Poulenc – Sonata for cello and piano

… Raphael Wallfisch plays the work with a light touch and very little vibrato … there are some beautiful portamento shifts and the changes of mood are very well defined. The excessivement calme at the end of the Cavatine is also excessively sotto voce and highly effective in Wallfisch’s hands, and the brief puckish Ballabile movement is stylishly played. John York’s 2003 transcriptions of Poulenc’s songs C’est ainsi que tu es and C are very welcome additions to the cello repertory. The tragic wartime song C is particularly moving and offers Wallfisch the one real chance to show what his 1717 Stradivari is made of in some beautiful, expressive, high-tessitura playing.

Janet Banks – The Strad August 2005