SUMMER SERENADE

SUMMER SERENADE

Caroline Adomeit-Gadd and Timothy Carey at KEGS

19.07.13

A balmy July evening, and a delightfully varied programme of music for violin and piano, with Caroline Adomeit-Gadd and Timothy Carey.

At its heart, Richard Strauss's Sonata, written when he was in his twenties and falling in love with Pauline, who six decades later would inspire the Four Last Songs.

Technically demanding, it is heart-on-sleeve stuff, the kind of music that the term Romantic might have been invented for. The charmingly melodic Andante Cantabile is really high-class salon music; the Finale is outspoken, and occasionally playful. An exciting outing for a work too rarely programmed.

At one extreme, Scarlatti and Couperin, at the other the kind of repertoire that Max Jaffa once played at the Spa in Scarborough. The tone was set after the interval, with Caroline serenading the punters in a Summertime stroll through the audience. Piazzolla, ideally suited to this sultry evening, Suk, Rodrigo, with the fiddle aping the cor anglais, and virtuosic variations from Sarasate. Her unique performance style gave us wordless song, dance, and impressively percussive footwork for the Irish Jig.