Sonata in A minor, Op 23 - Beethoven

Sonata in G, Op 78 - Brahms

Variations on a theme by Hamilton Harty - David Byers, Deirdre McKay, Philip Hammond

Sonata in A - Franck

The Belfast Music Society is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. The society was originally part of the British Music Society, a UK-wide organisation established by Arthur Eaglefield Hull in 1918; the change of name in Belfast was made to reflect more recent political realities in Northern Ireland.

The 80th birthday programme was given at the Great Hall of Queen's University in association with the Belfast Festival, and a new work, a set of variations on a theme by Hamilton Harty, was commissioned for the occasion from four Belfast composers, David Byers, Deirdre McKay, Deirdre Gribbin and Philip Hammond.

In the event, the work performed included only three variations, and no explanation was proffered in Elizabeth Bicker's spoken introduction. The theme, the Wistful Song movement from Harty's 1928 Suite for cello and piano, was arranged for violin and piano by Byers, whose own variation explodes the material to create a lively Scherzo; Deirdre McKay's slower treatment keeps the violin in flight over subterranean piano; Philip Hammond sets up a bluesily mechanical pattern which manages to incorporate an element of rhythmic intrusion like a Nancarrow study for player piano.

The new music was ardently performed by Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe within a programme where the ardency of the playing frequently got out of hand - the venue's acoustic is simply too lively for the amount of sound these dynamic players attempted to project into it. Yet, in spite of the fact that Roscoe took a no-holds-barred approach with the piano lid up, the balance between the two instruments was actually more than acceptable.

What was less acceptable was the hectoring quality the playing acquired at the frequently explored louder end of the dynamic spectrum. Little is a player with a true feeling for legato and long-spun lines, and Roscoe approaches the voicing of the piano parts with lively musical intelligence and a real sense of active partnership. But, within the evening's standard repertoire offerings, it was only in Franck's Sonata in A that the driven quality of their music-making seemed to sit at all comfortably with the music itself.