Toad Lane Concerts: Samuel Kane (violin) and Hector Leung (piano)

Samuel Kane, violin, and Hector Leung, piano, at St Mary in the Baum

Toad Lane Concerts welcomed rising star violinist Sam Kane and pianist Hector Leung to St Mary's on Wednesday 3 November.

Sam Kane, winner of the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year, is currently in his 4th year at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). He led the Ulster Youth Orchestra and also performed with the Ulster Orchestra as part of their Professional Experience Scheme. He recently made his solo debut performing Bruch’s 1st Violin Concerto with the Manchester Beethoven Orchestra. Sam also has a strong passion for composition, having performed his own pieces at St James’ Palace, London, and at the Charles Wood Music Festival in his hometown of Armagh.

Pianist Hector Leung is already in great demand. Having excelled as a solo pianist he has also distinguished himself as an accompanist. Having won first prizes in both the International Pianist Association and the Youth Piano competitions in Hong Kong he studied at he RNCM and achieved both a Masters degree and FRSM diploma with distinction. Additionally, he became Junior Fellow in Accompaniment 2019-21. A mark of his resilience as well as merit was to partner more than thirty-five Final Recitals at the RNCM within May and June alone (this during the pandemic) in addition to other concerts.

Sam’s maturity of tone breathed new life into Mozart’s Violin sonata in e minor K.304. The superb playing of the duo produced a profound performance of the Second movement of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. With Hector’s empathetic support Sam demonstrated that he can embrace a major work of this kind and put his own stamp on it. The audience was enraptured.

The rest of the programme consisted of five pieces by Elgar, Sursum Corda (Elevation), Salut d'Amour, Mot d'Amour, Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin. This set of popular salon pieces could come in handy should Sam wish to make a compendium CD around Elgar’s Violin Concerto and sonata.

This wonderful concert owed much to the glorious acoustic of St Mary’s, which both players acknowledged.

The award-winning Toad Lane Concerts are every Wednesday at 12.30pm at St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. No refreshments available at the moment, but the venue is Covid-19 secure. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.

Dr Joe Dawson