Sunday June 16th 3.00 pm

Robin Michael (cello) Daniel Tong (piano)

Beethoven: Cello sonata no 1 in F Op 5 no 1

Beethoven: Cello sonata no 2 in G minor Op 5 no 2

Beethoven: Cello sonata no 3 in A Op 69

Beethoven: Cello sonata no 4 in C Op 102 no 1

Beethoven: Cello sonata no 5 in D Op 102 no 2

Admission free with retiring collection. No tickets issued beforehand

Robin Michael studied at the Royal Academy of Music with David Strange and Colin Carr and later with Ferenc Rados. He is principal cellist in Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Solo cellist with Orchestre Les Siecles (Paris) as well as regular guest principal cellist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, RTE Concert Orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, English National Opera and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Robin was the cellist in the Fidelio trio for over 10 years with whom he toured Europe, North America, Asia and South Africa. He has also appeared in collaboration with the Dante and Eroica quartets. Recent concert highlights include complete Bach and Britten suite cycles in France and London, the South Korean premier of Jonathan Harvey's 'Advaya' for cello and electronics, both Haydn concertos at the Spier festival in South Africa as well as festival appearances in Buenos Aires, Library of Congress, Washington, and European festivals including Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and St. Magnus. Forthcoming projects include a recording of the Brahms sonatas with Daniel Tong, a Bach suite cycle at the St. Magnus festival and the first Kinnordy Chamber music festival in Scotland where he is co-artistic director with Daniel Tong. Robin plays on a cello made for him by the German luthier Stephan von Behr, 2010.

Daniel Tong was born in Cornwall and studied in London. His musical life is spent performing as soloist and chamber musician, as well as directing two chamber music festivals, teaching and occasionally writing. He has appeared at many of the foremost British venues and festivals and has also performed in festivals in many other parts of Europe as well as concert venues in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Antwerp and Lyon. He is frequently heard on BBC Radio and his performances have been broadcast throughout Europe and beyond. His project ‘Music Discovery Live', in collaboration with musicologist Richard Wigmore, has seen a series of lecture-recital weekends on Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann piano works. In autumn 2012 he was invited to curate an Elgar festival at Kings Place in London and he also curated a Dvorak programme there in 2014. He has also presented lecture-recitals on Beethoven piano sonatas at St Georges. His London Bridge Ensemble has established itself as an exciting presence on the UK music scene, combining different combinations of strings, piano and voice to form challenging and inspiring programmes. Their most recent CD, the two Dvorak piano quartets, has been met with great acclaim. In 2009 they established their own festival in Winchester. Last year they were resident at St John's, Smith Square in London. Each year Daniel plays with an array of wonderful individual artists, often at his own chamber festivals, in Winchester and also in the Wye Valley. Founded in 1999, the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival attracts many of the most exciting chamber musicians of the younger generation. In 2015, Daniel teamed up with violinist Krysia Osostowicz for Beethoven Plus, presenting the ten sonatas by Beethoven for violin and piano alongside ten new pieces, each written by a different composer as their reaction to one of the Beethoven works. They have recorded the series. Daniel also recorded the Brahms Cello Sonatas with Robin Michael and works by David Matthews and Faure with violinist Sara Trickey.

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