PIANIST Yasmin Rowe captivated her audience at St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth, with a memorable performance of music by Bach, Bartok, Beethoven and Schumann in an excellent start to this year’s Wensleydale Concert Series, writes Pip Land.

Well known for her eclectic performances, this was certainly true in the first half contrast between Bach’s Partita No 2 in C Minor and her commanding and dramatic rendition of Bartok’s Suite for Piano Op.14.

Highly memorable was the second movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No 7, Op. 10, with her fluent use of the full range of the keyboard to share phases of melancholic depression offset by fleeting moments of joyful, tingling highs.

She ended with an exuberant and enjoyable performance of Schumann’s Humoreske Op. 20.

The next concert in the series sees Tanya Anisimova in a solo cello recital on May 12 which will include works by J S Bach, Marais, Kodaly and her own compositions.

Carol Haynes, of the WCS, has arranged Anisimova’s first visit to the UK. Her itinerary includes leading a masterclass in Carperby Village Institute on Saturday, May 12, and a cello workshop on Sunday, May 13.

Anyone attending the masterclass and workshop (£65) will receive a free ticket to the concert at St Andrew's Church.

Anisimova will also give a solo recital at Ushaw College Chapel in Durham on Saturday, May 19, followed on the Sunday by a Schumann Cello Concerto study day with the Cobweb Orchestra at Eldon Community Centre; for details of her British tour see the Wensleydale Concert Series website.

The next three WCS concerts are all at Aysgarth church: the Treitler Quartet with pianist Nico de Villiers on Saturday, June 16; a clarinet and piano recital by Peter Cigleris and Martin Cousin on Thursday, July 12; and a recital for violin and piano by Martyn Jackson and Petr Limonov on Saturday August 11.

There are three more concerts in the series, two of which are afternoon ones in Carperby Village Hall – The New World String Trio on Sunday, September 9, and baroque instrumental and vocal music with the Eboracum Baroque on Sunday, November 4.

Two favourites of the WCS series, pianist Daniel Grimwood and violinist Fenella Humphreys, return on Saturday, September 29 for a chamber music concert at Aysgarth.

As part of a fundraising idea of the WCS (now a registered charity) they have agreed to participate in a concert with two amateurs – Michael Cave, a superbly talented flautist, and Carol Haynes, making her debut as a cellist in a chamber concert.

A season ticket costs £75, equivalent to a saving of two concerts on the advance booking price of £12.50 or three concerts at the door price of £15. See wensleydaleconcertseries.co.uk.