My guest for this first concert is one of the regular performers at these concerts, violinist Andrew Rostron. Andrew will of course be known to many of you and was for a number of years leader of Todmorden Orchestra amongst others.
The featured work in this concert will be the Sonata for violin and piano by Saint-Saens in D minor Opus 75. Saint-Saens will be known to many of you for his quirky "Carnival of the Animals" and of course his great Third Symphony known as "The Organ Symphony", in particular but he had a great musical output and this is far less known in this country than perhaps it should be. There are five piano concertos and a great deal of other music well worth exploring. His style was somewhat "conservative" as compared with other composers working in the late 1800s and early 1900s such as Stravinsky and Debussy for example, but wonderful music nevertheless.
In addition to the sonata there will be other piano and violin works yet to be confirmed, but there will certainly be some music by JS Bach for violin and music by other French composers.