Review: Alexander Karpeyev and Michael Foyle at Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare Hall's first Intimate Engagements concert of 2021/22 took place last Saturday (November 13) with an evening of classical music featuring Alexander Karpeyev on piano and Michael Foyle on violin.

Michael, who launched his career by winning The Netherlands Violin Competition in 2016, was standing in for Natalia Lomeiko who had been due to perform but was suffering from Covid-19.

The first half of the concert was made up of the first of two major works of the violin and piano, Beethoven’s Kreutzer sonata (the second, Prokofiev's 2nd sonata, came in the second half).

The Kreutzer sonata was named after the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom it was ultimately dedicated, and is notable for its technical difficulty, unusual length (around 40 minutes) and emotional scope.

Needless to say, these two skilled musicians delivered an almost flawless rendition of the piece. Melody-wise, I preferred the performance given by Karpeyev alone on the piano at the start of the second half of Medtner's Novelette and March of the Paladins, opus 14 number 2 and, interestingly, it was pointed out that it was exactly 70 years ago to the day that the previously somewhat forgotten Nikolai Medtner - recognised by Rachmaninoff as the greatest composer of his time - died in London at the age of 71.

Karpeyev was then joined again by Foyle and the pair not only expertly played Prokofiev's Violin sonata opus 94b, but also treated the packed dining hall to a surprise performance of Vocalise, one of Rachmaninoff’s 14 Songs published in 1915.

It was a pleasure to watch these two charismatic performers in full flow. For more on the upcoming Intimate Engagements series of concerts, go to clarehall.cam.ac.uk.

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