United Kingdom Elgar: Katy Smith (violin), Amy Butler and Graziana Presicce (pianos). Howden Minster, East Yorkshire 16.7.2026. (PC)
Elgar – Cockaigne Overture (arr. Otto Singer, for piano four hands); Chanson de matin, for violin and piano, Op.15, No.2; La capricieuse, for violin and piano, Op.17; Minuet from Beau Brummel (arr. Ernest Austin, for piano four hands); Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor, Op. 82
An all-Elgar recital given by violinist Katy Smith and pianists Amy Butler and Graziana Presicce on 16 July provided a highlight of the current season of Howdenshire Music’s free lunchtime concerts held in the East Yorkshire town’s Minster. The event formed part of the Elgar Society’s 75th anniversary celebrations and an aspect of particular interest in the music-making was the use of Elgar’s own bow in the violin pieces. A thoughtfully compiled programme comprised impressive accounts of two major works framing a sequence of lighter miniatures.
Proceedings began with a persuasive performance by Amy Butler and Graziana Presicce of the Cockaigne Overture in Otto Singer’s arrangement for piano four hands. The keyboard transcription allowed listeners to concentrate on the music’s proliferation of ideas and motifs and appreciate afresh how skilfully the composer weaves these disparate strands into a tautly coherent and engaging narrative. The players made the best possible case for Singer’s adaptation, keeping the material moving forward, securing crisply articulated rhythms and investing the more lyrical episodes with a natural tenderness. Their diversity of expression, sharpness of focus and control of touch ensured that the score was presented as a bona fide piano work, rather than as a mere orchestral reduction.
Violinist Katy Smith joined Butler in Elgar’s radiant Chanson de matin. With subtle use of violin vibrato and portamento and alert and responsive piano accompaniment, their fluently eloquent reading gave much pleasure. The performers followed this gentle aubade with the virtuosic showpiece, La capricieuse. Smith made light of the main theme’s technical challenges with its rapid upbow staccato passages and both musicians revelled in the sophistication of the gracefully lilting second subject.
Presicce returned to the stage to partner Butler in an arrangement for piano four hands by Ernest Austin of the Minuet from incidental music Elgar wrote for a 1928 production of Beau Brummel, a play about the eponymous dandy. This beguiling short piece benefitted from the pianists’ elegant phrasing and refinement of detail.
The official programme concluded with an imposing interpretation by Katy Smith and Amy Butler of Elgar’s Sonata for violin and piano in E minor. In a spirited and decisive opening Allegro, the first theme was self-assured and the second theme wistful and songlike. In the central ‘Romance’ the musicians found a confessional intimacy in the enigmatically halting opening idea and unfolded the eloquent central melody with ardent expressivity. The finale’s expansive main subject was calmly poised, while the reappearance of the previous movement’s broad tune was poetically handled and the decisive coda blazed with conviction.
The warmly receptive capacity audience was rewarded with an encore in the form of an arrangement by the players for violin and piano four hands of Elgar’s Salut d’amour. Rendered with a relaxed, expressive freedom and offering delightful interplay between the musicians, this bonus item capped an imaginatively curated and superbly executed recital.
Paul Conway
Featured Image: Pianists Amy Butler and Graziana Presicce © John Thompson