Themes and Variations

Album review

Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Tom Poster met at a competition in the year 2000 and have frequently performed together, becoming favorites enough to propel this release to top chart levels. The title Themes and Variations is to be taken in a general way: a few of the pieces are indeed themes and variations, but mostly the "themes" are those that the pair have explored as performers, and the album has the flavor of a set of favorites regarded nostalgically. The result is an album of short pieces that would have been, in its basic nature, familiar as a recital program a hundred years ago, although there are a couple of more contemporary pieces. Sample the transcription for cello and piano of James MacMillan's wonderfully lyrical Kiss on Wood, which the performers note marks the end of the program proper. The well-worn Vocalise in C sharp minor, Op. 34, No. 14, of Rachmaninov, and the still more familiar The Swan from Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals are encores of a sort. Prior to that, the program intersperses variation sets among warm Romantic melodies (one a Schubert song, with James Gilchrist), with the only really virtuoso effusion coming with the youthful Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3, of Chopin. The album was recorded at a recital hall at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, a venue that holds sentimental value for the performers but is actually not ideal for this music: there is too much instrument noise, and the sound is a bit harsh. Nevertheless, this is a comfortable Romantic recital of a very high standard.
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