Musica Viva Australia has kicked off its first concert for 2019 with a beguiling, wide-ranging concert by British cellist Natalie Clein and London-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva. Clein – who rose to fame when she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year at 16 – came to Sydney in 2017, but this is her first national tour, as it is for Apekisheva, who made her Australian debut at last year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Clein has a compelling, earthy sound, with a smouldering edge to it, which perfectly suited this program, deeply rooted in folk music. Combined with Apekisheva’s precise, gleaming piano, this was a concert of rich textures, finely spun melodies and a refined, understated beauty.

Natalie Clein. Photo © Neda Navaee

The duo whetted the audience’s appetite with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1926 suite, Six Studies in English Folk-Song, which – along with the Rebecca Clarke Sonata later in the program – Clein recently recorded with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland for Hyperion. With an easy musical camaraderie, Clein and Apekisheva imbued the miniatures with a dream-like quality, teasing out the wistful simplicity of the second study...