CLASSICAL pianist John Paul Ekins will perform the final Nadsa concert at Newton Abbot’s Courtenay Centre on April 17 bringing an end to a season that’s over all too soon.

John Paul is a pianist in demand: a busy schedule throughout the year. He has experience in the concerto world and in intimate recitals as soloist and accompanist. A psychotherapist as well as pianist, he loves to weave stories, to take his audiences on a journey to be witnesses to what he describes as the soul of the music.

His recital will present the final solo piano works of Mozart, Brahms and Schubert: Mozart’s - Sonata in D, K.576, Brahms’ - 4 Piano Pieces, Op.119 and Schubert’s - Sonata in B flat, D.960. He has called his concert ‘A Composer’s Farewell’.

Belying his original intention to write an ‘easy’ sonata for Princess Friederike of Prussia, Mozart’s last sonata is perhaps the most technically difficult keyboard piece he ever wrote. Did the princess ever play it, one wonders? Written in 1789 at a time of deep financial hardship, it marries delightfully popular melodies with dazzling contrapuntal craft.

Brahms’ - 4 Piano Pieces, Op.119 were composed in 1893 during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl, Upper Austria. A collection of exquisite miniatures, brief meditations on last things, they were premiered in London in 1894.

Schubert’s towering and final sonata was composed just over a year after the death of Beethoven and two months before his own death at the age of 31. The legacy of the monumental Beethoven was immense: an inspiration, yet daunting for any young Viennese composer. Despite illness, Schubert had no idea that the autumn of 1828 would be his last; in that final year he produced some of his most profound works.

Tickets for the 7.30pm concert, which is sponsored by Austins Department Store, must be bought in advance: online at www.nadsa.co.uk or, failing that, at 01626 717730 (10am – 5pm).