Concert review: Lawrence Power (viola, violin) Thomas Adès (piano) Paul Stoneman (percussion) Jonathan Goddard (dancer)

This was one of Lawrence Power’s portmanteau concerts, with lots of short pieces loosely linked by a theme. It was called ‘Fairy-Tale Dances’, but was shot through as much with references to Shakespeare’s The Tempest as with fairy stories. They performed with the auditorium in darkness, so it was only to be hoped that the audience had memorised the list of seven works in the first half. Thomas Adès’s music featured strongly here. His arrangement of Purcell’s ‘Full fathom five’ began the evening, with firm playing from Power, which became gossamer and pliant as required. An intense account of the second Berceuse from Adès’s opera The Exterminating Angel ranged from quietest melancholy to abrasive ponticello.

There was a hint of Viennese lilt in the waltz from Britten’s Suite for violin and piano op.6. Britten’s Lachrymae was the first substantial work on the programme, with fleet playing in variation no.1, expressive pizzicato in the second and well-focused tone in the Alla marcia. In Adès’s Märchentänze, with Power now on violin, there was some virtuoso playing, not least in a complex pizzicato dance.

After the interval, Power showed remarkable musical personality in Berio’s Naturale for viola, percussion, dancer and a recording by the composer of a Sicilian street singer: this was a strong, almost pagan theatre piece. Stravinsky’s Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss mixed sparkling, nimble dance, fierce rhythmic drive and entrancing melodic playing. Power lost an awful lot of bow hairs in the process.

TIM HOMFRAY