Cellist, Evva Mizerska, and pianist, Emma Abbate, Kendal Town Hall

Making their début at Kendal Midday Concert Club were the young cellist, Evva Mizerska, and her duo partner, Emma Abbate. Both players are multiple prizewinners; both have well-honed techniques and play musically and yet there was a sense of disappointment about this recital. Evva Mizerska produced a lovely tone on her cello but, either she needs a more powerful instrument to project her sound to the back of a large hall, or she needs to work on her projection. There were times during this very attractive and well-chosen programme when, sitting near the back, one felt that the cello was too distant.

The pair opened the programme with Beethoven’s delightful variations on a theme from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Immediately it was obvious that the two players were used to working together. The ensemble playing throughout the recital was good and both players seemed to have the same approach to the music.

Schumann’s lovely Fantasiestück, Op73 came next. Evva’s fluid style of playing suited the first two pieces but the third piece (marked in the score ‘quick and with fire’) needed much more passion to make an impression. Her slurring of the opening passage, which is usually played detached, suggested that she was playing from a different edition to that used by most cellists.

Following the Schumann, we heard Phantasiestücke, Op12 by an English composer whose name was probably new to nearly everyone in the hall. Sadly, most of Algernon Ashton’s music (he is known to have written about 350 works) was destroyed when his home was bombed in the Blitz, but this three-movement work survived. Lyrical, and reminiscent of the English pastoral style, it was good to hear a new work in the cellist’s repertoire.

The concert concluded with a sensitive performance of Debussy’s late Cello Sonata. Again, both players reacted to Debussy’s detailed marking with sensitivity. It just needed more projection from the cellist to be totally convincing.

Clive Walkley