Two performers passionate about passing on the wonder of music to young people – cellist Johannes Moser and pianist Kathryn Stott – gave a stellar recital in the intimate surrounds of the Utzon Room to quickly warm an audience that had just come in from a sunny but icy Sydney Sunday afternoon.

The recital started brightly with Beethoven’s tribute to Mozart, the Seven variations on Bei Mannern, welche Liebe Fuhlen, from The Magic Flute. British pianist Stott is no stranger to the cello repertoire, having collaborated for three decades with her friend Yo Yo Ma. The variations, especially the skipping fifth, saw both Moser and Stott obviously enjoying themselves. The cello sang out after an extended piano solo in the lovely Andante sixth variation before the bubbling finale showed both piano and cello as truly equal partners.

The Shostakovich Cello Sonata which followed – “my favourite of all sonatas” said Moser – dates from 1934 when the composer still had a sense of optimism, although there is a darkness as well that foreshadows his fall from grace two years later with Pravda’s notorious condemnation...