydn, Berg and Smetana. The four players, Alex Redington (violin), Ying Xue (violin), Hélène Clément (viola) and John Myerscough (cello) record exclusively for Chandos Records (co-founded by Seaton Music’s late patron Gordon Langford) and are keen to present both well-known and lesser-known pieces of music. Seaton Music was privileged indeed that such great musicians performed at the Gateway on 9th February.

As always, full programme notes gave us an insight into what to expect, and from the opening moments of Haydn’s Quartet op.50 no. 6 we knew we were listening to world-class musicians – the subtlety in expression, balance, dynamics was all there in this performance , which must be one of the weirdest of Haydn’s quartets. We may regard his harmonies now as traditional, but perhaps they were not for his audience, and the Doric made the most of the drama, the unexpected turns and range of moods in the piece.

Alban Berg’s Quartet no. 3 is something completely different – the composer pushing against the norms of traditional harmony to find more emotional possibilities. John Myerscough’s introduction to the piece, complete with short musical illustrations, helped us find a way into this unfamiliar music – unfamiliar even though it was written over a century ago. (This was the first time the Doric had performed it in public – another ‘first’ for Seaton!)

After the interval the Doric played the romantic Quartet no. 1 by Smetana ‘From My Life’. The viola plays a major role here, but there are rich solos for all the instruments, conveying moments of rebellion, passion, happiness, humour from the composer’s own life.

When Berg heard a performance of his quartet in 1923, he wrote to his wife that the musicians had played ‘indescribably beautifully’ and ‘It (had been) a glorious evening’. The same sentiment was expressed for the Doric’s performance at SeatonMusic’s concert, - expressed by expert musicians and non-experts alike, by young and not-so -young members of the audience.

More top-class music! SeatonMusic’s next concert is at 7.30pm The Gateway on Thursday 23rd March, when the brilliant and highly entertaining piano Duo B!z’art will play a varied programme from Barber to Bernstein and Ravel to Satie.

Tickets are £17 and can be purchased on the website (www.SeatonMusic.org) or at the door by cash or card. Admission is FREE for under-19s and full-time students.

Report by Peter Dawson

Pictures by Angela Willes

21/01/2023

After our midwinter break, SeatonMusic springs into action once again with a performance by the outstanding Doric String Quartet on Thursday 9th February at 7.30pm. Between now and then they will be playing at the Wigmore Hall in London and the Blauwe Zaal in Antwerp. This is a rare opportunity to hear these superb musicians in the south west. The Strad magazine has said: "The Doric Quartet is quite frankly in a class of its own". Don't miss them!

09/12/2022

Dazzling Performance at SeatonMusic

Seaton Music’s 72nd season continued this month with a real gem for music-lovers! A dazzling performance was enjoyed by the audience at the Gateway on Thursday 8th December. Violinist Joel Munday from Devon and Polish-born pianist Lucas Krupinski already have a growing international reputation as soloists and chamber musicians, and their concert at The Gateway showed why! Joel graduated this year with first class honours from the Royal College of Music in London and has started post-graduate studies there. Lucas studied first in his native Poland , then in Germany and at the Royal College in London. Both already have an impressive CV with prizes, master classes and performances with prestigious orchestras and venues in Europe, in the USA and in Asia.

Their programme in Seaton consisted of solo piano works - two Ballades by Chopin and his Grande Valse Brillante and sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven and César Franck. The audience was thrilled with their expressive playing from grand drama to intimate reflection, from beautiful lyricism to light-hearted and shocking interjections. Who would have thought that two players could so fill the hall with excitement and drama in the fortissimi, but also produce the most delicate pianissimo passages? The perfect balance of two equal partners matched the (sometimes) virtuosic demands of the music and showed the skill of the players. After enthusiastic applause Joel and Lucas played an encore – Elgar’s Salut d’Amour. What a privilege to be able to hear music of this standard in Seaton! ‘Well worth coming out on a very cold night’, was one concert-goer’s summary.

The next concert in SeatonMusic’s season is on Thursday 9th February at 7.30pm at The Gateway, when the world-famous Doric String Quartet will play works by Haydn, Berg and Smetana. Devon rarely has the opportunity to hear such outstanding ensembles. Don't miss it!

Tickets are £17 and can be purchased on the website (www.SeatonMusic.org) or at the door by cash or card. Admission is FREE for under-19s and full-time students.

Report by Peter Dawson

Pictures by Angela Willes