Many Toronto Symphony Orchestra musicians fan out in their free time to perform in chamber ensembles. The overall quality of musicianship is so high that, when the experience is distilled into an intimate setting, the results can be particularly powerful.
That was the case on Tuesday night as Toronto Symphony principal cello Joseph Johnson presented a sold-out recital at Yorkville’s Heliconian Hall with pianist Victor Asuncion.
It was a deeply satisfying concert experience.
The duo, whose collaboration goes back to before Johnson arrived in Toronto three years ago, has made a fantastic recording of cello sonatas by Sergei Rachmaninov and Dmitri Shostakovich. This was a fine opportunity to hear this duo play the Rachmaninov work live in Toronto.
But there was much more to the programme, which included the Ludwig van Beethoven’s Variations on “Bein Mannern,” Benjamin Britten’s Op. 65 Cello Sonata (written for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1961), and Three Meditations from Mass, adapted by Leonard Bernstein after the 1971 premiere of the larger work.
Some of the music, like Beethoven’s, demanded Johnson and Asuncion show off a subtle dexterity and dialogue. Britten and Bernstein’s pieces threw all sorts of technical challenges at the cellist — yet Johnson and his pianistic collaborator also found the deeper musical message throughout.
And then there was the emotionally extroverted, sweeping, wholehearted Rachmaninov sonata from 1902, where the two musicians found a way to express the exuberance within a sensible, controlled form of expression.
Johnson and Asuncion were capable of such a wide dynamic range, such sensitive dialogue and careful shaping of forms large as well as small that the music was a treat from beginning to end of the programme. Both also adapted effortlessly to the different style of each of the evening’s pieces.
I would have been perfectly happy to sit through the whole programme all over again — and, judging from the audience’s reaction, most others felt the same.
The Toronto Symphony may not always be adept at reaching out into the wider community, but its musicians are — at the very highest level possible. And that’s how and why the organization is so important to this city’s musical life.
John Terauds