One of the many pleasures of a Festival concert is that they take place throughout the day. Another is that they present a broad range of artists and musical offerings. The morning concert last Saturday in the medieval setting of  Cookham Parish Church offered a medley of vocal and instrumental solos and duets performed by a number of talented young musicians all in their teens presented and accompanied by Jean Garrett. The stately and sweetly sung duet“Sound the Trumpet” by Henry Purcell contrasted with Rossini’s “Cat Duet” where it was all too clear that the cattishness was not just of the feline variety: an item which had the audience chuckling- as did the Flanders and Swann “Ill Wind” ; a witty wording of the Mozart Horn Concerto.

Gershwin was represented by “The Man I Love” and a toe- tapping clarinet arrangement of “I’ve got Rhythm”. Gomez ‘ “Lorito Caprice” for clarinet and Moskowsi’s Caprice Espagnol for piano were dazzlingly played, while more mellow tones were heard in the Aria for saxophone by Bozze and Rebecca Clarke’s “ Morpheus” where the viola notes slid away into the shadows. A lighter side came from “Impossible Dream” by Mitch Leigh and the concert ended with three stunning performances: Romance for cello by Matys with a sensational cadenza; Minsky’s “Ritmo Caribeno” , where the cellist’s feet stamped and his hands plucked, slapped, wiped and knocked in a eye catching display of dazzling virtuosity; and arrangement of von Suppe’s  “Poet and Peasant”  which ended the concert with a breath of warmer winds , Italian sunshine and a terrific thunderstorm in this musical evocation of Romantic pastoral where four hands persuaded the churches grand piano into an almost orchestral fullness of sound.

Fran Stafford, Grace Wishart, Joshua Raffles and Noah Sharples sang; Peter De Souza and Ellie Potter played clarinet and saxophone, Beth Potter and Alexander Garrett played viola and cello and Aimee Thwaites and Mia Santa Olalla were the pianists.  These young soloists were sensitively accompanied by Jean Garrett, producing rich textures in this medieval acoustic to beguiling effect in this Saturday morning matinee musicale.

Review by Andrew Stafford