Royal Academy of Music announces Guy Johnston as Professor of Cello

Guy Johnston will be returning to the Academy as a professor of cello from September 2025. This role will see him offer bespoke tuition to cello students throughout the year. Read more on the Royal Academy of Music website

Reviews of Bliss Cello Concert with the RLPO

“Guy Johnston, whose fluidity of playing was matched only by his rapid precision” – read the full review from A Young(ish) Persepective here

“Not only did Johnston unequivocally win over the audience, conjuring passages of sustained lyrical beauty, but the change of repertoire created what was arguably a more effective contrast between the vigourous excitement of the Walton and the large scale work occupying the second half, Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite” – read the full review from LeftLion here

Rebecca Dale: Night Seasons – REVIEW

“[Night Seasons] is performed with splendid feeling by Guy Johnston, Tenebrae and the Philharmonia under Nigel short’s direction, building to a true catharsis”

Read the full review from Gramophone Magazine here

Guy Johnston interview on The Strad Podcast

The Strad Podcast #114: exploring resources and finding your teaching style with cellist Guy Johnston

Listen here

Guy Johnston interviewed on The Classical Circuit Podcast

Guy Johnston features in Episode 20 of The Classical Circuit Podcast with Ella Lee

“Guy Johnston: nurturing young talent, finding roots in community and reflections on his BBC Young Musician win at 18”

Click below to listen:

Guy Johnston becomes Larsen Strings Artist

Guy Johnston joins as Artist for Larsen Strings and player of Larsen Il Cannone on his Antonio Stradivaro “Segelman, ex Hart” (1692)

Read Guy’s artist webpage here

The Strad: A Reading List from Guy Johnston

Alongside his interview for The Strad Podcast, Guy Johnston shares the manuals and resources that have informed his playing and teaching career so far.

Read the article here

Guy discusses latest recording ‘Night Seasons’ in The Strad

“When I perform with a choir, I’m often reminded of vocalising rather than playing the cello.”

Read Guy Johnston’s interview with The Strad about his latest album release, Rebecca Dale: Night Seasons, here

The Times praise Guy’s performance with Britten Sinfonia

Guy’s performance of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil with Britten Sinfonia has been praised by The Times:

Yet you find yourself engaged anyway by the sheer power of Tavener’s spirituality, and nowhere more so than at the work’s heart. The orchestra falls silent and the cello soloist — here the admirable Guy Johnston — portrays Mary at the foot of the cross in a movement that fuses ancient chants into a lamentation that seems to lay bare the very soul of the instrument.

Read the full review here.

Guardian article by Guy on John Tavener

Guy writes in the Guardian about his experiences with John Tavener ahead of his tour with the Britten Sinfonia.

See here for the full article

Guy was also featured on Classic FM 

Tour with Britten Sinfonia of Tavener’s ‘The Protecting Veil’

Guy will be performing John Tavener’s intensely beautiful The Protecting Veil with Britten Sinfonia in a 5-concert tour of the UK and Ireland that includes London’s Barbican on 15 February. “One of the later 20th century’s most beloved and moving works” (Gramophone magazine), this timeless classic is full of intimacy and emotion.

BBC Music Magazine gives 5 Star Review for Tabakova’s Concerto for Cello and Strings

“Soloist Guy Johnston here gives a towering performance that responds to the score’s every shift in mood with complete assurance”

Also see attached Guy Johnston’s review in The Strad and Gramophone Magazine

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival 2023

The reviews from Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival 2023 are in!

Read Opera Today’s review of  ‘Ruby Hughes and Friends’

Read Opera Today’s review of ‘Voices and Viols’

Read Planet Hugill’s review of ‘Ben Goldscheider & Friends’

Read Planet Hugill’s review of ‘Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective & Orsino Winds’ Collaborative Concert

The Strad: Guy Johnston on Beethoven Cello Sonatas

Interview with The Strad about upcoming performances with Melvyn Tan at Music at Paxton. Read the full article here.

Review: Guy Johnston performs Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Guy performed Elgar, under the baton of Mark Wigglesworth with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Read the full review here.

New Solo Suite by Matthew Kaner out now on Delphian Records

I commissioned the wonderful Matthew Kaner to write a new Solo Suite during lockdown, which was premiered at the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival soon after and now recorded on Delphian Records. What an inspired addition to our cello repertoire! It took me a little while to work out how to sustain 3 notes at the same time, and I love the way Matt explores the whole range and colour of the instrument through various effects. Such an imaginative work with a feeling of improvisation. It’s also the first recording I’ve made with “Toni” Stradivarius.

