Covid rules allow postponed Greytown Piano and Violin Concert

Originally scheduled for August, the Auckland coronavirus outbreak meant that Aucklanders were unable to leave the area due to covid level 3 restrictions, and the concert by pianist Sarah Watkins and violinist Andrew Beer had to be postponed.

The concert organisers, Greytown Music Group, and the performers, are all hoping that no new outbreak will arise preventing the concert in Greytown on 24th October, and a further concert the next day in Palmerston North.

Sarah and Andrew describe the first half of their programme as “a potpourri of tons of great music!” It includes two beautiful and lyrical pieces by NZ composers, Dance by Josiah Carr, written for the pair, and Rhapsody by Anthony Ritchie. They will also play Five Melodies by Prokofiev, and Three Romances by Clara Schumann, one of the few female composers of her era.

The second half of the concert will be Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. This was named after violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom it was ultimately dedicated, but who thoroughly disliked the piece and refused to play it, describing it as “outrageously unintelligible”. Michael Houston has described the sonata as “Simply the most devastating concert piece among the violin sonatas that Beethoven wrote”. Composed in 1803, it allows the players to let fly with their skill and passion like no previous sonata for violin and piano.

Sarah Watkins and Andrew Beer – Piano and Violin: 4pm on Saturday 24 October at 57 Wood St, Greytown. Admission $25, students $10. Bookings advisable – contact Ed and Juliet Cooke on 06 304 9497, or efjacooke@gmail.com.