Helen Godbolt & Sarah McKenna

Performers

Notes on the performers

Sarah McKenna

Sarah studied the violin with Howard Davis, Winifred Roberts and Lesley Hatfield before studying music at Exeter University where she led the University Orchestra. She completed her musical studies with a postgraduate performance course at the Royal Academy of Music winning the coveted John B McEwan prize (awarded to the best string quartet of the year) and coming second place in the Theodore Holland and Max Gilbert prizes.

Her solo performances include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Exeter and Truro Cathedrals and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. Although normally performing as part of a string quartet her chamber music experience also includes performances as a string trio and a series of violin and piano recitals in and around London.

Sarah’s commitments include performances with the Regent Quartet and Reflection Strings together with freelance orchestral work and teaching. She continues to receive coaching from Peter Thomas, former leader of CBSO.

Helen Godbolt

Helen Godbolt started playing the cello at the age of 8 and went on to gain a music degree at Manchester University (studying cello with Bernard Gregor-Smith from the Lindsay quartet), and a post-graduate diploma on ‘cello at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Here she formed the Regent Quartet with Sarah McKenna, Caryn Cohen and Suzanne Casey and performed with them for over fifteen years.

Professional work has been with a range of ensembles, including the City of London Sinfonia, The English Festival Orchestra, Longborough Opera, and Kanye West at the Brit Awards. Recent solo performances include Kodály Sonata in Tring and in Shamley Green, Surrey, and the Kodály violin and ‘cello duo with Sarah McKenna. Based in Tring, she works as a freelance professional player, performing with orchestras and chamber ensembles nationwide as well as teaching a broad range of students.

Programme

Programme notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Edited by Dietrich Berke)

Duet in G major KV 423

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Rondeau

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Duo No. 1 in G major for violin and viola, K. 423, the first of the two Mozart wrote to complete Michael Haydn’s set of six for the Archbishop Colloredo. It was written in the summer of 1783.

Source: Wikipedia

Zoltán Kodály

Duo for Violin and Cello op. 7

1. Allegro serioso, non troppo
2. Adagio
3. Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento- Presto

The Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 models perfectly the cross-pollination of Hungarian folk materials and the formal structures of art music. Its opening pentatonic melody falls into the Dorian mode, while a contrasting theme, alternating melodic phrases and pizzicato accompaniment, sounds Aeolian. Intensely heartfelt lyricism, which occasionally bursts forth in deep torment, courses through the Adagio. The middle section employs a “trio” texture: the cello provides the bowed soprano melody and a plucked bass accompaniment, while the violin spins an active countermelody in the alto range. Kodály’s Magyar-styled finale simulates the radical tempo changes of the verbunkos (recruiting dance) style with its exciting alternation of slow (lassu) and rapid (friss) sections.

Source: Kai Christiansen

Handel/Halvorsen

Suite no. 7 in G minor for harpsichord

1. Passacaglia

The last movement of George Frideric Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in G minor (HWV 432) is a passacaglia which has become well known as a duo for violin and viola, arranged by the Norwegian violinist Johan Halvorsen. 

Source: Wikipedia