*Montville-born cellist Sam Lucas and South African pianist Berta Brozgul will perform together again at Lucas Parklands, Montville, in March.*

*Sam Lucas with his rare cello, more than 250 years old, on a flight last year to Australia. The cello is so rare, it cannot be stored in the cargo and must have its own cabin seat.*

After a hiatus motivated in part for fear of a repeat of last year’s summer electrical storms and floods, world class classical music is again returning to Lucas Parklands in Montville.

Local product, world-class cellist Sam Lucas, is returning home to headline concerts in March and April, he will be accompanied by South African pianist Berta Brozgul, and then Latvian violin sensation Sophia Kirsanova and acclaimed pianist Daniel Le.

Sam will again be playing his rare and beautifully toned circa-1720 Nicolo Gagliano cello - generously loaned to Sam by the “Robert Schumann Hoschule”, a Rhineland Music Academy - and estimated at more than 250 years old.

Sam and Berta will play an intricate and challenging program at Lucas Parklands on March 22.

“The two main pieces on the concert program are the Schumann Fantasie pieces for cello and piano – that’s a major work for the two instruments,” Ian Lucas, of Lucas Parklands, said.

“And, of course, there will be Beethoven’s last cello sonata, Sonata No. 5, and it’s also a monumental work – not written long before Beethoven died, and he was most certainly deaf when he was inspired to write it.

“Berta will also play a major work again by Schumann as well called ‘Carnaval’ and it’s a famous virtuosic piano work, so it will be a lovely afternoon.”

Sam and Berta have played together on several occasions, including at Lucas Parklands in 2022.

“The moment I started playing with Sam, we just hit it off immediately, and it’s become one of my new all-time favourite concert halls to play in,” Ms Brozgul said after their concerts together.

“We’re both very committed to what we are doing but it’s obviously great fun to get away from solo performing and get together, and I think we challenge each other, we just really enjoy playing together.”

The sentiments were echoed by Sam: “It’s not always the case when you come across another player that everything just clicks immediately.

“‘Music is a language all of its own’ and, if we interpret the music the same way, we understand each other immediately, and I think that was the case, so playing with Berta has been a great honour.”

Sam will also return to Lucas Parklands to play concerts at Montville on April 1 and 2, with Sophia violin and Daniel piano.

“The program has been designed to highlight the cello and violin; the piano will have an accompanying role in a very virtuosic way, because the stuff is very hard, and mostly we’ll have three instruments on stage, and never less than two – it’ll be great,” Ian Lucas said.

“The repertoire we’re presenting - includes Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’, a work a truly virtuosic work, it’s the peak of the violin repertoire with piano that Sofia is playing - is sensational.”

Ms Kirsanova is in Australia at present, teaching at the Melbourne Conservatorium. “The more she performs in Australia, the more sought-after Sophia is,” Ian explained.

“I’m glad we engaged her while she was still relatively new to the Australian scene because I’ve noticed she’s becoming more and more popular and very much in demand, which is great for her and I’m glad local music lovers will get to experience her performances at Lucas Parklands.

“Our visiting pianist Daniel Le will accompany all items except the Passacaglia, which is written for violin and cello as a massively difficult duet.”

Mr Lucas noted that concerts scheduled over the past two summers had been disrupted by fierce electrical storms on the range, which prevented some patrons from attending and certainly impacted Sam’s climate-sensitive cello.

“You think how dry the wood must be in his cello, being over 250 years old – it comes out of a dry winter climate in Europe into a humid summer climate in Australia, and suddenly the wood expands, the glue blasts, it’s no-one’s fault but it just happens because that’s the way it is,” Ian Lucas explained.

“Sam and his cello are very intimate friends, so he instantly notices any changes caused by expansion in the instrument’s timbers.

“This cello is made from a combination of different wood and each piece adapts to the change in climate at a different speed and in a different way, the geometrical tolerances are already minute so in Queensland there are expansion tensions applied to the instrument that aren’t normally there in Europe.”

Concert Programs

The program for March 22:

Sam Lucas cello, Berta Brozgul piano, present, Fantasies and Sonata’s
Schumann - Fantasie pieces, cello and piano
Beethoven - Sonata for Cello and Piano no.5
Prokofiev - Sonata for cello and piano in C major
Tedesco - Figaro, Concert-Rhapsodie on Rossini's "Barber of Seville" for Cello & Piano
And the bonus performance by Berta of Schumann’s Carnaval