Find out more and order at DelphianRecords.com

Review: Let’s Get Classical: discover a love for classical music watching the Hallé Orchestra

A young reviewer went to see a Hallé concert at The Bridgewater Hall for the first time – this is what she thought of her first experience of a full symphony orchestra

Read full review here.

Guy Johnston Granted Use of 1692 “Segelman” Stradivari Cello

Please read full article from The Violin Channel, here.

The Strad – Sentimental Work: Guy Johnston

The Walton Cello Concerto brings back fond memories for the British cellist, from one of his first concerts to a recent performance by early mentor Steven Isserlis.

See full article here.

“Johnston seems to have it all” Review from recital in Atlanta

Guy performed the opening concert for the classical season at Music at St Luke’s, Altanta with pianist Chiao-Wen Cheng.

“Johnston seems to have it all. His communication is direct, his playing lyrical and unmannered, his tone robust and soulful. He plays with the kind of understated (but technically perfect) virtuosity and charisma that makes it all look effortless.” Pierre Ruhe, ARTS ATL

See the full review here

Strad BBC Proms 2021 Review Round-up

Guy’s BBC appearance in the BBC Proms 2021 is highlighted in Strad’s review round up by Peter Quantrill (See here)

“Johnston’s relaxed and flexible phrasing”

Triumph over Tragedy: Orchestra of Opera North

Guy opened the new orchestral season for Orchestra of Opera North, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with conductor Garry Walker in Huddersfield Town Hall.

“Guy Johnston was the deeply expressive soloist in Elgar’s gloriously autumnal Cello Concerto”
Geoffrey Mogridge – Ilkley Gazette

“Guy Johnston’s eloquence as an interpreter of the concerto was never in doubt from the opening other-worldly melody. At his most expressive in the poignant Adagio, he lost nothing of the precision and delicacy of the second movement or the occasional assertiveness of the finale. The orchestra, discreet but incisive, provided the ideal accompaniment and relished the occasional dramatic climaxes.” Ron Simpson – The ReviewsHub

High praise for Guy’s return to BBC PROMS

Guy returned to the Royal Albert Hall to perform at the BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Bancroft. Together they performed Saint‐Saëns’s Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor, Op 33.

“Guy Johnston was a magnificent soloist, delivering luminous, long-spun melodies like the most gentlemanly of baritones, and presenting virtuoso torrents as if they were second nature”

Jessica Duchen Arts Desk  

“An impressive performance from the cellist Guy Johnston” Richard Morrison The Times

Guy Live In The Woods

Guy was joined by Lydia Lowndes to perform this magical rendition of The Swan by Saint Saens in the magical Minterne Gardens for Live In The Woods.

Guy’s thoughts on Bach D minor Courante on Chamber Studio

Following a recent online discussion with Steven Isserlis about recordings of the Bach D Minor Courante, Guy shares his experiences with Chamber Studio. Read the article here

Guy performs for Absolute Classics Live Room

Guy joined Tom Poster in a performance online as part of Absolute Classics ‘Live Room’. They recorded Rachmaninov’s Sonata Op. 19 in G minor:

Guy performs in Wigmore Hall & BBC R3 Live Streams

Guy was delighted to be invited to perform as part of the Wigmore Hall and Radio 3 livestream concerts, held during COVID-19. Guy performed with Melvyn Tan in a programme featuring music by Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin. Watch it again here:

– ★★★★, The Guardian, written by Rian Evans – read online here

“Johnston is a most contained performer, intent on finding a way of allowing every phrase to breathe and speak naturally.”

– Seen and Heard International, written by Claire Seymour – read online here

“Johnston’s lovely sweet tone, evenly weighted and coloured across registers, and the cellist’s relaxed legato bowing; the perceptive phrasing of both, eloquent and subtly nuanced – a delicate emphasis here, a slight rubato there – with a general sense of spaciousness even in the more impetuous episodes”

A special chat with Benjamin Hughes via Cello Bello Live

Guy Johnston’s special chat with Benjamin Hughes on Cello Bello Live (CelloChat) is available below.

https://www.facebook.com/cellobellofans/videos/530285794338515/

The video was filmed in Eastman School of Music on Sunday 9 February 2020, and it is also available at the Cello Bello facebook.

To learn more about the CelloChat, please visit Cello Bello website.

Arts Desk Review of Howells Concerto Recording

“A real discovery, and wonderfully performed here by Guy Johnston and Christopher Seaman’s Britten Sinfonia.”

