Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House
July 22, 2018

This latest recital in the Utzon chamber music series was as much about the instrument as the brilliant cellist playing it. The 32-year-old Hungarian virtuoso István Várdai, making his Australian debut on the back of some nightmare flight cancellations which threatened to force organisers to pull the plug, performed a program of three diverse but neatly linked works. With the opening notes of György Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello – a three-note plucked sliding figure followed by a moody passage on the bass string – the remarkably rich and resonant sound of the Du Pré-Harrell Stradivarius became immediately apparent.

Only one of 64 cellos built by the Cremonese master, it dates from 1673 – 12 years before the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose fifth suite for cello formed the pivotal point of Várdai’s recital. The Strad’s story is worthy of an E. Annie Proulx novel. It was once owned by Jacqueline Du Pré, who sold it on to US maestro Lynn Harrell. He once left it in a New York taxicab but it was fortunately later returned intact by the driver. As Várdai said after playing the Bach, it was an instrument...