MUSIC at St Giles' penultimate concert of a very successful summer series got off to an electrifying start with a stunning performance (by two members of The Radcliffe trio – violinist Jacqui Miles and pianist Bethe Levvy) of Beethoven’s violin sonata in G major, opus 30 number 3.

We sat astonished and delighted at the prodigious technical difficulties of the piece literally floated over with seeming nonchalance, and this wonderful performance set the standard for the whole evening’s excellence.

The piece following, by Anton Arensky, Russian composer, friend of, (and much influenced by), Tchaikovsky, was the Adagio from his piano trio, (written in memoriam of the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein), when cellist Emma Chamberlain joined the players, held us equally spellbound, and indeed moved, by the beauty of the music, which was lyrical, and at times reminiscent of Debussy’s work, and was greeted with prolonged applause and shouts of ‘bravo’.

The final two works before the interval were Emma Chamberlain’s superb rendering of the second and third movements of the beautiful Brahms Cello Sonata.

The exquisite burnished tone of Emma’s instrument, so wonderfully executed, was exceptional even in these days of so many excellent exponents of that instrument. Moments of lyricism showed this to great effect and contrasted with the technically demanding passages of (typically) Brahms’ rhythmic and syncopated complexities in his scores in general.

The short piece by Phillip Glass (part of his violin sonata) performed by Jacqui and Bethe just before the interval introduced this listener in particular to another side of this composer, known mainly for his operas.

The climax of this superb evening came in in an exhilarating and truly exciting performance of Schubert's marvellous piano trio in E flat major, sending us out into the balmy evening resolved to follow any future performances by The Radcliffe Trio, and determined to invite them back again to St. Giles.

Jean Darke