Sonata for Cello and Piano............................Britten
Sonata for Cello and Piano..................Shostakovich
Sonata for Cello and Piano.........................Debussy
Whatever one's opinion of Britten's Sonata as music, it offers a superb opportunity to the cellist to display both the power and refinement of the instrument. Gavriel Lipkind produced an astonishing variety of colour and subtlety of phrasing which could not be matched by the piano, no matter how ably played by Andrei Roudenko.
The skills of both were fully availed of in a cogent and moving performance of Shostakovich's Sonata. It was as if this work had a personal meaning for both of them, whereas the Britten was an arabesque, a decorative exercise.
The movements of the Shostakovich were linked by their intensity of feeling and made a progressive narrative, like the acts of a play.
There were also six short pieces by Russian, Jewish and Spanish composers followed, arranged by Lipkind because they seemed to spring from, or be inspired by, folk traditions. The aim appeared to be to show that classical music did not spring from nowhere, but had its roots in the soil. This was instructive, but rather overbalanced Monday's recital in the John Field Room, which contained three substantial pillars of the repertoire.
In Debussy's Sonata, the composer's vein of fantasy was fully appreciated, and the relationship of this music to the paintings of Watteau and the poetry of Verlaine was palpable. Both players had the requisite sympathy and lightness of touch to make every nuance speak its meaning without disturbing the onward flow. This was chamber music of a high order.
