A recital by two outstanding musicians was guaranteed to fill St Peter’s Church in Stockbridge and Raphael Wallfisch and Simon Callaghan did not disappoint. Beethoven’s third cello sonata was played with poise and authority, the two players responding to one another in an almost conversational manner as the phrases passed between them. Wallfisch has a wonderful way of conveying the music’s nobility and, given the sonata’s dedicatee, one might say his playing was quite aristocratic. The two players moved from the lightest delicacy to the energetic rhythmic outbursts so typical of Beethoven – lovely playing from both of them.
Wallfisch then took to the stage on his own to perform Bach’s third Cello Suite, delivering the seven movements with grace and poise. The underlying dance element was perfectly conveyed as were the different moods of the movements. He captured the gentle melancholy of the Sarabande and the playfulness in the two Bourrées. Throughout the Suite there was an unerring feel for the harmonic structure of each movement.
‘Nigun’ by the Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch references the Hassidic Jew traditions. Bloch dedicated this rhapsody to his mother and since Wallfisch’s own mother (now 100) is one of the few living survivors of Auschwitz, his brief announcement before playing that this music meant a great deal to him gave his soulful performance added poignancy.
The American cellist who arranged ‘Nigun’ was Joseph Schuster and Wallfisch amused the audience with a tale of Schuster meeting Rachmaninoff, who was famous for his rather dour, expressionless face. This provided a neat link to Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata, a big virtuoso work that makes huge demands on the players. Callaghan had earlier shown delicacy and musical responsiveness in the Beethoven Sonata and now he had an epic expanse of technical challenges to conquer. This was wonderful playing, impassioned and heroic, yet also conveying the lyrical yearning in the quieter moments. Both players responded to the dramatic and emotional mood changes and their bold playing brought loud cheers at the end. Tchaikovsky’s ‘Valse Sentimentale’ provided a lyrical encore.
