United Kingdom Various: Daniel Shao (flute), Annie Yim (piano). URC Church, Romsey, 31.5.2026. (CK)
Debussy – Syrinx
Schubert – Die Taubenpost; Das Fischermädchen
Cécile Chaminade – Concertino for Flute in D major
Takemitsu – Air
Prokofiev – Sonata for Flute and Piano in D major
The final day of the Romsey Chamber Music Festival 2026 began with a lunchtime recital by flautist Daniel Shao, accompanied on the piano by Annie Yim. Like all the musicians taking part in the Festival, Shao is already an experienced soloist (he was a Classic FM Rising Star 2023) with a passionate interest in contemporary music as well as the core repertory. His teachers include the legendary Berlin Philharmonic flautist Emmanuel Pahud.
Shao’s pedigree was clear with his opening performance of Debussy’s Syrinx – not offstage, as it is often played, but front and centre: his sound filled the church. His playing, atmospheric with magical fadings of tone, suggested a kinship with the instrument’s role in Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. His flute was then in free flight with an arrangement of Die Taubenpost, one of Schubert’s most buoyant and infectious songs; and he was equal to the acrobatics of Cécile Chaminade’s Concertino, a tuneful confection and an impressive display piece.
Tōru Takemitsu’s Air (the element, not the song) was a highlight. Shao described its challenge as ‘seeing what colours the flute could produce’: in his performance of this cousin of Syrinx, a great many. After another Schubert song – Das Fischermädchen, the flute embellishing the vocal line – the main course: Prokofiev’s Sonata for flute and piano. In the characteristic Moderato I could imagine the flute as a ballet dancer; the predictably energetic Scherzo brought spectacular playing; and after the brief, graceful Andante the Allegro con brio was Prokofiev at his most ebullient, with fireworks for the piano as well as the flute. Yet their encore – Sofia Gubaidulina’s Sounds of the Forest – lodged more in the memory: Messiaen-like, it imitates birdsong (the pianist begins by tapping on the wood like a woodpecker). Haunting, and well-chosen for a concert series themed around the elements.
Various: Jaehong Kim (baritone), Luke Hsu, Emma Roijackers, Laura Rickard (violins), Kyungsik Shin, Anuschka Cidlinsky (violas), Lydia Hillerudh, Rainer Crosett (cellos), Ziteng Fan (piano). URC Church, Romsey, 31.5.2026.
Sibelius – Water Droplets
Saariaho – Cloud Trio
Brahms – Regenlied; Botschaft; Von ewige Liebe
Robert Peate – String Quartet in E, ‘Grasses’
Beethoven – String Quintet in C major
And so to the Festival finale, which opened with Luke and Lydia playing Water Droplets, a neat, one-minute pizzicato exercise for violin and cello – apparently Sibelius’s first surviving work from his school years (where does Laura find these pieces?). They were joined by Kyungsik Shin for the late-lamented Kaija Saariaho’s slightly more extensive two-movement Cloud Trio – chilly, atmospheric; for me, as with much of her music, a single hearing is not enough to grasp what is going on. Jaehong Kim – who made such an impression at the opening concert with Purcell’s Cold Song – returned for three Brahms lieder, all with an elemental connection (rain, breeze, dark countryside), which revealed (as the Purcell song could not) that he has a voice of considerable beauty, and power too, where it was needed.
The first half of the concert ended with the first performance of Robert Peate’s String Quartet, ‘Grasses’, jointly commissioned by the 2026 Presteigne Festival and the 2026 Romsey Chamber Music Festival, and played by Emma Roijackers, Laura Rickard, Anuschka Cidlinsky and Rainer Crosett. In a pre-concert interview with Laura, Peate explained that the initial inspiration for the quartet came from seeing a selection of Charles MacCarthy’s ‘Grasses’: as he has written, ‘I felt immediately drawn in by the intimate worlds these paintings captured, revealing the secluded beauty of a grassy margin, the corner of a field, or a slice of landscape, as well as by their warmth and variety of colour and texture.’ His compositional method balances a ‘zooming in’ on tiny detail with a ‘zooming out’ to ‘a more open-aired, modal radiance’.
It is indeed a radiant and beautiful work: sounds overlapping, music burgeoning over descending scales, moments of ecstatic euphony, a vigorous folk dance; the music slow, spare, hypnotic to a quiet, rapt close. There were tiny hints of Britten, Tippett, even the luminous plain speaking of Janáček: these are not ‘influences’ but perhaps clues to the emotional and imaginative terrain Peate’s music inhabits. I was transported for the quartet’s 12 minutes: I have heard nothing finer in the Festival. I certainly hope to hear it again.
To end the Festival, another revelation: I don’t think I even knew that Beethoven wrote a String Quintet in C, after the Op.18 Quartets and between the first two symphonies. In employing a second viola he was bowing the knee to Mozart’s mature masterpieces of the genre; and at times one could hear Mozart’s voice, especially in the attractive ascending theme of the Adagio. With Luke Hsu and the indefatigable Laura Rickard on violins, Anuschka Cidlinsky and Kyungsik Shin on violas and Lydia Hillerudh on cello we were treated to a marvellous performance, full of vigour, delicacy, light and shade; Luke revelling in the Scherzo’s rusticity, and all four players leaving us in no doubt why the finale is nicknamed ‘The Storm’. Its 35 minutes of immersive music-making provided a grandstand finish to a remarkable week.
There were events I missed: an Open Rehearsal, a Masterclass, a Family Concert, a concert entitled Fire and Ice which prefaced Grieg’s String Quartet No.1 with music by John Luther Adams, Debussy, Amy Beach and Scriabin. There hasn’t been space to salute Laura’s commitment, shared by all the players, to working in schools and encouraging young artists: the Festival has evolved into something that breaks barriers and reaches for the sky. I’m sure Laura already has next year’s Festival mapped out in her mind.
When the time comes you will find the information here.
Chris Kettle
Featured Image: Applause for the RCMF 2026 Final concert © IOA Photography