5***** Review in BBC Music Magazine for the Howells Recording

A new arrangement of Song of the Birds captured during a rehearsal ahead of a special wedding in NYC

Gramophone Editor’s Pick

“It’s superbly championed by Guy Johnston”

You can read the review including the Howells Cello Concerto here

5***** Daily Telegraph Review of Howells recording

Read the review here 

“The secret to performing Howells’s music – apart from ensuring those rich harmonies are bang in tune – is to catch its very English way of expressing deep feeling, which works by repression and hints rather than direct statement. Guy Johnston does this especially well in his performance of the Cello Concerto, which emerges as a substantial piece. And it’s not all repression; with the surprisingly joyful and energetic Finale he really seizes the moment.”

Interview with Presto Classical about the recent Howells Concerto release

Read the interview here

BBC Radio 3 Record Review

The Howells Cello Concerto was selected on Andrew McGregor’s recent Record Review on BBC Radio 3. You can listen again here

Howells recording chosen in Andrew McGregor’s CD Review on BBC Radio 3

Listen here

Recent reviews including the Guardian of the Howells Recording

Classic FM

Classic FM shared an extract from the Howells recording session in Kings College Chapel here 

CD Release of the Howells Cello Concerto, 6 June, 2019

Howells: Cello Concerto & An English Mass (Download)

Andante from Rachmaninov’s Cello and Piano Sonata

Performance of Beethoven’s Bei Männern Variations

Masterclass on Beethoven’s Sonata No. 5 at the Lake District Summer Music Festival

Performance of Tavener’s prayerful Chant on the eve of the Notre-Dame tragedy

Glowing Themes and Variations CD Review in The Strad April 2019

Recording release BBC Music Magazine Review April 2019

Recording release Gramophone Review April 2019

Review of Guy’s recent Holst Recoridng in The Strad Magazine

Classic FM share a video captured spontaneously of Guy performing for his Nephews

Watch this charming video of Guy serenading his nephews here

Guy to Premiere a new Carol by Judith Weir during Stephen Cleobury’s last Christmas at Kings

Guy is preparing for the World Premiere of a new Carol by Judith Weir with Kings College Choir to be telivesed on BBC TWO and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 this Christmas.

Read an article in The Times, “Stephen Cleobury prepares for his last Nöel” here

5***** Review in Classical Source for Chandos Recoridng of Holst’s Invocation

Read the review here

“The mature Invocation (A Song of the Evening) is a gem of a masterpiece; it is a pity that Holst did not expand the work into a Concerto, either using the material further or providing fresh material for additional movements. The performance here by Guy Johnston is quite superb; he creates and encapsulates the nature of this remarkable music (1911) admirably and the technical quality of his playing is immaculate.”

Video exploring Britten’s Cello Sonata in Aldeburgh

See and hear Guy exploring Britten’s Sonata in C in the very space in Aldeburgh where Britten and Slava rehearsed ahead of the Premiere in 1961.

https://brittenpears.org/explore/benjamin-britten/music/work-of-the-week/48-sonata-in-c/

5***** BBC Music Magazine Review of Holst

5-star review of the Holst CD in BBC Music Magazine’s Christmas edition, written by Malcolm Hayes, where it is the orchestral choice – listen online here

Recent Barber Sonata performance now on YouTube

Listen to a recent performance of the Barber Sonata with Chiao-Wen Cheng at Eastman School of Music here

Mendelssohn Variation Concertantes YouTube video

Listen to a recent performance Guy gave with Irina Lupines at Eastman School of Music here

New Recoridng Release September 2018

Guy has recently recorded Gustav Holst’s Invocation with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic. Click here to purchase a copy

Convocation at Eastman School of Music, August 2018

Listen again to Guy’s performance of Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro with pianist Chiao-Wen Cheng here

Watch a YouTube video of Guy’s recent performance at the Wigmore Hall

Chopin Polonaise with pianist, Tom Poster here

New video about a recent weekend in Venice raising funds for Guy’s next recording

Click here to see Guy’s latest video made recently in Venice, Italy.

Guy’s summer activities are coming to an end in time for new beginnings ahead

Having recently married, Guy has not only been enjoying some time out this summer but has been to various festivals including the BBC Proms, Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, the Lake District Summer Music Festival performing a recital with Melvyn Tan and is currently at Music by the Sea in Berlin, Maryland in the States. Guy now looks forward to beginning work with his new cello class at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York whilst balancing his teaching with performances in the UK and Germany ahead.

The Strad Magazine Masterclass September 2018

Guy discusses his thoughts on Mendelssohn’s Variations Concertantes in this coming months edition of  The Strad.

