Well, that was a very special evening. Just an ordinary club night with our excellent resident singers and musicians, a raffle and a piano recital.

Joanna Bywater and Matthew Rickard delighted the audience (approximately 50/50 folk/classical, all the young faces on the classical side of the audience) with arrangements of British folk songs by Moeran, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Ireland plus country dance tunes and Playford from Warlock and Howells.

I don't think the audience had heard so many traditional songs sung in one evening - classical arrangements are certainly brief and to the point! It was an education and an entertainment. The audience enjoyed the obvious pleasure and excitement Joanna and Matthew were getting from the songs they were performing (much of it was new to them, they had come together and created the recital just for us!) and they really enjoyed the informality and warmth of the folk club.

P.S. Benjamin Britten arrangements of folk song over-elaborate?! Have you been to a Bellowhead concert lately?