The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 940, 16 August 1957, Page 22

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

COMPARATIVELY rare bird is the solo cellist. His plumage is not as gaudy, his mannerisms not as marketable as tho f his light-fingered brethren of piano or violin; and so he is usually doomed to sing out his soul in the brown\depths of the orchestral forest, only occasionally emerging into daylight. When he does, then there is a furore as though he were the first cuckoo. One of the difficulties that beset him is the attainment of a sufficient technique, because there is no other instrument that magnifies so blatantly small disturbances of intonation, or smallet harmonic squeaks, I often feel that Casals must coat his bow with emery rather than mere resin to produce his sure robust masculine tone. One member of this uncommon species has taken flight here: he is Guy Fallot, who, with his pianist sister Monique, has been playing to us for the past week or so (YC link programmes). Fittingly enough, they began with a joint appearance with the Netional Orchestra, conducted on this occasion by Nicolai Maiko, when he played a concerto of Haydn, and she ; one by Ravel. Each in its own way was | revealing: that for cello in its lovely }\ singing tones and formal discourse, and

that for piano in its shimmering and sparkling impressions, both the more pleasing in their support by an unusually sure-footed orchestra. The pair were shown effectively to be a partnership of equals, rather than virtuoso and accompanist. Their recitals have hovered between the classic and the modern, A sonata of Loeillet displayed the cello’s tone while remaining unremarkable musically: and I think that much the same comment can apply to the sonata by Fauré, because whatever understanding is given to the French nature of such pieces, and however much insight is put into their playing, no one can improve on a work which, though no doubt beautiful, remains doggedly undistinguished, The Schumann Pieces in Popular Style were a rousing success, as usual, but some of the best work heard was modern. There was the A Minor Sonata of Hindemith, soggy at times, but quite seyerely classical in line, and abounding in contrapuntal features that emphasised the unity of the players as well as that of the piece. Honegger’s D Minor Sonata was perhaps more brusque, but at the same time more unbuttoned, giving the performers’ imaginations free rein. I’m pleased we are to hear more from this talented pair.