Salut d'Amour concert - Satoko Fukuda (Violin) and Daniel Swain (Piano)

The concert (at St Martin's, Trafalgar Square) had a very modern, glamourous feel. It was a classic simple format handsome young male pianist and very sexy, stylish, and very beautiful violin player. She was the star, she played with passion and too my ear was quite perfect. 

Programme:

• Elgar - Salute d' Amour
  
• Massenet - Thais Meditation
  
• Massenet - Elegy
  
• Gershwin - Bess You is My Woman Now
  
• Gershwin - It Ain't Necessarily So
  
• Aurthur Benjamin - Jamaican Rumba
  
• Piazzolla - Bordel lo 1900
  
• Eduardo Martin - The Havana Suite
  
• De Falla - Spanish Dance
  

The setting was glorious, St Martin's in the Field is a beautiful building, solid old fashioned wooden pews, large white walls and beautiful gold work. The end window has an interesting modern effect, like an odd structure from a modern advanced physics textbook.

Musically, the performances was beautiful and passionate / sensitive. I particularly liked the Elgar and Massenet.

Here is some background for these two young stars:

Satoko Fukuda (Violin) and Daniel Swain (Piano)

Satoko was born in Japan and she moved to England aged nine to study the violin at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Royal College of Music. Since making her Concerto debut at age thirteen, she has performed worldwide, and in UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Albert Halls. Most recently featured in the London Fashion Week as a soloist, and the London Jazz festival, TV appearances include BBC Culture Show and SKY Classics, Japan. Radio Broadcasts include Classic FM, Resonance FM and BBC Radio 1. Prizes include English speaking Union Prize and Ian Stoutsker Prize given to the most outstanding violinist of the year. Satoko is a recipient of the Concordia Serena Nevill Prize and continues to work closely with the Concordia Foundation in the UK and internationally and has just returned from Cuba where she performed in Concordia Foundation's concert The Still Voice Sings Within at Amadeo Roldan Theatre in Havana and with the renowned Cuban guitarist Eduardo Martin performing one of his celebrated compositions with him at the Basilica San Francisco de Asis in Havana. Satoko is a Concordia Foundation International Ambassador.

Daniel read Music at St Anne's College, Oxford winning a Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He graduated with the highest honours and an 'Award for Excellence', and was subsequently awarded a Junior Fellowship. He has performed in many of the major London venues including the Wigmore, Cadogan, Queen Elizabeth, and Royal Festival Halls, the Purcell Room, the churches of St-Martin-in-the-Fields and St. James', Piccadilly, the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, and the Millennium Centre, Cardiff, and has also performed with such internationally acclaimed artists as cellists Alexander Baillie, Leonid Gorokhov, and Tim Hugh, the tenor Daniel Norman, and violinist Hideko Udagawa. He performs regularly in venues across the UK as a Live Music Now! Fellowship Artist, and has also given recitals in Sweden, Norway, France and Italy.

Daniel has won numerous awards and prizes for his work with singers and instrumentalists, including major awards from the MBF and Craxton Memorial Fund. He was a finalist in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Duo Prize in 2006 and also recipient of the 2007 Royal Overseas League Parnell Award and JBR Trophy for accompanists. His recordings to date include the Violin and Piano Sonatas of Hubert Parry and the Chamber Music of Imogen Holst.