St Nicolas Church, Pevensey, Saturday 27 April 2019
Italian Harpist Gabriella Dall’Olio brought a charming and highly romantic programme to a comfortably full St Nicolas, which included some unexpectedly local connections. She has worked for some time now with composer Paul Lewis, who was present to introduce his own works, many which have also been recorded by her and were available at the concert.

But we were given a whirlwind tour of nineteenth century Europe to encase the more recent works, opening with a brief but delightful Andantino e Allegro Brillante by Rossini, followed by Parish Alvars’ Serenade. Gabriella Dall’Olio was playing a double action orchestral harp at this concert, which has a full range of tone and dynamic intensity. Parish Alvars was a formidable harpist in his own right and expanded the repertoire and technical finesse of the instrument, which was finely demonstrated in the changes of mood and texture she found in the Serenade together with the swirling glissandi.
Paul Lewis introduced his Postcards from Paris of which we heard the first two. Moonlight in Montmartre is a gently enfolding waltz, while Left Bank Nocturne is a more soulful, not to say introspective, vision of the heart of Paris’ intellectual life. We are promised Postcards from Bologna – and I am sure they will arrive soon. The first half ended with Felix Godefroid’s operatically expansive Etude de Concert.
Many members of the audience spent the interval talking to Gabriella and looking more closely at the harp, showing so much interest that it was agreed that there would be a short Q&A session at the end of the evening.
Grandjany’s Rhapsodie hinted at the composer’s strong organ-playing background, and he certainly demands a wide range of tone from his performers, but it was Guridi’s Viejo Zortzico, with is elegant 5/4 rhythms, which raised the spirits. It was then time for more from Paul Lewis in the form of his Saturday Night Jazz Suite. The three short pieces are deceptively simple on the ear but have more than enough musical integrity to be taken seriously. The suite opens with a laid-back Jazzette followed by a tribute to Harpo Marx in Blues for Harpo which even includes two brief look-no-hands passages, where the notes are controlled by the pedals rather than the deft fingers of the soloist.
It concludes with Blue Fiver – a tribute to Dave Brubeck and another piece in 5/4 – which would easily have satisfied any of the audience, but Gabriella was persuaded to add an encore, which she did in the shape of John Marston’s Humming Bird. If anything, this summed up both her professionalism and ease of delivery. It literally charmed the birds out of the trees and brought the evening to a warmly satisfying conclusion.
The next concert is on Bank Holiday Monday at 12.30 when organist Shari-Ann Bolton will play popular organ voluntaries.