Violinist, Gina McCormack, and pianist, Nigel Clayton, Kendal Town Hall

KENDAL Midday Concert Club, long accustomed to engaging artists of world-wide renown, recently had the pleasure of welcoming two such musicians. Gina McCormack (violin) and her duo partner of long-standing, Nigel Clayton (piano), introduced three mainly unfamiliar works to their audience: Mendelssohn’s Sonata for violin and piano (1838), Szymanowsky’s La Fontaine D’Aréthusa and Richard Strauss’s Sonata for violin and piano, Op 18.

The many amateur violinists and pianists assembled in the town hall would have been constantly marvelling at the musicianship and technical dexterity on display. Both players had an extremely busy hour for whilst Mendelssohn is famous for having lots of notes in his fast movements, both Szymanowsky and Strauss showed themselves to be fully his equal in this respect!

Nigel Clayton has a technique to die for; none of the three composers was able to present him with an unsurpassable challenge. In the quiet, delicate passages his arpeggio and scalic passages possessed a gossamer-like quality, but they were crisply articulate at all dynamic levels and contrasted stunningly with the power and precision generated during the loud, more passionate sections. His careful attention to matters of balance relating to the piano’s role in the texture was ever-present and his page-turning was simply virtuosic!

Gina McCormack, whilst not having quite such a frenetic hour, was equally successful in contributing to our enjoyment. I recall with pleasure her sweet-toned lyrical lines, ebbing and flowing, rising and falling, exquisitely intermixing with those of her partner; I remember the tender loving care that she imparted to her phrasing with its subtle light and shade; I recollect, too, her articulate passage work - fully the equal of that emerging from the Steinway.

Highlights of the recital? The sheer musicianship and technical virtuosity shown by the duo throughout their emotionally intense programme, the ravishing beauty of the Sonatas’ slow movements, the allure of Szymanowsky’s impressionist textures and, finally, the audience’s reaction to the Viennese café music charm of the Kreisler encore.

Brian Paynes