Guy Johnston performed Britten’s Cello Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo at the BBC Proms on 28th July. Here are a selection of reviews from the performance
The concert is available to listen again on BBC Radio 3 for the next 2 months:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002z81p
Reviews:
‘The consummate cellist Guy Johnston proved an ideal advocate for Britten’s extraordinary work. His playing possessed an almost spectral transparency… His eloquence was never overstated; every phrase was shaped with extraordinary subtlety, sensitivity and restraint. There was something uncanny about the purity of his sound, an almost weightless quality that made the cello appear detached from ordinary instrumental expression.’
Seen and Heard
“Johnston was masterful throughout, performing both beautiful phrasing and bristling technique.”
The Upcoming
‘thoughtful and poetic…Johnston gave us some magnificently direct double stopping, along with more poetic moments including lovely tremolando over orchestral fragments.’
Planet Hugill
‘Soloist Guy Johnston stayed scrupulously, sensitively faithful to the composer’s conception’
The Guardian
‘the Passacaglia, gradually building tension into an extraordinary cadenza brilliantly executed by Johnston’
London Unattached
‘rhapsodically angular phrases… The busy cello solo, and the splintered rapidity of the orchestral response in the second movement were delivered with impressive accuracy.’
Music OMH
‘Johnston’s encore was movingly wonderful … Johnston’s pensive song floating in the hall’s stillness came with added emotional resonance’
Bachtrack
‘First performed in Moscow in 1964 before an audience that included Shostakovich, its technical demands are correspondingly high. However, Guy Johnston took all of this in his stride, putting his own personal stamp on the work and relishing the moments of delicate chamber-music dialogue with the timpanist and principal trumpet’
Plays to See