King’s Lynn Festival Spring Coffee Concert with Maxim Calver (cello) and Kumi Matsuo (piano) - review

The first of three King’s Lynn Festival spring coffee concerts took place featuring two young professional musicians, Maxim Calver (cello) and Kumi Matsuo (piano), both having already performed widely in this country and abroad, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

Their recital at Lynn’s Town Hall was well attended by an appreciative audience who enjoyed a programme of music by Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.

Beethoven’s first Cello Sonata in F major, Op.5 was first to be played, not a work frequently heard, so a good choice, and played with verve, clarity and tenderness when appropriate. The sonata is substantial and quite complex at times for an early piece, but the musicians acquitted themselves with a fine performance.

It was then intriguing and engaging to hear lovely arrangements for cello and piano of five Schubert songs, sensitively interpreted, and the concert concluded with Robert Schumann’s comparatively well known Fantasiestucke, Op.73.

Three short romantic pieces, played poetically with grace and musicality.

The brief information given by the performers about the compositions during the recital was welcome.

I’m sure standards will be just as high when the Yehudi Menuhin School Ensemble perform at the next Festival coffee concert on March 17!

Andy Tyler