Fairfield Halls Lunchtime Recital
Fairfield Halls, Croydon / 4 February 2003

One wonders for how much longer this Tuesday series can sustain the impetus established by recent performers who are setting an extraordinarily high standard for the successors to match.

This week it was the turn of the young cellist Guy Johnston who famously achieved some greatness on television by continuing, apparently unfazed, when a string broke during the BBC Young Musician of the Year finals in 2000.

Such phrases, seen on the programme note as “Johnston is one of the most exciting young talents to emerge in recent years” sounds like a publicist’s work, but that really does say it all.

He gives an air of total devotion to the music he is playing at the time, with an astoundingly sharp musical focus.

One suspects that had he played a selection of scales he would have made them sound special. Debussy’s Cello Sonata was certainly special. Johnston had just the right amount of power without over-weighting the music and losing its ethereal quality.

At this point, the other star of the show must be brought into the limelight for Tom Poster (piano) was more than a mere accompanist, rather an equal partner for the whole event. Both players addressed the audience with charm enough to win them over in no time, but had they not said a word, their personalities shone through in their playing anyway. We, the audience, happened to be there while they had a good time matching each other’s high standards, simply and obviously enjoying the job hugely.

Schumann’s attractive miniatures Adagio & Allegro required and received a quite different kind of warmth, suggesting that there was a good deal more character under the music’s surface that many previous performances by far more famous people have revealed.

Howard Thomas