Music for Flute & Guitar, The Benavente Duo

It was drizzling in Brighton this afternoon but inside the Friends’ Meeting House all was Neapolitan sunshine and pure delight. The music of Mauro Giuliani was a perfect antidote to our sad May weather.

Beginning with a sedate ‘Serenade’, Clare Beesley’s wooden flute cooed gently over Peter Lay’s soft guitar accompaniment, but soon the pace quickened. The two ‘Grand Potpouri’ had all the sparkling coloratura of a bel-canto opera.

The period instruments blended perfectly. Even the wood-panelled Meeting Room was contemporary, built at the same year (1806) that Giuliani left Naples to settle in the Vienna of Beethoven and Schubert.

Friends’ Meeting House, 18 May 2012

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