Cellist Laura van der Heijden was last year’s recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society instrumentalist award, consolidating in style her BBC Young Musician win in 2012, when she was just 16. As a shining role model to musicians of her generation, her collaboration with the young professional talent of Sinfonia Cymru – here in string ensemble mode and on a short Welsh tour – was always going to be inspiring.
Van der Heijden had assembled an unusual mix of music, opening with a series of pieces associated with the stuff of fairytale by way of prelude to the Cello Concerto by Dobrinka Tabakova. From Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Les Démons – plus foot-stamps and knee slapping for percussive effect – the sequence moved seamlessly through Grace Williams, Caroline Shaw, Hildegard von Bingen and Pablo Casals to Maurice Ravel in a persuasive and atmospheric flow. Disarmingly, Van der Heijden had placed herself not out front but in the position of principal cello; the quiet authority of her gestures and an easy rapport with Sinfonia Cymru’s leader Haim Choi, found her occasional solo lines – as in Casals’ Song of the Birds – emerging with effortless grace.