Find out more here

Classics Today Review of Tecchler’s Cello:

If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Beethoven

4**** Review in BBC Music Magazine for Tecchler’s Cello recording

4* review of Tecchler’s Cello in February’s edition of BBC Music Magazine, written by Paul Riley.

“Immaculate intonation is combined with an expressive palette ranging from warm fullness of tone in David Matthews’s Ein Celloleben, an in ingenious historical conspectus, to the spectral, half-whispered trills at the end of Mark Simpson’s Un Regalo, and an interpretive acuity that illuminates the obsessive elements of Bray’s darkly brooding Perseus”.

Highlights of recent CD reviews from the Kings College Label

Read highlights so far from Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome here

Strad Review, Wigmore Hall

“Jennifer Pike and Friends” in January’s edition of The Strad, written by Peter Quantrill

“He laid emphasis on the lyric sweep rather than the heroic element of Lutoslawksi’s Grave, before drawing the most refined legato in Chopin’s the introduction and Polonaise Brilliante.”

The Strad shares Guy’s recent live video from Kings College Chapel

See and hear Bach’s Prelude From Suite No. 1 here

3 more reviews for Guy’s recent performance with the BBCSO

Daily Telegraph Review  “Best Concerts in December”

After the interval came further rarities in the form of the Two Serious Melodies for cello and orchestra – straightforwardly attractive pieces contemporaneous with the Fifth Symphony and thus dating from the peak of Sibelius’s creativity. Guy Johnston’s cello sang hauntingly in the Cantique, and Oramo brought out the more searching tone of Devotion, akin to Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. Oramo also drew warm, impassioned playing in the First Symphony.

You can read the full review here

Bachtrack Review

Before that we had the two short lyrical interludes for cello and reduced orchestra (no oboes or trumpets) that form the Two Serious Melodies, the first (“Cantique”) pastoral in mood and the second (“Devotion”) more ruminative, played with elegant poise by Guy Johnston.

You can read the full review here

Classical Source Review

Contrast came after the interval with the Two Serious Melodies (1915) in its rarely heard yet more fitting version with cello. The years of the First World War were arduous for Sibelius, who produced numerous shorter pieces while grappling with his Fifth Symphony. Brief as is the present brace, its underlying intensity can hardly be doubted – not least in the way that the eloquent ‘Cantique’ finds a pointed contrast with the sombre ‘Devotion’. Guy Johnston gave these miniatures with thoughtful restraint, their poise never obscuring emotional acuity.

You can read the full review here

Listen again to recent BBC Radio 3 broadcast

Listen again to Guy performing two enchanted Sibelius Pieces, Cantique and Devotion, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo at the Barbican Centre.

Click here

5 ***** BBCSO/ Oramo Arts Desk Review

Read the review of Guy’s recent performance at the Barbican Centre here

5***** review from St George’s, Bristol (Nov. ‘17)

Read a review here of a special concert in St. George’s, Bristol

Elgar Cello Concerto

Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra

Michael Seal, conductor

Latest CD review from Planet Hugill

Tecchler’s Cello: Guy Johnston’s birthday present to his cello
Labels: cd review

Ola Gjeilo, David Matthews, Beethoven, Mark Simpson, Jean-Baptise Barriere, Charlotte Bray, Respighi; Guy Johnston, Tom Poster, Magnus Johnston, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Carlo Rissari, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; King’s College, Cambridge
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 20 2017
Star rating: 3.5

For its 300th birthday, Guy Johnston takes his cello on an eclectic musical journey back to its birthplace in Rome

At first sight, the programme of this new CD, on King’s College, Cambridge’s own label, is somewhat eclectic, not to say indigestible; Ola Gjeilo, David Matthews, a Beethoven piano trio, Mark Simpson, Jean-Baptise Barriere, Charlotte Bray and Respighi. The linkage between the works being cellist Guy Johnston, or more specifically Guy’s cello, the Tecchler cello of the title

The CD is arranged as a metaphorical and physical journey from Cambridge to Rome, taking the cello home to the city where it was made 300 years ago. Johnston is joined in the journey by Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (Johnston was a chorister at King’s), pianist Tom Poster and Magnus Johnston (recorded at Hatfield House where Poster and Magnus Johnston are Guy Johnston’s regular collaborators in the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival), cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (like Guy Johnston, Kanneh-Mason is a BBC Young Musician of the Year, and they recorded at the Royal Academy of Music) and Carlo Rizzari and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (recorded in Rome).

There are also the three new commissions from David Matthews, Mark Simpmson and Charlotte Bray, recorded at the Wigmore Hall.

