THE Hathor Duo’s performance on September 20 will set the 2024-25 Nadsa concert season off to a rare start: it is ten years since a harp graced the Courtenay Centre platform. 

Young musicians, flautist Meera Mahara and harpist Lucy Nolan, both artists of distinction and prize-winners in their own right, explore together the extensive flute and harp repertoire.

Meera and Lucy are passionate chamber musicians, and have performed together at festivals across the UK and at venues including Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, Stoller Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Their programme will no doubt delight in its tradition and excite with the unexpected. 

Not only will the duo play pieces by well-known composers Saint-Saens, Ravel, Hamilton Harty and Bach, but will introduce the audience to works by Kjerulf, Donald Grant, Lili Boulanger and William Alwyn. 

Alwyn wrote his piece for the husband-and-wife duo Christopher Hyde-Smith and Marisa Robles in 1971. In it he sought to exploit the characteristics of the two instruments to the full. The result is one of the most substantial and virtuosic works ever written for flute and harp.  This climactic and brilliant work concludes the concert. 

Opening the concert, Bach’s flute sonata in G minor is one of the gems of 18th century flute repertoire. Joseph Bolonge de Saint-Georges (c1739—1799) brings another 18th century delight. He was a prolific composer, and fortunately his flute and harp sonata has survived. 

Irish composer, Sir Hamilton Harty, will bring big passionate tunes, drunken dances and romantic interludes; Scottish composer, Donald Grant, will add a slow air of melancholic beauty that could only sound more Scottish if played on bagpipes! Halfdan Kjerulf,  with his Synnove’s Song, will bring a folk tune from Norway; it will also be a rare opportunity to hear the duo play their version of Ravel’s haunting Pavane pour une infante défunte. 

Saint-Saëns’ Fantasie in A Major Op 124, originally composed for violin and harp, is a virtuoso piece for both players. The music is characteristic of Saint-Saëns as the traditional French composer: well crafted, clear, balanced and charming.

The shortest piece in the concert will be the delicate Nocturne composed by Lili Boulanger (1893 – 1918). Written when she was 18, Lili was already recognised for her phenomenal talent: she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for composition at the Paris Conservatoire with her cantata, Faust et Hélène.

Meera and Lucy’s performance, sponsored by the Torbay Recorded Music Society, takes place on September 20 at 7:30pm, in the Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot. All tickets must be booked in advance through the website: www.nadsa.co.uk