This was Gregory Drott’s second visit to the Concert Club. The first visit was on 19th November 2025 as the accompanist to Emma Johnson the Clarinettist. The members were impressed by his playing and engaging personality and so he was invited to perform for us again.
Gregory began with a musical “hello” and this was the Praeludium being the first section of The Holberg Suite by Grieg. I agree with Gregory there isn’t a nicer way of saying “Hello”.
Gregory then introduced the music he would play during the first half of the concert. He continued with the Holberg Suite and then swept into Schumann’s Liebeslied “Widmung”. Oh it was glorious! What a wonderful wedding present for Clara.
We then heard Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor Op 3 No 2 followed immediately by a firm favourite of mine – Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Well, we had all been impressed with Gregory as an accompanist but he was superb as a soloist.
After the interval we had another musical “hello”, this was the Prelude from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque. Gregory then described the music he was going to play for us. He continued with the remainder of the Debussy and this was followed immediately by the amazing “Chanson de Nuit” and “Chanson de Matin” by Elgar both beautifully played and very much enjoyed by the members. Then we had Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances”, this was exciting stuff and then, we had something completely different – Stravinsky’s “Tango”. Gregory described this very picturesquely as “music by Picasso”. He wasn’t far wrong! At the end of this piece Gregory declared “Modern music done!” We then had a more familiar tango by Piazzolla, his “Libertango”. The concert ended with a Jazz Suite of Songs by Gershwin – A Foggy Day, Embraceable You and It Ain’t Necessarily So”. This last was beautifully arranged by Gregory.
We had an encore. Yes we did! It was Elgar’s “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations and was the perfect end to a perfect concert. Gregory received a tumultuous round of applause and I hope that he will come and play for us again.
CM