The journey celebrated the cello’s 300th birthday in 2014, but also perhaps a recognition of Guy Johnston’s acquisition of it in 210 and those who had helped this happen, the Stradivari Trust, Royal Society of Musicians and private contributors.

The journey begins in King’s College Chapel in Cambridge where Guy and his elder brother Magnus, violinist on this disc, were both choristers. Guy Johnston performs Ola Gjeilo’s Serenity with Stephen Cleobury and the choir. It is a slow, richly romantic piece with the singing cello line blending with the choir to create some radiant textures.

Next comes Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major, Op.70 No.1 ‘Ghost’ with Tom Poster and Magnus Johnston, recorded in the Marble Hall of Hatfield House, where many of the festival concerts take place. The opening movement is carried off with gusto and liveliness, making very engaging listening. The atmospheric second movement, which gives the trio its name, has much fine grained singing tone from violin and cello, and moments of high drama too. Whilst the final movement is engagingly vigorous and lively.

We next move to the Royal Academy of Music, where Guy Johnston and Sheku Kanneh-Mason perform the Sonata for two cellos in G major by the 18th century French composer Jean-Baptise Barriere. The opening ‘Andante’ is all poised elegance, whilst the middle movement ‘Adagio’ lets us appreciate the singing tone from the two duetting cellos, and finally there is the perky and crisply appealing ‘Allegro prestissimo’. This is charming music, not deep but very elegant.

From the Royal Academy of Music we move to the Wigmore Hall for the three new commissions, Guy’s birthday presents for his cello. David Matthew’s Ein Celloleben is very much a dramatic rhapsody, Guy Johnston’s singing tone bringing out the lyricism in this complex piece. Charlotte Bray’s Perseus is intriguing and full of drama, with lots of imaginative detail and a sense of going on a journey. Finally Mark Simpson’s Un Regalo (A Gift) which, starting from an atmospheric opening, works up a real head of steam and becomes a virtuoso tour de force.

Finally, in Rome, we hear Respighi’s Adagio con variazione for cello and orchestra. Originally the slow movement of an unpublished cello concerto from 1902, Respighi returned to it in 1921. The theme is melodically attractive, and again Guy Johnston contributes much singing tone, here making this rather old-fashioned piece (the early 1920s saw RVW’s Fourth Symphony and Walton’s First Symphony) rather engaging.

Though this is the ordering of the pieces in the CD booklet, the disc itself does not present the pieces in this order, we have slightly less of a sense of journey and perhaps more of an attempt to make a more balanced programme.

This is a charming and imaginative CD, beautifully performed by all concerned, though I have to admit that it is not one which I would play repeatedly.

Ola Gjeilo – Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium)
David Matthews – Ein Celloleben
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Trio in D major Op.70 No. 1’Ghost’
Mark Simpson – un Regalo
Jean-Baptiste Barriere – Sonata No. 4 for Two Cellos in G major
Charlotte Bray – Perseus
Ottorino Respighi – Adagio con varizioni
Guy Johnston (cello)
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge / Stephen Cleobury
Magnus Johnston (violin)
Tom Poster (piano)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)
Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Carlo Rizzari
Recorded Marble Hall, Hatfield House 10 May 2016, Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge 22 June 2016, Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music, 22 January 2017, Auditorium della Musica, Roma, 28 January 2017, Wigmore Hall, 1 February 2017
KING’S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE KGS0026 1CD [75.36]

Available from Amazon.

5***** Review of Tecchler’s Cello recording in Classical Music Magazine

Tecchler’s Cello Guy Johnston (vc), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (vc); Tom Poster (pf); Magnus Johnston (vn); Choir of King’s College Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury; Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Carlo Rizzari
King’s College Cambridge KG50026
★★★★★

This is a lovely idea: the Tecchler of the disc title is Johnston’s David Tecchler cello, which celebrated its 300th birthday in 2014. To mark this occasion Johnston commissioned three new works (by Matthews, Simpson and Bray), which receive their recording premieres.

Himself a former chorister of King’s College, Cambridge, Johnston is joined by them in Ola Gjello’s restrained, ecstatic Serenity. The disc is presented as a journey from Cambridge to Rome (where the luthier Tecchler was based) in several chapters, interspersed with premieres. Matthew’s Ein Celloleben references Straudd, Corelli, Beethoven and Ravel; Johnston offers a stunning tour-de-force. Simpson’s Un Regalo plays brilliantly on the Tecchler’s resonance while Charlotte Bray’s dark Perseus marries cryptogram with cosmic metaphor.

