RAPHAEL Wallfisch and John York performed at Newton Abbot’s Courtenay Centre, reaffirming Newton Abbot and District Society of Art’s position as the premier promoter of a season of chamber music concerts in the south west.

The capacity audience doubtless had high expectations for the performance of these internationally and critically acclaimed performers: they were not disappointed.

It’s difficult to know why some performances can be singled out as something special, but when the artists have supreme greatness they exude an embracing confidence. Raphael and John had no need for flamboyant gestures or exaggerated rubati, our connection with the composer felt immediate.

The light-hearted and lyrical way the concert started was with Schumann’s Funf Stucke im Volkston, lively and dancelike.

How the contrast with the second piece (Langsam) was so perfectly achieved was remarkable.

Then we had Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in D. However many renderings or times one had heard this work previously, this was a moment to treasure. The first movement was sublime.

Emphatic chords of the second movement seemed to challenge the romantic sentimental style, however, this was soon reasserted by the development of new melodic themes.

The third had the delicate business of a rain theme, as well as a continuation of the second movement’s theme and tantalising hints of the first movement.

Raphael in his introduction after the interval congratulated NADSA for promoting such successful concerts and said ‘long may it continue’ – sentiments echoed by many.

Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No 4 in C opened with an Andante that in the hands of Wallfisch and York was a smooth balanced dream. The Allegro vivace burst forth upon us and continued to challenge the senses with wild changes of dynamics.

The final work was Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Cello and Piano which tied for first place (with Ernest Bloch) in a 1919 competition.

The audience was spellbound, but erupted into applause which was rewarded by an encore. John York said that after ‘all that’ we probably would like something calming, and they played an early work by Rachmaninov, a prelude for cello and piano. Indeed it was calming.

We all knew that Raphael Wallfisch and John York’s natural habitat is the heady world of the international musical stage. It was very heartening to experience their performance at our provincial venue at Newton Abbot and eagerly look forward to a return visit.

– JRC

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