There was so much to love about this duo it’s difficult to know where to start. Pianist Ying Ho and cellist Jonathan Békés had a unanimity of conception throughout, and an extraordinary level of communication. Both players had a wonderful sense of foreground and background; they switched from one to the other so seamlessly, it almost seemed balletic at times.

Pianist Ying Ho

Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces opened the program. Békés and Ho gave us an understated opening that then seemed to blossom from the heart with beautifully nuanced phrasing, and a wonderful feeling for the sometimes fragmentary nature of the music.

The duo followed this with the fifth movement of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Praise to the Eternity of Jesus. Békés spoke beautifully and profoundly about what it might mean to be writing music from a concentration camp, and as I listened I marvelled at the resilience of the human spirit, that can produce such beauty and religious devotion amidst such adversity. The movement was, in fact, a sort of extended prayer, moving from the intimacy of a whisper to outpourings of heartfelt passion. Both players had an extraordinarily...