There is a youthful aspect Beethoven’s Ghost Trio, while Johnston and Kanneh-Mason’s performance of Barrière G-Major Sonata is pure joy, played on two Tecchlers. Respighi’s Adagio con variazioni is magnificently lyrical.

Imaginatively conceived and beautifully performed, this disc is a winner.

Colin Clarke

Guy appears on live Facebook broadcast at Kings College Chapel, Cambridge

Hear Guy perform 3 solo works by Bach, Turnage and Tavener as well as give a short tour and talk in between performances here

Guy’s CD featured on British Airways this month

Much to Guy’s surprise during a recent flight on British Airways, Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome is listed on the inflight classical music entertainment channel this month.

All Music Review – Tecchler’s Cello recording

“Above all, the sound of Johnston’s Tecchler is indeed distinctively rich. A unique release, and a recommended one.”

Read Review here

Arts Desk review of Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome

“It makes a spectacularly rich, warm sound, though you suspect that Johnston could make a dusty tea chest sing like an angel.”

You can read the first review of Guy’s CD here

Trailer for Guy’s latest CD

This short film capturing our journey to Rome was created by the wonderfully talented Matthew Carkeek at Slipstream Media. It was aired at the CD launch event at the Royal Academy of Music and gives you an insight into this unique adventure with Guy’s cello. You can buy the recording now here

New YouTube trailer for Guy’s upcoming CD release (8 September)

Watch a taster here of Guy’s journey from Cambridge to Rome here ahead of the CD release on the 8th September.

Meet the Artist – Cross-eyed Pianist (Fran Wilson Blog)

Read an interview here about Guy’s roots and thoughts about life in Music.

Meet the Artist – Guy Johnston, cellist

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival Classical Music Magazine July issue

The HHCMF appears in the July issue of the Classical Music Magazine about budding festivals.

I was inspired to create the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival six years ago after returning from the Great Music in Irish Houses series in Ireland. I began to wonder whether a festival in one of the special Houses in Hertfordshire, the county where I grew up, could become a reality and thanks to a serendipitous moment and good timing the HHCMF was born.

Bringing music to the counties outside the main cities seems to be greatly appreciated not only at our budding festival but also at a number of my colleagues and friends festivals. I can think of Nicholas Daniel’s Leicester International Festival, Jamie Walton’s festival in the North Yorkshire Moors, Penny Aide’s 2 Moors Festival, Beatrice Phillips’ festival in Lewes and further afield at Jan Vogler’s festival in Moritzburg outside Dresden and my brothers Navarra Quartet festival in Weesp just outside Amsterdam to name a few. The energy, enthusiasm and commitment of all those who lead these festivals not least to mention the local support make each and every one of these festivals unique and special in their own way. People often say, “We can’t believe you have got these musicians to perform on our doorstep!”

I can’t help think that the work my parents have done in their community of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, establishing a music school there 40 years ago and seeing what an impact it has had on so many generations has undoubtedly influenced me to create something that can make a difference to a community through the giving and sharing of music. Education is something we certainly wish to develop further at our festival.

It is the greatest joy to see people present at the concerts we now curate at Hatfield House and to hear the music begin each year after all the hard work and efforts that go into cultivating a weekend of concerts. There were definitely some bumps in the road early on and learning to be on the other side for a change and understanding all the potentially complex dimensions of organising a festival have been eye opening to say the least.

One day I picked up a book written by Sir Neville Marriner about the early days and consequent years of the Academy of Ancient Music and by chance read about the 3 G’s. Marriner learnt early on that if a board was to be proactive and help make ideas a reality, one has to “Give, Get, or Go!” Quite a direct approach, but in our own way I can quite understand what he was getting at. Creating a board that respect the artistic vision of the festival, having a chairman who helps to focus the budget and keep things on course, an accountant who gives up her time and offers her expertise so generously, and an administrator who makes sure everything is in place and well coordinated is actually quite an operation even for a relatively new festival like ours. It has all taken time, and I learnt the hard way in our 3rd year when we ran up a deficit that we gladly recovered from thanks to a supportive board. It certainly defined a new direction and way of working the following year including a clear understanding of the budget!

We are going into our sixth festival and have had festival themes more recently including Remembrance, which commemorated WW1 with works by composers responding to war followed by a festival Inspired by Bach last year and we are looking forward to a theme of Creation this year. I’m never quite sure how a theme develops, but one thing tends to lead to another and through discussions with artists and imagining what could work well over the course of a weekend things gradually emerge.

