IT’S good to see that musical organisations such as the Hoylake Chamber Concert Society are racing towards their centenary season.

True, for this organisation, it’s a bit of a way off, but for such a society to be embarking on its 81st season is something to be celebrated.

And celebration it was, with a riveting opening concert, given by violinist Eleanor Fagg accompanied by Alisdair Beatson on the piano.

They played four sonatas, all varied in style, but excellent examples of the composers’ art. The opening work – Mozart’s F major Sonata – proved a fascinating curtain-raiser.

From the fast-moving first movement where there was excellent interaction between the players in a piece which proved that perpetual motion is, indeed, a possibility to the delicate set of variations in the middle movement, there was much to delight in this performance.

The finale to this work was restrained and stylish, showing a rare intimacy of performance styles in the two players.

The great conversation which opened Beethoven’s G major Sonata, Op 96, turned into an intensely expressive slow movement and a hugely playful scherzo.

There was also some particularly lively and succinct playing in the finale.

The valedictory mood of Debussy’s Sonata in G minor – his last work – was dramatic and, in the finale, placed huge demands on both players.

However, the real meat of the recital came in the last piece, Brahms’s large-scale Sonata No 3 in D minor.

The first movement mixed moments of serene grandeur with outbursts which felt almost angry and quizzical.

The middle movement combined power with a real feeling of wistfulness, while the finale built into a blaze of glory, but not without something of the sadness which the piece exuded throughout.

GLYN MON HUGHES