Toad Lane Concerts: Clarice WingYin Pang clarinet, Johanna Leung clarinet & Ellada-Angelina Pavlou piano

Ellada-Angelina Pavlou, Johanna Leung and Clarice Wing-Yin Pang

The Toad Lane Concerts audience welcomed an all-star trio of international musicians: two clarinettists and a pianist, to St Mary's on 19 June 2024.

Johanna Leung is a Manchester-based clarinettist with a master’s from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). She gives solo and chamber music performances including at GAIA Festival of The Earth, The Sound of Contagion (a collaborative project between the University of Oxford and the University of Arts, Berlin).

Clarice Wing-Yin Pang, a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, is a Hong Kong-based clarinettist who performs with its renowned orchestras. She is also a keen educator and conductor.

Ellada-Angelina Pavlou is a notable Greek pianist who graduated from the Trinity-Laban Conservatoire, London, took her master’s at the RNCM, and is now based in Vienna.

Mendelssohn’s Concert Piece, Op 114 was a wonderful opening for the trio. Beginning with bursts of energy before a beautiful reflective section then flying off in carefree abandon. Both clarinets showed their fluent and playful characteristics with a dynamic piano backing.

Johanna then played the Allegro amabile from Brahms’ Sonata Op 120, her mellifluous tone throughout an extensive range was again partnered superbly by Ellada.

Following these two German composers, Clarice played the Polish Lutosławski’s Dance Preludes for solo clarinet and piano, fascinating evocations of dance themes exploiting the instrument’s varied colours.

Finally, these three sensational soloists combined in Russian Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano, transcribed for clarinets and piano. The compelling dance movements nearly had the audience dancing in the aisles, but they had to make do with creating tumultuous applause for a remarkable globetrotting exhibition of music and music-makers.

The Queen’s 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. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.

To see details of forthcoming Toad Lane Concerts, click here.

Dr Joe Dawson