THE latest community news from Dolgellau

Music club

DESPITE the icy conditions, a good crowd turned out at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor on Friday, 1 February, to hear the violin and piano duo of Mary Hofman and Richard Ormrod giving the first of their three recitals featuring Beethoven’s violin sonatas, this one comprising Op. 30 Nos 1, 2 and 3.

They were rewarded with very impressive performances ‘full of passion and grace’, to quote an audience member. The programme was enhanced by inclusion of a commissioned piece, Until the Thread Breaks by young Welsh composer Sarah Lianne Lewis, a meditation on the poignancy of Beethoven’s impending loss of hearing. Climbing higher and higher on the top E string, the violin at the work’s conclusion evoked the strange sounds the composer might have been hearing internally, and made listeners appreciate all the more the beauty and joyous invention of the sonatas themselves.

Thanks to Rhyl Music Club for initiating this imaginative project. A further concert in the series can be heard in the Tabernacl, Machynlleth on Friday, 15 February. The last will reach Dolgellau on 7 February 2020!

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