BUDE Music Society was delighted to welcome back Richard Uttley, the young, gifted concert pianist who gave a wonderful recital at Minstrels Music Centre on Sunday, November 20 to a large appreciative audience, writes David Robinson.

On the previous day Richard Uttley had been playing and recording in Leeds and he flew down especially to Newquay where he was picked up and driven to Canworthy Water.

The programme included works by J S Bach, Schubert, Scriabin, Schumann, Chopin and a contemporary composition by Chaya Czernowin and Richard introduced these pieces in a charming and amusing way which the audience found both helpful and so interesting.

The pieces all demonstrated musicianship and a phenomenal technique; the fingerwork was brilliant in the Bach and Schubert and he made the Scriabin sound so easy and convincing.

There were some memorable moments in the Schumann Waldszenen and the ‘Prophetic Bird’ was especially charming and effective in colour and shape.

The recital closed with Ballade No. 1 by Chopin and in addition to the dazzling scalic passages the range and control of tone and colour was evident in every phrase.

Everybody was thrilled and impressed by the sheer range and breadth of tone and colour.

A spokesman said: “Richard Uttley must surely have a really exciting career ahead of him, with his good hands, sensitive pedalling and wonderful memory and it well may be that the members of Bude Music Society will be able to say, that they heard this young pianist in Cornwall, in 2016. How lucky everyone was who came to this recital.”