Festival Music
Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis and Dénes Várjon
Queen’s Hall
Hazel Rowland
five stars
EXPECTATIONS were high for the coming together of three top performers – violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Dénes Várjon – and they certainly did not disappoint. Isserlis’s treatment of Schumann’s wistful melodies in his Three Romances was spot on. He took the first at restrained pace, striking a more reflective than overly emotional tone. Such an approach may have meant that the stormy central section of the second Romance could have been more aggressive, but his refusal to let melodrama reign worked astonishingly well in the third. Here, his understated playing found the perfect balance between being both more upbeat whilst still retaining an air of mystery. Similarly, Clara Schumann’s Three Romances revealed Bell’s more poignant side, who treated his melody with careful delicacy throughout.
If these two duos revealed the performers’ thoughtful sides, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in C minor brought an injection of passion. Although the ensemble took the first movement at a brisk pace, Bell still sung exquisitely. The following slow movement allowed the ensemble to show-off their lyrical qualities – the stunning duet between Bell and Isserlis was a treat – yet it was the third movement scherzo, also taken at a thrillingly fast pace, that was the work’s highlight. Not only was their playing spritely, it was highly impassioned, as the trio took full advantage of the movement’s dramatic dynamic contrast. Várjon in particular should be applauded for bravely undertaking such a rapid tempo. His part is already difficult, yet he handled it with flawless ease. Even if Brahms’s Piano Trio in B, which ended the concert, is more refined and gentle than Mendelssohn’s Trio, their full-throttled closure to its final movement provided a more than satisfactory, highly dramatic conclusion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here