Big sound from the Red Cello and its master

Cello Suite No. 3 in C - Bach

Suite for two cellos - Samuel Zyman

Sonata Op 8 for cello - Kodaly

Carlos Prieto, with the "Piatti" or "Red" Cello, made by Stradivarius in 1720, attracted an exceptionally large audience to the Hugh Lane Gallery on Sunday. It is a large instrument and sounds even larger because of its rich and powerful tone, and proved to be equally well adapted to the baroque and the modern.

Bach's Cello Suite No 3 was played with a strong rhythmic sense and just a suggestion of drama to heighten the effect. The meditative quality was there, particularly of course in the Sarabande, but the feeling of dance predominated.

Kodaly's Sonata for cello is also related to the dance, but in a wilder, Hungarian way. Its folk inflections and harmonic audacities found an able interpreter in the Mexican Prieto, whose own folk heritage would have made him sympathetic to this music.

The programming of two acknowledged masterpieces of the solo cello repertoire, along with Samuel Zyman's suite for two cellos, placed him in distinguished company, but his work had neither the melodic appeal of the Bach nor the colour of the Kodaly. To perform its European premiere, Carlos Prieto was joined by William Butt. Zyman was born in Mexico but his work has none of the exoticism that, rightly or wrongly, one associates with that country. It seems closer in spirit to the intellectualism of Hindemith, and the weaving links of the two cellos made patterns that hardly escaped from emotional aridity.