MICHAEL DRAKE Old Granary Studio, Toft Monks

MICHAEL DRAKE

> Old Granary Studio, Toft Monks

The wide-ranging Granary Concert Series drew to a close with an effervescent performance by its patron Piers Lane. Following two pensive Largo movements which separated a much lighter Fuga in Bach's Concerto in D minor (courtesy of Vivaldi and arranger William Murdoch) and given never-ending interest, the centrepiece was Schumann's Fantasie in C major.

This was Schumann writing a wonderfully varied musical love-letter to Clara, which in Lane's hands was passionate and highly charged.

Half an hour of sensual musical sentences and mastery of phrasing and moods became a period of emotive and artistic exhaustion enhanced by the singing tones of the 1900 Steinway instrument.

The long silence after the final chord emphasised the music's effect.

Schumann thought highly of von Henselt and 4 Etudes were no mechanical studies but colourful episodes before a pair of rather more genteel Chopin Waltze, with, in the favourite, in C sharp minor, much subtlety from the recitalist.

Finally, but not exactly an improvement on the original, Schultz-Evler's Blue Danube Arabesques, although requiring much dexterity left me with little desire to hear his 51 piano pieces so that the Musical Snuff Box encore was a delightful little filigree to leave the appreciative audience in happy mood.