• Alison Stephens mandolin
• Steven Devine piano

The modern metal-strung mandolin goes back to the middle of the eighteenth-century, and has a considerable repertory from the Classical period, including some youthful pieces by Beethoven and important works by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a pupil of Haydn and one of Beethoven’s major Viennese rivals.

In this informal programme, which will be introduced by the performers, Alison Stephens and Steven Devine contrast sonatinas by Beethoven and Hummel’s Grand Sonata in C major with the Concerto, op. 113, by the Neopolitan Raffaele Calace (1863-1934), the most prominent late nineteenth-century exponent of the mandolin.

Alison Stephens is its leading exponent in Britain today, and is best known for recording the soundtrack of the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. She gives recitals regularly in Britain and abroad, often as a duo with Steven Devine. Their recording of music by Calace will be released this summer by Naxos.

‘Alison Stephens clearly loves this instrument and plays it with a passion and flair that Captain Corelli himself would doubtless have relished.’ – BBC Music Magazine