Brighton Philharmonic Summer Season – Rachel Fryer (piano)

Schubert’s animated ‘Quartettsatz’ and Haydn’s ‘Lark’ Quartet book-ended Hove-born Peter Copley’s ‘Partita for Piano Quartet’, this concert’s Brighton Connection. Written in stages for “players of limited experience”, the fast first movement may have easy scales and positions but still needs precision timing to keep together. The mysterious, sustained Adagio ‘42’, the ‘Shcherzo’ (sic) and the three-sectioned ‘Improvisations on a Theme by Paul Carr’ clearly demand focussed concentration, control and co-ordination which, of course, presented no problem for Rachel Fryer, Roland Roberts (violin), Ian Anderson (viola) and Peter Adams (cello), with Ani Batikian as 2nd violin for the Schubert and Haydn.

This delightful, well-balanced programme was very well received by a gratifyingly large audience. They may soon require a larger venue!

Unitarian Church, 19 July 2015
Rating:
Andrew Connal