by Peter Bevan

THE internationally renowned pianist Angela Hewitt is to return to Darlington next year in the first of two special memorial recitals for David Robson, who was this newspaper’s principal reviewer of classical music over several decades.

Mr Robson, who died in May, was heavily involved in the promotion of music across the region for many years as concert secretary of Darlington Music Society, a founder member and concert secretary of Darlington Piano Society and an advisor to Northern Arts and the Arts Council.

He was also regional secretary and tours organiser for the National Federation of Music Societies, now known as Making Music, and all these elements came together in his efforts to promote Angela Hewitt. Though already recognised as an outstanding performer of J S Bach’s keyboard music, having won the 1985 Toronto International Bach Competition, she was, surprisingly, not yet established on the UK concert circuit.

Now Miss Hewitt is regarded as one of Bach’s foremost interpreters of our time and plays in all the major cities around the world but, as she said in an interview after being awarded the OBE in 2006: “Nobody knew me when I arrived in London more than 20 years ago”.

When she learned of Mr Robson's death, she immediately offered to play a memorial recital for him in Darlington, saying: “I am always grateful for what he did for me in my first years in the UK … and I know how much he loved my recitals.”

This included several recitals and master classes in Darlington, first for the Music Society and then for the Piano Society, as well as others he encouraged further afield in Stockton and Durham.

Mr Robson reviewed those recitals in these pages where he described her “sheer, refined musicianship”, “subtle gradations”, a Ravel Miroirs which was “blended and coloured with a skill that few pianists can equal” and of his and her beloved Bach, “few pianists can equal her in Bach but none surpass in her ability to hold an audience enthralled”.

In 2001 he reported that almost 350 people had waited uncomplainingly for up to an hour outside Darlington Arts Centre to hear her until an electrical blackout had been traced and repaired.

The subsequent performance brought “clarity, variety and supreme vitality ... the music imbued with something beyond mere style, indefinable almost.”

It was thanks to his sterling efforts that music lovers in the town were privileged to see Miss Hewitt so many times. Thanks to her generosity, she will give a recital at 3pm on Sunday, March 15, in Central Hall in the Dolphin Centre, presented jointly by Darlington Music and Piano societies.

Programme details are still being discussed, but it is likely to consist of works by Beethoven and Bach.

Angela Hewitt is not the only musician to be grateful for Mr Robson’s support. Pianist Richard Markham, violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch and cellist Raphael Wallfisch have also offered to give a memorial concert.

This will again be presented jointly by the two societies and will take place at 3pm on Sunday, May 17, also in Central Hall.

The programme has just been agreed and consists of Bach’s Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, for solo violin, Beethoven’s Sonata for cello and piano in A major, Op. 69 and Brahms’ Piano Trio in B major.

Tickets for Angela Hewitt’s recital go on general sale in the new year but will be available to anyone attending either of the two societies’ next concerts in Central Hall – Mishka Rushdie Momen (3pm on Sunday, November 30) and Ariana Kashefi and Timothy End (7.30pm, Sunday, December 7). Ticket arrangements for the second memorial concert will be announced soon.

Demand for both memorial recitals is expected to be high with representatives from many other music societies wishing to pay their respects to a passionate music lover who did so much for the cause of live music in this area.

  • Fuller details of the two societies’ current seasons can be found at dpiano.co.uk and dms.btck.co.uk.