Portamento started our Spring series of concerts with a delightful programme where the flame and exhilaration of romance meets the anguish of unrequited love as reflected in Schubert’s magnificent Fantasie in F minor D940. Being one of his most important piano works for 4 hands and dedicated to his student Karoline Esterhazy, it was written just a few months before he died.
This dramatic work is contrasted with Debussy’s evocative Petite Suite, then Rachmaninoff’s Valse from Moments Musicaux Op. 11, and concludes with Grieg’s bright and joyous lyric piece Wedding Day at Troldhaugen Op. 65 no. 6 – the ultimate culmination of courting and romance having been written as a memorial of the 25th wedding anniversary of Grieg and his wife Nina.
