Robert Gibbs – violin
Oliver Davies – piano
Beethoven Sonata in A minor, Op. 23
Fauré Berceuse, Op. 16
Lekeu Sonata in G (1893)
Two contrasting anniversaries frame the present programme – Beethoven opens our 2020 season with his dramatic A Minor Sonata, but the main work celebrates a much lesser-known figure. Guillaume Lekeu, born in Belgium on 20 January 1870, studied with Franck and d’Indy (who thought him a genius), but died of typhoid fever aged 24. The Violin Sonata, commissioned by Ysaÿe, is regarded as his masterpiece.
Robert Gibbs and Oliver Davies need no introduction to Hatchlands audiences. Most recently their popular series ‘The Great War and the Violin’ ran from 2014 to 2018.