THE festival’s Young Musician series began particularly well with cellist Laura van der Heijden who many will have seen when she won the BBC Young Musician 2012 at Sage, Gateshead.
Accompanied by pianist Alison Rhind, she presented an attractive programme in this recital, drawing a good crowd.
They opened with Schumann’s Fantasiestucke, Op. 73.
Piano and cello were particularly well balanced, even in the delicate ending to the second piece and even though the third and final piece had a livelier ending the emphasis seemed to be on producing a flowing, musical line.
Ligeti’s Sonata for solo cello was clearly a challenging work with the opening Dialogo providing an interesting framework for some contrasting sections. Here and throughout the concert Miss van der Heijden made even the most difficult passages look effortless with an admirably unstressed technique.
Though most of the focus in the publicity was on the young cellist, the Brahms Sonata No. 2 for piano and cello was a reminder that this was an equal partnership where the piano often takes the lead.
On both this and the Schumann, I thought the players were particularly well matched, clearly agreeing their musical approach and managing the quick changes of tempo and mood together very well.
An encore of a Nocturne by Tchaikovsky particularly brought out the cello’s singing tone.
Van der Heijden returns to Harrogate on March 21 to play Shostakovich’e 1st Cello Concerto.
Peter Bevan
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