Once fresh-faced new kids on the block, now more like a favourite uncle and aunt, Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott have been making sweet music together for 40 years. A cause for celebration, yes, but there was sadness in the air tonight too, as the British pianist has decided to hang up her hat as a performing musician. This handsomely curated programme was by way of her final hurrah.
At the heart of the matter were two of the great cello sonatas: Shostakovich’s neurasthenic outpouring from 1934 and Franck’s fully sanctioned arrangement of his hyper-romantic A major violin sonata from 1888. Both works demonstrated the performers’ instinctual and intimate way of working together, each tilted slightly back, their heads almost touching.
