Four hands to the aid of the Mayor's fund for The Tumour Charity - duettists' piano recital at St Peter's Church

Acclaimed piano duettists Berendina Cook and Matthew Stanley will be performing at St Peter’s Church on Sunday, September 13 to raise funds for the charity the Town Mayor has chosen for her mayoral year: The Brain Tumour Charity.

Earlier in the year, Berendina spoke movingly in the Town Hall when Councillor Margaret Rose launched her charity appeal following her Mayor Making ceremony. She promised then to come back to perform with her piano partner on St Peter’s much respected grand piano.

Berendina (the name, if you are wondering, is Dutch) told Marlborough News Online that she and Matthew met as undergraduates at London University’s Royal Holloway College, where they were reading music: “We were both keen performers, but in extremely different styles – Matthew prefers the bombast and fireworks of Liszt and Rachmaninoff, I prefer the subtleties of Mozart and Bach!”

“Friends, fed up with the competitive nature of our arguments about piano music, suggested we might play as a duo and combine our sins and virtues. We did – and it worked.”

“We were accepted as BBC Debut Artists, made several recordings and broadcasts and won the International Piano Duo Competition in Tokyo.”

The music they are playing at the St Peter’s Church recital ranges from a late Mozart Sonata, through the Petite Suite by Debussy, an unusual piece by York Bowen (Suite in Three Movements), right through to an arrangement for piano duet of Gershwin’s ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue.

York Bowen (1884-1961) was an English composer and pianist. Early in the last century, during his most productive years, he was nicknamed ‘The English Rachmaninoff’ – so we can be fairly certain that his Suite in Three Movements was Matthew’s choice for their Marlborough recital.

Berendina and her husband Graham Norton became involved with the Brain Tumour Charity when their 14-year-old son, Michael, was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumour over the Millennium weekend: “A weekend we will never forget. Sadly, Michael was dead within a year – he was a remarkable boy. For his funeral, over 700 people filled Guildford Cathedral, where he had been Head Chorister.”

“The experience was so devastating for everyone who knew him that my husband and I felt that we could not leave it there. We have both been trustees of the Charity for several years, and our commitment to finding a cure for this appalling disease remains total.”

In her life away from performance venues, she is Berendina Norton (widely known as ‘Berrie’.) She is Professor of Academic Music and Pianoforte at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. There she is responsible for the academic side of the musical training of Army musicians who go on to play in military bands.

Matthew Stanley is Visiting Lecturer in Performance, Accompanist and Piano Teacher at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The recital starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 – and can be bought at the White Horse Bookshop, Henry George or Sound Knowledge. Or from the Town Mayor: margaretrrose@hotmail.co.uk or 01672 515500.