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.

The audience was able to enjoy interval drinks in the warm evening sunshine outside the church with its beautiful views over Herefordshire countryside and beyond the border to the Welsh hills.  The second half began with J S Bach’s Suite No 2 for unaccompanied ’cello and in complete contrast Paul and Anne followed this with an amusing Edwardian parlour piece for four hands called ‘Niagara’ by Louis Godard.   There were more traditional pieces for solo harp and ’cello and harp before two pieces, ‘The Wounded Heart’ and ‘Last Spring’ from Grieg’s Elegiac Melodies Op. 34.  The last item on the programme was Manuel de Falla’s exciting and virtuosic ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from his ballet ‘El Amor Brujo’, ‘Love, the Magician’.  The audience called ‘encore’ and was rewarded with a moving account on ’cello and piano of ‘The Swan’ from ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ by Saint-Saёns.

Elizabeth, Paul and Anne kindly gave of their musical talents free in order to raise nearly £800 for Hardwicke Church which needs urgent attention to its stained glass and to Cancer Research UK, a charity very close to Elizabeth’s heart as several members of her family have been affected by cancer.

Elizabeth has been living in Sydney for the past five and a half years and is a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra based at the famous Opera House.  She has recently become a member of the Apollo Piano Trio which is well known in Australia to both live and radio audiences and she also records sessions for films, including the recent ‘Australia’ movie.  Elizabeth’s musical education began at the age of eight and culminated in her becoming principal ’cello of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and also of the European Union Youth Orchestra with which she worked with many distinguished musicians and conductors such as Ashkenazy, Haitink and Rostropovitch travelling as far afield as South America and Russia.  She graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BA (Hons) in Music whilst studying with Tim Hugh, Principal ’cello of the London Symphony Orchestra and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music with David Strange.  She performed concertos with the University Orchestra and received regular chamber music coaching from the Allegri String Quartet.  After finishing her studies Elizabeth performed with various chamber ensembles in and around London, including a master class broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has worked with many of the UK’s best orchestras, including the London Symphony, Scottish Chamber, The Philharmonia, the Hallé and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras.  She was a member of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from 1997 – 2003 and during this time was invited to play with the World Orchestra of Peace, an orchestra made up of principal members of orchestras from all over the world, conducted by Valery Gergiev.  Elizabeth loves her life in Australia and has discovered a vibrant and rewarding musical atmosphere in which to develop her talent and further her career in music.  She plans to settle permanently there but makes regular visits to the UK and we can only hope we will be lucky enough to hear her perform again here in the future.

Paul is a musician of many talents.  Principally an organist and pianist he also studied clarinet at school, playing as a member of the County Youth Orchestra.  He studied music as his main subject at university, subsequently gaining teaching posts with responsibility for music.  For eight years Paul was a member of the BBC Chorus of Wales, taking part in concerts on radio and television and has trained and conducted school choirs, a Gospel male voice choir and is currently Musical Director of a local mixed voice choir.  He is a member of the Brecon Cathedral Singers and sings solo in local charity concerts.  During the past five years Paul has been studying the harp, currently with Eleri Turner who herself studied under the great Welsh harpist Elinor Bennett.  He now has a number of pupils of his own as well as teaching woodwind, guitar and singing to local schoolchildren.

Paul’s wife Anne also learnt to play the piano from an early age and as a teacher was responsible for music in school.  Paul and Anne enjoy making music together and Anne accompanies Paul’s solo singing.