The comparativist

Cellist Finley Spathaky and pianist Tristan MacWhirter gave the penultimate recital in Christ Church’s Midweek Music series this afternoon to an audience of nearly 150 discerning listeners. Mr Spathaky bookended the programme with solo works: Bach at the (metaphorical) curtain-raiser, Gaspar Cassadó the dazzling closer. Everything pivoted on the Bach's «Cello Suite n.º 3 in C major, (BWV 1009); the Cassadó, however, was the belle of the ball: a piece performed with so much Spanish flair that a few audience members said “y olé” towards the tail-end of the performed third movement of the «Suite for Solo Cello», the intermezzo e danza finale— a fiery «jota». Another highlight was Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne «Op. 19, n.º 4» (from the «Six Pieces»). Here Mr MacWhirter’s piano finally seemed to embrace the cello rather than wrestle it into submission— a relief after Brahms’s «Cello Sonata n.º 1 in E minor (Op. 38)», during which I found myself (not entirely unlike the anecdote Mr Spathaky ...