on 14 February 2026

Photographs by David Hogg of Horizon Imaging.

January flew by and it is already time for our Local Young Performers’ Soirée! Breinton buzzed and rocked with excitement as this year’s teenage musicians performed a fantastic recital. As always, we try to create a welcoming platform for our budding young performers with our friendly and appreciative audience members, where they can focus on sharing their music without the pressure of a competition or audition. I think all the performers rose to the occasion and delivered all they could.

It is always tricky to be the first performer, as they are often expected to set the mood and get the audience ready for the evening to come. Well, pianist Rinchen Posel was absolutely the right person for it.  Competent and poised, she set off with the first movement of Mozart’s C minor Sonata with a beautifully dark yet pristine tone and maintained it throughout. Attention to details and lyrical voicing was much appreciated. With Mendelssohn’s Fantasie in F-sharp minor, Rinchen captured the characteristics of this mysterious fantasy through skillfully created deep resonance. The dynamic finale possessed relentless energy, which the audience willingly received! Sandwiched by these dark-toned pieces was the delightful Butterfly etude by Chopin. This was effective programming as Rinchen showed a vivacious image of a fluttering butterfly.

Cellist Inez Karlsson took the stage next. It was a performance of controlled mastery and artistic beauty. I was impressed by her flawless flow of sounds – totally seamless. Also impressive was her acute awareness of rhythm. Be it Bridge, Cassado or Boulanger, her sharp sense of rhythm was evident, and when she played with accompanist Margaret Roberts, she was totally in sync with her. And talk about her spot-on intonation – there was not a single note or chord out of place. If there was, she was skillful enough to hide it! Her artistic expression was also great; I particularly liked Boulanger’s Modéré. And the edgy and highly rhythmical Vite et nerveusement rythme finished the first half of the evening in high spirits.

Pianist Nicholas Yang was in his element today. Starting with the jazzy Kapustin Prelude in F, he immediately broke the barrier between the performer and audience. His sensitive touch, which felt intrinsic, produced shiny tones and beautifully depicted Ravel’s water flow and ripples. Nicholas’ approachable personality and inquisitive nature really shone throughout, particularly in Chopin’s Nocturne in A-flat major - rolling out the exquisite voice of melodic lines, but at the same time letting in breaths of fresh air. The drastic change in the atmosphere was welcomed with the final movement of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No.2. The audience enjoyed the balance of intense aggression and the composer’s typical sarcasm.

Miriam Grant’s violin programme could not have been better suited for the finale of the evening, and she totally owned it. De Falla’s Spanish Dance was performed with fervent passion with a shrewd sense of rhythm, and I found the leaning emotional passages very beautiful. Then Szymanowski’s arrangement of Paganini’s Caprice No.20; bravo to Miriam for committing herself to an endless succession of double-stops with vibratos. She played them with a softly dreaming tone while connecting them flowingly. If you thought Spanish Dance was demanding with fiendish technical difficulty, we had much more to witness! What incredible fun it was to hear her Carmen Fantasy. Miriam portraited the vibrant and fiery Spanish passion, provoking a visual image such that I almost pictured an imaginary dancer in red frantically dancing before my eyes.

Well done to all the performers who participated!

We are hugely indebted to Margaret Roberts for her expertise in accompanying the instrumentalists.  We would also like to thank the Deputy Mayor of Woking, Cllr Rob Leach, for attending and his kind words at the end of the evening.

• Rinchen Posel, piano

  • Mozart:  Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, I. Molto allegro
  • Chopin:  Étude in G-flat major, Op. 25 No. 9 (“Butterfly”)
  • Mendelssohn:  Fantasie in F-sharp minor, Op. 28

• Inez Karlsson, cello
  Margaret Roberts, piano

  • Bridge:  Mélodie, Élégie
  • Cassadó:  Intermezzo e Danza finale from Suite for Solo Cello
  • Boulanger: Trois pièces pour violoncelle et piano

• Nicholas Yang, piano

  • Kapustin:  Prelude in F major, Op. 53 No. 23
  • Ravel:  Jeux d’eau
  • Chopin:  Nocturne in A-flat major, Op. 32 No. 2
  • Prokofiev:  Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14, IV. Vivace

• Miriam Grant, violin
  Margaret Roberts, piano

  • de Falla:  Danse espagnole from La vida breve
  • Szymanowski:  Caprice No. 21, from Three Caprices after Paganini, Op. 40
  • de Sarasate:  Fantaisie de concert sur Carmen, Op. 25