Leora Cohen & David Gray in Chichester

 Leora Cohen & David Gray, Chichester Cathedral, Mar 24

There might come a time when, due to climate change, thousands of years of literature and music will need to be annotated with footnotes explaining the characteristics of the seasons described in such things as Chaucer, Vivaldi and Keats's Ode to Autumn. For the time being, though, they are still more or less recognizable and this year in the UK, Spring arrived exactly on time and with it some musical programmes to mark the event.

As with several of his pieces, it wasn't Beethoven that gave the Spring Sonata its name and he might not have had it specifically in mind in the abundance of the Allegro. The sharing and coherence of Leora and David together belied the fact that he was a late stand-in for the advertised pianist. The Adagio was indeed molto expressivo, captivating as I think (did it?) shift into the minor key and it might most credibly have been a nocturne. After a capricious Scherzo, it turned out to be the cheery, classical Rondo that I, for one, went home with playing on repeat in the memory.

It is a measure of Beethoven's colossal status that such a piece would count as a major item in the oeuvre of many lesser names but would take some time to arrive at when listing his. I'm glad to find that the Violin Sonatas are on my shelves - these days I can never remember- and so I'm grateful for this reminder to go back to them.

Grieg's To Spring was sonorous and song-like, Leora's violin rich over David's finely modulated piano but one imagines Lili Boulanger's D'un matin de printemps was where their technique was more thoroughly tested. Mercurial and flighty but with spaciousness in its more extended lines, it was possibly the most Spring-like piece, being 'changeable' as the day's sudden turn back to cool and overcast reminded us that it can be.