Concert review: Elena Urioste (violin) Tom Poster (piano)

This was French night at Wigmore Hall. The first half was described by pianist Tom Poster as music ‘off the beaten track’, to put Franck’s Violin Sonata, in the second half, into context. They opened with the Thème varié op.15 by Charlotte Sohy, written in the early 1920s. Its theme is sombre and was played by Elena Urioste with earnest intensity; succeeding variations led to playing of impassioned grandeur and exquisite repose.

The first movement of Guillaume Lekeu’s G major Violin Sonata (1892) was light and seductive before the piece gets down to business, which brought a muscular, dramatic response from Urioste, with Poster a powerhouse beneath. The long, winding slow movement, lent a restlessness by its 7/8 time signature, had an affecting sensitivity, and there was urgency in the turbulent minor-key waters of the finale before the triumphant ending. Two works by Mel Bonis, the Andante religioso and Allegretto ma non troppo, were essentially simple and beautifully shaped.

The first movement of the Franck was flowing and nicely structured, and the following Allegro cracked on with powerful emotional intent, leavened by passages of quiet tonal beauty, with some splendid G-string passion. There were magical shifts of voice and character in the Recitativo-Fantasia, and the forceful, brisk finale was as much intimate as demonstrative, for all its technical demands.

TIM HOMFRAY