String Duo Concert at St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford

String Duo Concert at St Michael at the North Gate Oxford – on Monday the Manor House String Duo were very happy to return once more to the lovely church of St Michael at the North Gate in Oxford to perform a short recital as part of the ‘Music on Mondays’ series which takes place every Monday lunchtime. Musicians perform without charge but are able to nominate a good cause or charity of their choice to receive any donations generously given by the audience in a retiring collection.¬† Once again, we opted for our donations to go towards the St Giles Church Bell Restoration Appeal. The program is up to the musicians and as this time we were performing as a string duo, with myself on violin and Adrian Smith on viola. We chose to play three works: ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’ by Bach, the Sonata in F by Haydn and the lovely Duo in Bb by Mozart (K424).

It was quite a snowy day but despite this, we had a small and enthusiastic audience who enjoyed the concert with several people coming up to talk to us at the end.

Here is a clip of the recital – the second movement of the Haydn Sonata which is slow and sustained, with a haunting quality that just seems to float in the air. It is a credit to Haydn that he was able to conjure up so much using such simple resources (he doesn’t even write in any double stops in this movement).