Classical Preview: Viola player Power demonstrates rare talent

With viola players having been the butt of unkind jokes since time immemorial, the thought of setting out as a globe-trotting high-profile solo player is pretty risky.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Dec 2010, 12:29 BST
Updated 17th Dec 2010, 12:30 BST

Yet that was exactly the role Lawrence Power chose after studying in America and being chosen for a place on the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. The Stradivari Trust, perceiving a rare talent, entrusted him with the permanent loan of a remarkable Italian viola that has just celebrated its 400th birthday, its unique tonal quality doing much to establish his career.

All of this came together when he was looking for that rare place on the concert circuit, one of his problems being the limited number of viola concertos available.

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The answer comes with new works being written for him, one promised by the fashionable James MacMillan.

Together with Simon Crawford-Phillips, pianist of the highly acclaimed Kungsbacka Trio, the duo arrive next month at the King's Hall to open the second half of the Ilkley Concert Club season. They will perform sonatas by Brahms and Rebecca Clarke, together with Marchenbilder by Schumann, and five pieces arranged from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

Upcoming club events include a February visit from the London Bridge Ensemble in a concert much devoted to Frank Bridge.

The April concert will feature the Michelangelo Quartet – its members including another world-class viola, Nobuko Imai – playing Schubert, Shostakovich and Beethoven

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Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips, King's Hall, Ilkley, January 5, 8pm. 01943 609744.