Musical partnership of Katie Stillman and Simon Lane shines in Kendal recital (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Musical partnership of Katie Stillman and Simon Lane shines in Kendal recital

10:30am Sunday 29th January 2012 in Music By Brian Paynes

Katie Stillman and Simon Lane Kendal Town Hall Katie Stillman (violin) and Simon Lane (piano), recent guests of the Kendal Midday Concert Club, showed themselves to be a wondrously musical chamber partnership. Their programme of violin sonatas by Beethoven (in A, Op 12 No. 2) and Respighi (in B minor, P 110) required a sure technical command of their respective instruments and a complete knowledge of the differing stylistic demands of the two composers.

Throughout the Beethoven there was true Classicism with technical sparkle, power, delicacy of touch and beautiful tone always underscoring the delightful interplay between the players. The rarely-performed Respighi, utterly contrasting in idiom and musical content, is a dramatic, passionate work that received an imposing, hugely Romantic, thoroughly convincing and enjoyable reading. Two Josef Suk encores completed the concert.

I add, though, an important observation: many pianists, failing to check out the town hall’s singular acoustics, fondly imagine they can raise the lid on full stick as though a concerto was being performed. On this occasion this resulted - particularly in the louder, faster passages - in piano-dominated textures with the poor violinist struggling to hold her own.