Through experience now, we have began to use a structure with concerts in the Old Palace that frame the festival, usually larger orchestral and choral offerings, at the beginning and at the end of the festival and have the more intimate smaller chamber concerts in between with ensembles performing in the Marble Hall and other venues we are discovering within Hatfield House. There is much musical history there that we are trying to reconnect with, including with John Dowland who use to be composer in residence there. Our aim is to revive some of this past tradition by inviting future composers in residence to share new compositions alongside the endless gems of the chamber music repertoire.

We haven’t yet been successful with an ACE application but are fortunate to have growing support from our festival friends and other philanthropic contributors without whom the festival wouldn’t happen. Not having ACE funding does limit our aspirations to some extent, but it also encourages one to work well inside a tight budget. The venues aren’t big enough to make ends meet through ticket sales and so the success of each year is reliant on continued annual support as well as a full crowd at the concerts. Through the fundraising efforts that happen from year to year we manage to entice many wonderful artists to come and perform for our audience. We have had the Sixteen, Kings College Choir, Hertfordshire Chorus, Bach with Angela Hewett, Melvyn Tan with his fortepiano, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Anthony Marwood and Lawrence Power, the Navarra Quartet, Tom Poster, Nicholas Daniel, Sam West reciting Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon and many more over the years not to mention and exciting line up for this year’s festival including Ian Bostridge, the Aurora Orchestra and Elias Quartet.

Part of the attraction at Hatfield House is the uniqueness of the spaces including the Marble Hall and Old Palace which lend themselves beautifully to intimate Chamber Music. Whatever the reason for this festival, it was an idea that at first was an experiment but thanks to the goodwill and generosity of the Salisbury’s, the team at Hatfield House and the enthusiastic local support as well as from further afield, we have recently celebrated our 5th anniversary and are greatly looking forward to the next 5 years! Please do come to our next festival 28th September – 1st October
www.hatfieldhousemusicfestival.org.uk

Guy Johnston

Charlotte Bray talks to Classic FM about her new work for Guy’s recording

Charlotte Bray talks with Classic FM about her latest work, Perseus, recorded on Guy’s CD and being released in September. You can read more here

Gramophone Magazine “Artists and their Instruments”

Gramophone – Guy Johnston Feature – Sept17
Artists & Their Instruments

Guy Johnston talks about his David Tecchler cello of 1714

“It was around 2010, when I was searching for a new instrument, that I heard about the Tecchler cello through work of mouth. My teacher has played on a Tecchler cello and I loved the sound of it, so I definitely thought it was worth having a look at. It was owned by another player, and he totally understood that I needed space to try it out in chamber, solo and conerto music, and so I had a good amount of time which gave me the confidence and trust that this was potentially the instrument for me.

As instrumentalists, what we’re trying to do is find an instrument that we connect with, that somehow goes through to our soul. I’ve had so much experience in six years through this instrument – like any relationship, it developed over time. The instrument eventually becomes part of you.

I developed a concept of taking the cello, 300 years on, on a journey that celebrated its history, so I travelled with it from Cambridge to Rome, via London.

In Rome I actually stayed in apartments above the old studio where Tecchler would have been working. Not much had changed in that street, the Via dei Leutari – the street of luthiers – and it was a spiritual experience, taking the instrument home all those years later. Throughout that journey we captured recordings, and I commissioned three new pieces.

The piece by Mark Simpson really challenges the player – he creates this dialogue between the lower register and the upper registers, and in the virtuosity and the shape of it I think he does something quite extraordinary. Charlotte Bray’s piece, which uses David Tecchler’s name in the music, is also very original and testing, while David Matthews went more along the lines of a celebration, which is what it’s all about!

It’s such a privilege to play on this cello. I’m only a custodian, but I feel very lucky to have it and to be playing on it”

Strings Magazine Interview

Read an interview here from the Strings Magazine with Inge Kjemtrup

Guy Johnston Celebrates His Cello’s Third Century with a Recording & Trip to Rome

Chapter 4 – Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome

Watch the the latest chapter ahead of the full release next month.

Jason Price from Tarisio YouTube video made in Rome during Guy’s recording weekend

You can see a short YouTube video featuring expert Jason Price from Tarisio talking about David Tecchler during Guy’s recording with the acclaimed Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome here

The sixth Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival 28 September – 1st October 2017 Book Now!

The 6th Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival was recently launched at a special concert in the Marble Hall, Hatfield House. You can now see this year’s full programme, “Creation” 28th September – 1st October, by clicking here and watch this recent short YouTube video

“On the trail of Tecchler” BBC Music Magazine September issue

You can read an article by Helen Wallace about Guy’s journey from Cambridge to Rome in September’s edition of the BBC Music Magazine. Look out for a copy here

Guy on the front cover of the September issue of Strings Magazine

Read an article about Guy’s journey from Cambridge to Rome in September’s issue of the Strings Magazine. You can order a copy here or go to their app and download the article.

