Audience taken on ‘exhilarating journey’ of music in Doncaster

 Little could they imagine that by the end of the evening they would have been taken on an exhilarating journey encompassing all the intervening periods and many different continents and finishing with a piece written in 2014 commemorating the First World War – of which, more later.

All was delivered with great verve, as you would expect from a former BBC Young Musician of the Year, who also demonstrated pure lyricism where it was needed, as in Faure’s “Après un rêve”.

In all of this Matilda was ably abetted by the pianist Leo Nicholson, who not only showed great skill as an accompanist but also midway through each half gave Matilda a break by playing two piano solos – one by Scarlatti and the other by Gershwin.

It was the contemporary piece, “Seven Halts on the Somme”, which caught the audience’s attention.

First they were told to expect something synaesthetic. (i.e. the composition of the music was stimulated by the perception of colour), and a special effect was created by Matilda playing into the strings of the piano while Leo held down the sustaining pedal.

If this might sound alarming, the overall impression was of a young musician at the top of her class, capable of sensitivity as well as the pyrotechnics one expects from a brass player.

Review by Adrian Hattrell