Concert review: Rosalind Ventris (viola)

International Women’s Day at Wigmore Hall included an afternoon recital from violist Rosalind Ventris. She is artistic director at the Yehudi Menuhin School and a member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, and has for some time been a staunch advocate for music by women composers.

For this solo recital, Ventris took repertoire directly from her Sola album, introducing the audience to fascinating, multi-layered music from the 20th and 21st centuries woven around a natural world theme.

She began with Lillian Fuchs’s Sonata Pastorale and her assurance was immediately apparent in the chordal resonance, fluent technique and complex physical contrasts. Thea Musgrave’s In the Still of the Night followed; not as convincing a work as Fuchs’s sonata, but still a thoughtful piece of programming with its dark, almost operatic melodic world.

Sally Beamish’s Penillion again showcased Ventris’s immaculate control in the upper register of the viola. It’s not an easy work – Beamish being a violist herself – with tricky high octaves, and stops occasionally getting the better of Ventris.

Elizabeth Maconchy’s cinematic Five Sketches was a recital highlight, with resonance, security and beauty prevailing in Ventris’s sound. So too did a captivating understanding of character and line, with the violist taking us in and out of Maconchy’s voice leading, especially in the fifth movement’s Presto.

Amanda Feery’s Boreal was captivating in its stillness and glassy extended techniques. To finish, Imogen Holst’s Suite brought a beautiful and post-pastoral element to the programme, its mix of the serious and the playful suiting Ventris to perfection.

HATTIE BUTTERWORTH