King’s College, Cambridge
Britten Sinfonia / Nicholas Cleobury

The Cambridge Music Festival has been marking the 25^th Anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death. On his birthday the Britten Sinfonia under Nicholas Cleobury knocked out a programme of old favourites. The concert’s highlight was a committed performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 by the phenomenal cellist Guy Johnston. This is a work in which the cello is harried to the top of its register by sniping woodwind, ominously plodding bassline and nagging rhythms. Johnston caught its nuances of neurosis and resigned romanticism with a sympathy amazing in someone aged 20.

 Robert Thicknesse