Brighton Year-Round 2026

Oliver Nelson and Vasikis Rakitzis Violin and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton

Oliver Nelson and Vasikis Rakitzis

Genre: Live Music, Music

Venue: St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton

Festival: Brighton Year-Round

Low Down

Review

Violinist Oliver Nelson and pianist Vasikis Rakitzis are certainly luxury casting for the latest St Nicholas recital. Nelson is long-established and Rakitzis one of his frequent partners. Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall respectively they both hold other diplomas and doctorates from London University.

They play just two works. Schubert’s Violin Sonata in all but name, the Grand Duo in A D584, dates from 1817 when Schubert was 20. It’s an advance on his three earlier Sonatinas. Imposing with a Beethovenian introduction though. Characteristically drawn-out in Schubertian melodic phrases, it’s still though a relatively crisp classic envelope.

Nelson revels in such contrasts, though keen to keep the musical argument going. As is Rakitzis with a powerful eruption from the piano. The overall effect is to sharpen the late-classical contours and invest the Beethoven echoes with even more of his energy. Naturally Schubert gleams through and both hold the singing line. To great effect in counterpoint.

There is though an undoubtedly Hungarian motif drifting in at the end of the first movement and this more earthy element is heightened in the scherzo which follows, though this too stops and starts Beethoven style. It’s a true “joke” scherzo.

The song-like Andante is as you’d expect with Schubert a natural progression. Still there’s some unusual chromatic development and instrumental subtlety here. The most delicate and intricate in the work. Yet there’s declamatory heft too.

The finale’s joyous upswing oddly prefigures a witty Brahms song with its end-refrain “Guden nacht mein herr” to an over-eager suitor. In rondo form it’s also more Hungarian and a delight in its varietal light and shade.

Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Op.100 from 1886 being in the same key invites a risk of sameness. Luckily though it’s a relaxed piece full of a singing line and relaxed optimism. Reminiscent of the Symphony No 2 written earlier (1877) but in the same place that Brahms said he had to be careful not to tread on some plentiful tunes. As Nelson also says, Brahms was inspired by a young woman. There’s plenty of development though not the urgent kind seen  in the Third of just a few years later.

The slow movement is almost Schubertian given some heft with variation form and some off-centre chromatic rallies. It’s a satisfying song-like movement rare in Brahms. There’s pizzicato playfulness in one variation and instrumental variety that’s a delight. It ends on a panache of a fermata at some increased tempo.

The finale insinuates a homecoming with some dark Schubertian chords straight out of ‘Der Stadt’ from his final Heine settings. But this is fleeting if characteristic of a more chromatic palette as we head into the home strait. Throughout Nelson and Rakitzis keep an interplay of exuberance and sensitivity, allowing tonal contrasts to glow and instrumental timbres to flourish in their grain. You hear Brahms’ intricacy. He is here not “straining after” the serious or epic or “irritable fact and reason” as Keats memorably put it (not that that’s usually a bad thing in Brahms). Yet he achieves amplitude.

The duo close with a fine and relaxed work by – surprisingly – Paganini. This ‘Cantabile’ is in fact a song-like Italian ray of bel canto worthy of Rossini or Donizetti, even Bellini in a light vein. A perfectly executed encore from a consummate duo as Nelson’s tone fades to a perfect pianissimo to gentle chords from Rakitzis. Perfection in a warm spring day.

Published April 8, 2026 by Simon Jenner