Last Sunday Christ Church St Laurence was the venue for an elegant, elevated and educatedexcursion into the music of Schumann, Bruch and Brahms.

Ironwood members Daniel Yeadon (period cello) and Neal Peres Da Costa (period piano) returned to the stage together with their pre-pandemic research and informed performance skills well intact.

Their hunger to reproduce the sounds of the focus era saw them seek out recordings of the time and cross reference with performance practice treatises of the same period.

Between the cello and piano performance points of difference included reduced string vibrato, use of string portamento to reach between notes and arpeggiation to emphasise top notes of the period piano textures.

These points of research were discussed in enthusiastic and accessible introductions to pieces in equal measure by the two performers. These were always eloquent and interesting, including quotes from the featured composers.

Reference to technical specification of the cello and piano of the nineteenth century was a clear reminder that ofte n the rendering of Romantic scores on modern instruments has been so much fuller or overplayed than the actual instruments of the time.

A highlight of this event was the chance to hear some late Brahms pieces (a ballade and intermezzo from his Op 118) on the replica Viennese Streicher piano.

Above : HIP pianist Neal PeresDa Costa played a replica of the Viennese Streicher piano.

Here, and in the informed hands of Neal Peres Da Costa, we were gifted a reduction of the dense texture to a clear singing line and variegated range of middle accompaniment and bass line.

This pair of well-known piano pieces were heard in a totally fresh light here, with gently eloquent upper melody lines. Typically heard oversustained, overheld sounds or cluttered central keyboard accompaniment which challenge the modern pianist were held beautifully in check on this period piano.

Such keyboard tapestry and yearning conversational tone matched the clear cello tone with ornamental vibrato and reaching portamento slides in the other programmed works.

This blend of the period instruments was excellently displayed in the Brahms Sonata to end this event. The intimate resonance of the piano coupled here with the clean gut-string cello timbre was an easy blend. This was clear, conversational Brahms where Romantic gesture and lyricism soared or sang humbly over a balanced bed of structure.

It was also interesting to hear Schumann’s Fantasiestücke in this fashion, with clear lines, subtly expressive portamenti enhancing cello utterances and sparingly used string vibrato.

The piano support and smooth extension of cello melody in these well known works, allowing them to shine with renewed retrospective gloss.

Above : Daniel Yeadon played an antique cello by William Forster.

It was great to hear string music for cello in the form of the Canzone Op 55 by Max Bruch, after being familiar with this composer’s popular violin concerto.

In historically informed performance guise and on Daniel Yeadon’s antique William Forster cello, the song like qualities were sweet yet with firm lyricism and expansive gestures shared between the historic instruments and academic-performers.

The absolute elegance of this event left me craving a salon style venue for the music to be even more direct and intimate. However this concert was able to follow COVID-safe procedures in the expansive environment of the Christ Church St Laurence. It allowed a large number to welcome Ironwood back to the live music scene and to experience the enlightenment their informedapproachalways brings. We look forward to this continuing in 2021.