{TABLE} Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, D385........................Schubert Six Songs to Poems by GoetheSchubert impromptu in D935 No 2.........Schubert Six Songs...........................................................Schube rt Fanatasia in C for Violin and Piano, Op. 159, D934..................Schubert {/TABLE} THE first of four chamber music concerts with Fionnuala Hunt (violin) in the Royal Hospital took the form of a Schubertiade, or session of Schubert's music. The performers were, as well as Fionnula Hunt, Roger Vignoles (piano), Franzita Whelan (soprano) and Stephen Varcoe (baritone). The latter replaced Joe Corbett who was indisposed.
This particular programme was devised by Roger Vignoles, but apart from his playing in each piece. There was little unity about the recital, and the alternation of the 12 songs between the two singers was unsettling. Franzita Whelan was very convincing in Gretchen am Spinnader, conveying that note of hysteria that is hinted at in the obsessive accompaniment; and Stephen Varcoe was fully alert to the mixture of despair and nostalgia in Der Wanderer.