On Saturday evening, 25 July, a rare musical encounter took place before a capacity audience at Holy Trinity Church, Hardwicke when Elizabeth Neville, ’cello, during a short visit to the UK from Australia to visit family and friends, joined Paul Sweeting, piano and Welsh harp from Llyswen, Powys for a ’Cello and Harp Recital.  They met for the first time the day before the recital and had only a few hours of rehearsal time together.  Thanks to the internet, they had been able to plan the programme from opposite sides of the globe before Elizabeth’s departure from Australia and their professionalism enabled them to give a most polished and engaging performance.

Elizabeth and Paul’s programme ranged widely across the centuries from the Baroque up to the middle of the 20th Century and they introduced each item with interesting background notes.  Paul is principally an organist but switched his keyboard to piano mode to accompany Elizabeth in Vivaldi’s ’Cello Sonata in E minor to open the programme.  They then leapt forward to 1924 with Ernest Bloch’s Prayer from ‘Jewish Life’.  Paul’s wife, Anne, then joined Paul at the keyboard for a piano duet, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Guiseppe Verdi.  Following two traditional pieces for the harp, ’cello and harp strings combined most originally and effectively in Pachelbel’s Canon in D and the first half concluded with Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestucke Op. 73 for  ’cello and piano.