Dear Music-lover,

As a pre-Christmas treat, our December concert featured the third appearance of the Katona Twins, Peter and Zoltan. To a well-filled hall, they opened the first half with two of Scarlatti's short sonatas arranged for 2 guitars, as with all the other works, by the duo. They continued with more modern composers, each, to my mind, illustrating the Katonas as true magicians of the guitar. The audience was spell-bound - one, a youngster sitting in front of me, was mesmerised; when one of the twins produced a brilliant scale or a flashing arpeggio, the boy would nudge his father in wonderment.

The interval was filled with mulled wine, mince pies and happy conversation. The second half started with a work composed specially for the Katonas by Derek Charke. One of the twins (don't blame me - they are truly identical) explained the theme - time - marked by bells very effectively sounded by a CD played over the Town Hall P.A. system. Their final work, the Piazolla suite, included this piece of magic.

As my email, next day, to the committee said, "It says a lot about the evening, when there's a long queue at the door to get in; when you have to shoo them back at the interval; and when the audience demands an encore - something must be right!"

We start 2008 in a completely different mode - a brass band! Well, not exactly - the Lancier Brass Quintet, winners of the Tunnell Trust award, play for us on Friday, 11th January 2008. See you there,


Paul Crowe