THE North York Moors Chamber Festival took Sturm und Drang – Storm and Stress – as its theme for 2016, the name which expressed the essential concept defining the Romantic Movement and rocking 19th Century Europe.

Formality was no longer strictly observed in literature, poetry, the visual arts and music. It was acceptable to express personal feelings and passion in the arts, and Schumann’s work is an outstanding example, demonstrating as it does his intensely emotional and fragile mental state.

The opening work was Schumann’s frantic, spellbinding Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor op 121. This burst upon us in a dramatic explosion of music from the violin of Rachel Kolly d’Alba, who presented an equally dramatic visual effect with her blazing red hair, alabaster skin and emerald gown.

Her transfixing performance was enhanced by the strong contribution of Clare Hammond’s excellent accompaniment demonstrated by her impressive piano entry in the second movement together with the violin.

Kolly d’Alba is a physically expressive performer, swaying and rocking, alternately frowning at and coaxing her instrument into compliance. She did full justice to this great music.

Schumann’s Piano Trio No.1 in D minor op 63 again opened strongly. What a gift Schumann had for grabbing our attention. This was a beautifully balanced performance with evenly shared strengths displayed by the instruments – Adam Johnson on piano, Tamsin Waley-Cohen on violin and Jamie Walton on cello.

It is a joy to attend a performance of great music like this, reinforcing the realisation that, for all the excellence of our high-tech devices bringing music to us, nothing really touches the real thing – live performance.

The third item on the programme, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor op 50 featuring Adam Johnson on piano, Thomas Carroll on cello and Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay on violin, included a beautiful entry with piano and cello followed closely by the violin.

The piece has strong Russian characteristics, with Tchaikovsky’s unmistakeable piano chords and soaring strings in gently diminishing rhapsodic harmony. The second movement demonstrates all Tchaikovsky’s Russian passion as well as his mercurial sense with strong passages resolving once again into sweetly flowing melodies in addition to the strong central theme holding the piece together.

This is a highly expressive work with the strings having fun "zip-zipping" intermittently with the piano.

Schumann was dramatic, powerful and moving. Tchaikovsky was all of those and also fun.

There were great show-off passages for all three instruments, rounding off the work in fine style. This was a powerful performance throughout with the audience reluctant to let the artistes leave the podium.

It was a phenomenal concert from beginning to end with an outstanding performance by all the musicians.

Irene MacDonald