Sentimental Work: Guy Johnston

I first got to know the Walton Cello Concerto when I was 21 years old. I was at a stage in my career when I was learning a lot of new concertos, but this invitation was special – it was for a concert celebrating the centenary of the composer’s birth, and Lady Walton was to be present at the concert. The concerto is full of technical challenges: the second-movement Allegro appassionato includes triple-stops and stratospheric harmonics, while there are two cadenzas in the final Theme and Improvisations. As it happened, I was attending the International Musicians Seminar masterclasses at Prussia Cove while I was studying the concerto, and I had the chance to play it for Steven Isserlis. He made it look so easy! There are a number of ‘safe’ fingering options where you can stay in position across the strings, but he encouraged me to remain on the A string so I could really feel and vocalise those big leaps in the first movement…