There’s definitely something about cellists and hair. Think of the flowing locks of Isserlis, Maisky or Du Pr?. And the young, dynamic and very floppy-fringed Croatian Stjepan Hauser certainly fits the mould. Indeed, look him up on YouTube and you’ll see that some 80,000 fans have watched his impressions of the cellists he hopes to emulate. At this PLG concert he played to no more than 40.
Hauser still has something to learn about levity in phrasing and delicacy of touch. But what I liked about him was how he twisted the PLG’s insistence on contemporary repertoire his way — starting with the long, stark lines of Eric Tanguy’s Invocation, which showcased his fiercely romantic languor. Finishing with Kod?ly’s epic, splintered Sonata for solo cello was a gamble that paid off: it didn’t always hang together, but the variety of expression that Hauser mastered — particularly in the eerie imitations of the gypsy cimbalom or accordion — was properly virtuosic.
The pianist Richard Uttley was also at home on the PLG platform, because the contemporary is clearly his bread and butter. His programme mixed and matched, the common thread being only Uttley’s evangelical enthusiasm. And so Ben Foskett’s spiky Five Night Pieces made way for Lord Berners’s wryly deadpan Three Little Funeral Marches, both played with assiduous clarity. Lyrical poise came via Robin Holloway’s glassy, absorbing Nocturne. And Uttley rounded off a brilliant recital with Magnus Lindberg’s juicy Jubilees, a six-part structure small in build but vast in scope.
Last up? The Glendower Duo: the clarinettist Hannah Morgan and the pianist Thomas Besnard. But here, unfortunately, were some old PLG pitfalls. Were Birtwistle’s dusty old Verses really the best way to start? Did Paul Patterson’s neat but plain-spoken Conversations offer enough contrasting interest to follow? True, they flung themselves gamely at Harris Kittos’s Organic Duo, but the new piece was apparently inspired by a scribbled doodle and unfortunately sounds just like it. So thank goodness for Hugh Wood, who gave them both colour and feeling in his Paraphrase on Bird of Paradise. They had at least saved the best to last, and brought this entrancing piece to full fluttering life.