Musicians played with ‘passion and poise’, says reviewer

Reviewer Andy Tyler shares his thoughts on the new series of Lynn’s Festival coffee concerts…The recent Lynn Festival Coffee Concert was a recital of music for the combination of Viola and piano, a welcome opportunity to hear these instruments in performances of music by J.S.Bach, Robert Schumann and Henri Vieuxtemps.Ami-Louise Johnsson, viola, and Ayaka Shigeno, piano, gave sensitive performances of the sonatas by Bach and Vieuxtemps and emphasised the poetry of Schumann’s Fairy Tale Pictures, Op.113. In the Vieuxtemps sonata in B flat, Op.36, the musicians appeared to make light work of the technical challenges the piece poses and played with passion and poise.

It is always a pleasure to hear Bach performed, especially when the instruments are not so commonly used, and the performances naturally flow as during this recital.Both musicians perform widely and enjoy promising and successful musical careers.The recital concluded with a lively encore, a Rondo, originally for Bassoon by Carl Maria Von Weber. Another satisfying and successful Festival Coffee Concert.