I know this concert took place at the Historical Museum in Springvale (on Nov. 4). It could just as easily have taken place in Berlin, Moscow, New York or any large metropolis on this planet.

What concert you may ask? The one given by Sergei Antonov, cello, and Ilya Kazantsev, piano.

I have heard them play previously and had the highest opinion of their virtuosity, musicianship and all around talent. The large audience at the museum was a testament to their previous appearance.

First of all Kazantsev, for all his modest and business demeanor, can run rings around any pianist alive today. His technique is flawless and his touch, command at the mighty Bechstein is simply superb.

Anyone can play loud on this mighty beast of an instrument. However, he can and did elicit soft and delicate tones especially in the upper register of the keyboard. No mean achievement this!

While he is the number two in this billing, he is as much partner and collaborator and not at all a backup person at the keyboard.

The attraction in this duo is the cellist, Seragey Antonov. First of all, his tone is both sensuous, as well as full bodied. His technique is flawless and his all around musicianship awe inspiring.

While there is no shortage of concerti composed for the violin, works for solo cello have not been an attraction for composers at least until the mid and late 19th century. Certain countries seem to have excelled at producing certain soloists. For example, Italy is renowned for it’s tenors; Germany and Russia for their basses; France for their ballet dancers; and Russia for their cellists. While there surely are exceptions to this short list, few could argue that the these places have produced in those categories. Just why this should be so is something that I cannot explain but I simply am noting that this partial list is true more often than it is not.

With reference to the program given at the museum, the first half consisted of shorter works and the second featured a larger scale work for the cello.

In the first part, a dazzling arrangement of Chopin’s “Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante, Op. 3”

opened the program. The performance demonstrated that the audience was being treated to two young but musically mature artists playing at the top of their game. While such bon bons as Faure’s Elegy and Elgar’s Salut d’Amour charmed the audience, it was two works by David Popper that underscored the technical as well as musical capabilities of the performers. Popper is to cello music what Czerny and Hanon are to pianists, namely arduous, technical roadblocks in preparation for anything that composers could throw their way. If one closed ones eyes, one could state that the Tarantella was being played on a violin! It could not have gone any faster or played more accurately. WOW.

After intermission, a rare work Nocturne by a Polish composer Ludomir Rozycki (1882-1953) called for and received a lyrical and musical performance. The featured work was the second Sonata for Cello AND Piano, Op.58 by Felix Mendelssohn (1898-1847). That Mendelssohn should have composed two sonatas for cello is significant. However, he is best remembered for his violin concerto (in E) and his oratorio Elijah as well as his Songs Without Words for piano.

The first movement overwhelms the listener with its force as well as it’s beauty all in good sonata form. The second movement recalls the romanticism of his Midsummer Nights Dream. It is in the unusual third movement that an unusual movement, introspective in style, recalling the slow movements of Bach, brought forth some of most beautiful playing of both performers. The last movement was a tour de force of accurate as well as brilliant playing at a mighty clip. These young wizards rated the prolonged standing ovation they received. I wish there was something I could criticize but unhappily there was not. Darn.

The next concert at the Museum will feature the eighth appearance of the Renaissance Voices on Dec. 9 in a program of seasonal a cappella music.

— Dr. Morton Gold is a composer/conductor, retired educator, and an arts reviewer for the Journal Tribune.