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Music club

WITH cold and unpleasant weather outside, it felt especially good to be inside listening to pianist Mauro Lo Conte on Friday, 13 January, in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor.

Mauro’s programme was a mix of baroque, classical and romantic repertoire, giving him ample opportunity to show a wide spectrum of technical skill and musical understanding.

J S Bach composed his French Suites of 1722 for the harpsichord (well before the age of the pianoforte), and might well have been astonished could he have heard the variety of colours conjured by Mauro from the Coleg Bechstein. Mauro caught to perfection the style and character of each dance-movement.

The concluding Gigue was lively with a spring in Mauro’s touch and alertness of rhythm.

Weather came explicitly to mind in the subtitle of the next piece, Sonata Op 31 No 2 (1801/2) by Beethoven, The Tempest. Mauro’s final choice of Schumann’s Fantasie Op 17 (1839) made a logical progression from the preceding piece. The audience’s applause at the end of Mauro’s performance was pretty rapturous too, for the Schumann and indeed for the recital as a whole, in appreciation of an exceptional artist.

The next concert will be at 7.30pm on Friday, 10 February, in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor by Savitri Grier, violin, and Richard Uttley, piano.

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