{TABLE} Arioso .............................................. Bach Song without words, Op 109 .......................... Mendelssohn Sonata for cello and piano in F, Op 99 ............. Brahms Papillon, Op 77 .................................... Faure {/TABLE} THE bright and airy library of the RDS made a pleasant setting for last Tuesday's lunchtime recital in the spotlight on youth series. The absence of artificial lighting and of a stage helped to create that intimate atmosphere so suitable for chamber music.
In Bach's Arioso and Mendelssohn's Song without Words Hanno Strydom showed that he could make the cello sing in, a way that would be the envy of many a voice and in Faure's Papillon he gave evidence of his technical expertise. Never showy, and gifted with melodic sense, his playing erred a bit towards the demure and the sonata by Brahms lacked inner fire.
A delicate lyricism marked this performance and arguments could be advanced in favour of this reading the composer, in nostalgic mood, was trying to recapture his, lost youth Brahms's romanticism has been given too much emphasis in the past. Nevertheless the lyricism is most effective when framed by passages of forcefulness without force the whole begins to sound bland.
Patrick Zuk (piano) adapted himself to his partner's style with uncanny receptiveness, and the recital was certainly one of the best I have heard in the spotlight series.
