April Randall and Stephen Morrison are colleagues from Fife Council’s instrumental instruction service and came to St Andrew’s and St George’s West with viola and guitar to give an inspired 45 minute recital.
They gave us a naturally expressive, rich, varied programme of original and arranged compositions for guitar and viola but, of the five works, only the last two were actually written for viola and guitar.
For me the most pleasing was the Sonata in G Major by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) in its four movements. Viola and guitar were in perfect equilibrium with one another. More modern works by Siegfried Behrend (1933-1990) and Paul Kont (1920-2000) were interesting.
William Wordsworth (1908-1988) wrote Conversation Piece (Op 113) and that’s how it sounded. The guitar played for a moment and the viola responded, and so it went on. It was great fun.
Just before the final work April Randall told us that it had a mixed reception in their experience of playing it to audiences, but it was their favourite. This was Edward McGuire’s Fast Peace III, a work supportive of the Peace Movement. I have to say I was not comfortable with it, but that does not mean I did not enjoy the entirety of their recital. It was a breath of fresh air to hear a combination of instruments not often playing together.
Event: Thursday 11 August 2011 at 2.30pm