The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Spoilt as we are, at Hampstead Parish Church, we are getting used to professional recitals by the musicians who actually work there, but it was very nice to have one from a professional musician from the congregation, Czech cellist Jan-Filip upa. Sadly it was a goodbye, as well as, for some of us, a hello, as he will be moving on in the summer.

The hour-long recital began with a sonata by Luigi Boccherini, probably best known as Minuet Man. This sonata was called “L’Impératrice”, as a compliment to the great Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria [and more]. On hearing that a Vienna theatre had a brilliant young cellist, aged 18, she summoned Boccherini to play before her. We can imagine her, in one of the vast, magnificent gowns over huge panniers, in which she was regularly painted, in the flickering candlelight at Schönbrunn, no doubt with some of her court around her, while this young chap showed what he could do. And his career took off from there. In this sonata, he likes to make use of the upper range of the almost human voice of the cello. Ye Lin, playing the basso continuo, kept a stylish pulse, while the cello carried long, singing lines in the Largo. In the second Allegro it wove in and out of the continuo like a flying shuttle, so fast was the music. But Jan-Filip never lost his way!

Ye Lin them took centre stage for 32 variations in G minor by Beethoven. After one of Beethoven’s thundering opening, variation after variation swept along, often with amazing power, with Ye Lin always in calm control of what she was doing. At one point we moved into a still pool of sound, and then we were swept on again.

We then turned to Brahms’ sonata for Violincello and Piano No 2 in F. I am sure there has never been a string player yet who hasn’t broken a string in public – you can’t be a star if you haven’t! – but Jan-Filip changed his string with cool aplomb. I have said elsewhere that Brahms loved low voices, and he treats the cello just like one. Brahms has his own distinctive colour-world, with a lot of purple and crimson, and the same pulse that drives forward songs like “Meine Liebe ist grün” drove the first movement. Ye Lin’s momentum at the piano spurred the cello on. The opening of the second movement with pizzicato [new string vital here!] was a gorgeous sound, and when the bow took over the theme it seemed a natural progression. A display of the amplitude of the lower range of the cello led to pizzicato on the top, this time.

“Passionato” in the third movement meant just that, and once again a song, “Von ewiger Liebe” sprang to mind, with Brahms using the same slowing to gentleness for the cello as he does for the singer. In the last movement, Jan-Filip treated us to some more pizzicato, and as well, there was a hint of Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances” hovering in the air!

The recital ended with a Rondo by Dvo ák. We were told this was Dvo ák’s farewell piece before he left for America in 1892, and more Czech it could not be! At any moment, you expected to hear the patter of red boots up the aisle, and to be invaded by gorgeous traditional costumes. Then it turned to that particularly Central European Weltschmerz, because Dvo ák was going away. Some of the bouncing on the strings irresistibly made you think of a folk band, while the piano swelling behind the cello had a gypsy-like quality and indeed Dvo ák wrote some most effective Gypsy Songs. Love of country is always very evident in Czech music, and having twice had the pleasure of visiting there, I can see why.
We wish Jan-Filip success in his country, with such a distinguished musical tradition, and beyond its borders. We also wish Ye Lin an interesting career in a country with an ancient and completely different musical tradition, which is now producing artists who are highly skilled in European music too.
Suzanne Pinkerton