Festival Intelligence
THE CELLO CONCERTO was less successful, Here the fault lay with the soloist, Janos Starker, who neither ,showed any sense of Elgarian phrase nor cast new light on the music with a convincing interpretation in another style. Barbirolli tried to introduce an authentic note whenever he could, but aroused no response in the soloist. The work inevitably was Pulled to pieces between them. It reminded me of somebody's comment on a performance with an amateur orchestra in Manchester. When asked what had been played, he said : `The soloist played Bruch's Violin Concerto, but I don't know what the orchestra was playing.' Manchester Guardian, August 19. BUT Ma. JANOS STARKER, Who is a Hungarian, cap- tured its essence. The first subject of the first move- ment is crucial: Mr. Starker played it with sufficient flexibility but without distortion. His tone is of a singular smoothness, quite free from nasal quality, and his pizzicato might almost be that of a lute : its muffled sweetness, always audible, sounded the autumnal note in the music. He realised that authority rather than virtuosity is required of the soloist. • . . Conductor and soloist were at one in a golden performance.—The Times, August 20.
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