Russell Thompson

Review of Concert at St Mary’s by Russell Thompson on January 21st 2024 at 4pm This was our first concert of 2024. We were pleased to welcome Russell Thompson’s back to St Mary’s after he enchanted us all with his recital in 2022. On a dark, wet and windy January afternoon we were again dazzled and amazed by Russell’s technical brilliance, his ability to make the extremely difficult appear easy and his deep understanding of the emotions and meaning of each piece. The pieces were all played with immense verve and virtuosity. We were treated to JS Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Mozart’s Sonata in C Major, Rachmaninoff’s Preludes in C# Major and B minor and a glorious set of Chopin pieces, Grande Waltz Brilliante Op 18, Polonaise in A Major Op 40 No 1 and Ballade No 1. Russell announced the Chopin section with ‘And now Chopin, we are going to have Fun!” So we did. My own favourites were the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# minor, a wonderful evocation of Moscow and the Kremlin Bells, the Rachmaninoff Prelude in B Minor inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s "Die Heimkehr” (the Homecoming) and the structurally complex Chopin Ballade No 1 which made a wonderful finish to the recital. We look forward to Russell’s next visit to St Mary’s in 2025. I would also like to thank the audience for battling through the rain and wind to attend the concert.

Review of Concert at St Mary’s by Russell Thompson on September 3rd 2022 at 19:30 Russell Thompson’s recital was technically brilliant and involved pieces that were very complex to play and very thrilling to hear. The selection of pieces from composers from the Classical Era reminded the audience that the Classical Composers not only wrote the lyrical Classical works which are the best known today but also pieces that are much darker and more epic. Underlying lyrical themes fought with layers of disconnected dissonance, questions were asked repeatedly and the answers were never satisfactory, mortals and immortals could not fall in love without being doomed in Mozart’s Sonata in C Major (K330), Chopin’s Etudes No 3 and No 12 from Opus 10 and his Ballade No 3 and Liszt’s Trancendental Etude No. 10. Matching the style of these pieces were the more modern compositions of two of Gershwin’s Three Preludes and James Horner’s “Theme from Krull”. There were also lighter pieces of music, Russell played a delightful Impromptu of his own composition, dedicated to his wife of a fortnight, Trudi, and, for an encore, his own arrangement of She Danced With Me from The Musical Film The Slipper and the Rose (Richard & Robert B Sherman). The audience thoroughly enjoyed the recital and we hope Russell will return and play for us again in the future.