BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness / 19th February 2003

Conductor Martyn Brabbins was the compere on the night that the cellist Guy Johnston won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award in 2000, playing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1. The pair have been looking for an opportunity to perform that piece together ever since, and it finally arrived in Inverness on Wednesday. It proved worth the wait. As on that night in Manchester, Johnston played this powerful piece with an impressive blend of technical mastery and expressive depth. The intensity of his playing in the outer movements was matched by the lyricism of the slow movement and cadenza.

Kenny Mathieson