Chapter 3 – Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome (Royal Academy of Music)

Chapter 3 – Royal Academy of Music

Following on from Chapter 2, see and hear Guy in action with the recent BBC Young Musician of the Year winner, Sheku Kanneh Mason in a performance of Barrière’s Sonata in G for 2 cellos.

You can see a preview behind the scenes in this YouTube video and pre order a copy here

Chapter 2 – Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome (Hatfield House)

Chapter 2 – Hatfield House

Following on from the first Chapter in Kings College Chapel, Guy moves on to Hatfield House to record Beethoven’s Ghost trio with his brother, Magnus, and Tom Poster.

You can see a preview here behind the scenes and pre order a copy here

The Times – A relationship with a few strings attached 13.5.17

The Times Newspaper 13.5.17

A relationship with a few strings attached

You can read about Guy’s happy engagement story featured in The Times here

A relationship with a few strings attached, The Times, Saturday 13th May 2016

Endellion Quartet, Schubert Quintet in C, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

Read a review here

It was fascinating to watch the quintet’s instrumental ‘conversations’ one with the other, producing the kind of musical experience that can only be made possible by a group of people subtly anticipating each other’s thought processes and emotions to play instinctively as one.

This came across in all three performances, but nowhere more so than in this outstanding and flawless combined presentation of Schubert’s demanding masterpiece to which guest soloist, Guy Johnston, lent the unmistakeable depth and warmth so characteristic of his sound.

It was given a deserved ovation from the sold-out concert hall audience happy to have been present at such a memorable conclusion to another of the Endellion’s enjoyable seasons of great chamber music.

New short Video

Watch a new short video here with dramatic views of Kings College Chapel and Cambridge during Guy’s recording with the choir. Ola Gjeilo’s Serenity is now out on Spotify and on iTunes. Future recordings to be released from Hatfield House, the Royal Academy of Music, Wigmore Hall as part of a journey to Rome.

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival

2017 Festival Tickets Now On Sale!

12/5/17 ****Bachtrack Review Kings Place

Read the Bachtrack review here

Russian Romance

Including works by Scriabin, Arensky, Rachmaninov, Viardot, Prokofiev and Shostakovich

Joan Rodgers, mezzo-soprano

Michael Mofidian, bass baritone

Sophie Rosa, violin

Guy Johnston, cello

Sholto Kynoch, piano

Kings Place Review 12/5/17

Robert Hugill Review

Russian Romance

Including works by Scriabin, Arensky, Rachmaninov, Viardot, Prokofiev and Shostakovich

Joan Rodgers, mezzo-soprano

Michael Mofidian, bass baritone

Sophie Rosa, violin

Guy Johnston, cello

Sholto Kynoch, piano

Chapter 1 – Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome (Kings Chapel)

The journey from Cambridge to Rome has been captured in recording. Here’s a taster of the first track and you can Pre-Order a CD here including the first track for free!

Strad Magazine feature May 2017

You can read a special article by Charlotte Gardner in the Strad Magazine here

Tarisio Article 26/4/17

Tarisio have just published an article in their latest newsletter about Guy’s journey to Rome. You can read more about this exciting project here

Haydn Review EUCO/Cambridge

Read a review here of Guy’s recent performance of the Haydn Concerto in C with the European Union Chamber Orchestra.

Cambridge News Interview

Read the interview here

Bach Suites in Rome Artsdesk Review 6/2/17

Read the full review here

Rather perturbingly, hall and orchestra sounded more comfortably accommodated with each other the following afternoon, when I dropped into their recording session with the cellist Guy Johnston. He was in town to tape Respighi for the latest leg of a project (eventually to result in a disc on the King’s College Choir label) tracing the history of his cello, made almost 300 years ago in the Roman workshop of David Tecchler. A stone’s throw from the workshop, he then gave a Sunday-morning recital of the first three solo Bach Suites, at a church nestled in the crook of the Tiber.
The stone walls and handsome murals of the Oratorio del Gonfalone lent their own persuasive context to Johnston’s suggestion that the suites, considered together, trace the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. This was superbly direct Bach playing, tonally spare, unsentimental, with a sense of harmonic progress as plain and decisive as the curve of a Roman arch. By not mining every nugget of tone from the lower strings, he secured a lively speaking quality from the Tecchler: the Third Suite’s Courante gossiped away, before the weak beats of the Minuets were flicked off with a shrug.