The perfect concert demands more from the performers than sheer musical ability. Personality, presentation and a rapport with the audience are the other necessary ingredients and Klio Blonz (flute) and Gabriella Dall’Olio (harp) provided the complete package in their performance at the Cavendish Hall.
Their playing was, of course, excellent, but they also provided background information for the music and generally engaged with the audience in a very natural and personable manner and the audience responded warmly.
They began with the Andantino from Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto, the familiar themes being taken up by the two instruments, the liquid sound of the harp interweaving with the pure tones of the flute. The following Donizetti Sonata was by turns both lyrical and jaunty. Then came Gabriella’s solo piece – Around The Clock Suite by American composer Pearl Chertok. This proved to be a virtuoso performance, the player’s hands moving like shadow puppets across the strings and perfectly evoking the New York jazz era. Gabriella’s introduction was a concise explanation of the capabilities of the modern harp.
The first half closed with Doppler’s Fantaisie Pastorale Hongroise, descriptive of the 19th century Hungarian countryside and full of birdsong and folk melodies.
After the break came Vivaldi’s sonata in E Minor, originally written for cello. Here the flute was in the foreground, but with a very intricate harp background. Then came a sonata from Gino Rinaldi, best known as a writer of film music – a piece depicting “sunshine and happiness”. Katherine Hoover’s “Winter Spirits” proved to be a very atmospheric solo for Klio, full of Native American influences and then came “Greensleeves” in a version which Gabriella revealed had been transcribed by her father – actually a motor mechanic, but with an innate musical ability.
A pair of South American folk songs completed the set before the duo said farewell with an encore from the same region – Piazzola’s lively “Libertango”. The audience, understandably, responded with a tumult of warm applause.