She is an outstanding artist, one of the finest pianists now playing. Go, listen, and wonder how many better pianists there are alive in this country, or anywhere. So reported the critic in the Daily Telegraph about a recital by Imogen Cooper.

She makes a welcome return to the Richmond Concert Society after many years. Recently, she has been recognised by receiving the CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2007 and by being presented with the Instrumental award from the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society in 2008.

She will be performing music by a composer whose works she has been closely associated with for many years — Franz Schubert. His Moments musicaux are delightful miniatures and his G major Sonata is one of the greatest among the many sonatas that he composed. The recital will also include Bach’s Second Partita in C minor.

As a solo recitalist she has given concerts in New York, Chicago, Paris, Vienna, Rotterdam, Prague and at London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall. She has played with all the major British orchestras as well as the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

Imogen has a busy international career in a wide repertoire which includes recitals with singers, and it might be recalled that several years ago she performed Schubert’s Winterreise with Sarah Walker for the RCS.

This recital has been picked by the President of the Richmond Concert Society, Lady Panufnik, as this season’s “President’s Concert”.