Winchelsea Arts presented a concert at St Thomas the Martyr, Winchelsea, on Saturday, February 24, a very cold and frosty evening in comparison to the warm welcome given by the audience to the Irish flautist Niall O’Riordan and the pianist Anne Marshall. Born in South Africa, Anne lives locally with her family, and is a regular accompanist for Sir James Galway, often appearing in concerts with him. Niall has close links to Sir James, too, and was awarded the rising star award at the 2014 Galway International Flute Festival in Switzerland.
Entitled “Winter Romance”, the programme covered works by Camille Saint-Saens, Romance Op.37, JS Bach, Sonata in B minor BWV 1030 and Mel Bonis, Sonata for flute and piano. After the interval, works by Antonin Dvorak, Romance Op. 11, Carl Fruhling , Fantasie Op. 55 and Giulio Briccialdi , Fantasy on Verdi’s Il Trovatore, continued the romantic theme. Beautifully played on the flute by Niall, the highly accomplished skills of Anne on the piano completed the whole and made a really enjoyable evening.
This lovely programme is part of a series of six concerts held in the church. St Thomas the Martyr has some magnificent monuments and a series of stained glass windows by Douglas Strachan, and more importantly for the music, it has excellent acoustics.
Tickets are available from the box office costing £14 for adults and £7 for children under 18 years.
The next concert is to be held on Saturday March 24 at 7:30pm, with Ruth Eichenseher, cello and Luis Castillo Briceno, piano.
Photo: Rye News library
Image Credits: Anne Marshall / Debbie Stockwell .