Review -Sunday afternoon music concerts are a new venture at Tealby Village Hall.
Our first concert featured a solo ‘cello recital by Rebecca Hewes. Though born in Yorkshire in 1983, she grew up in Lincolnshire. At the age of eleven she was awarded a place at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and was subsequently awarded sc
holarships to continue her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, where she graduated in 2005 with first-class honours and a graduation prize.
Rebecca’s programme consisted of two works, the Bach ‘cello Suite no. 5 in C minor, BVW 1011, and Britten’s ‘cello Suite no. 1, op. 72.
The Bach is a sombre, noble piece. Rebecca brought out the complex counterpoint in a very focussed and bold performance that allowed each of the six movements its own space and character.
After some retuning – Rebecca had given us an ‘authentic’ performance with the original Baroque tuning - she returned to play the Britten.
One of three suites composed in 1964 for Mstislav Rostropovich, the ‘cello suite No.1 , in nine short sections, is an intense and complex piece which used many different playing techniques to reproduce an effect at times whimsical, at times brutal. This can be difficult music to listen to, especially first time round, but Rebecca’s performance won over the audience. She played with such clean attack and flawless intonation that the often thorny textures were wonderfully expressed, and the audience were caught up in the dramatic twists and turns of this striking work.
This was a memorable concert, and it was gratifying to see a near capacity audience – 3.00 pm is obviously the time for music in Tealby ! - and afterwards they enjoyed the excellent tea and cakes too !
* Review by David Kirshner. Feel free to send any reviews of anything you see to be posted on our website.
* For what’s on in Tealby check out www.Tealbyvillage.com
