Cellist Qin Li-Wei offers sparkling reading of William Walton's Cello Concerto

Chinese-Australian cellist Qin Li- Wei has become a permanent fixture in Singapore's musical scene, thanks to his position as head of cello studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory where he trains young cellists to fill the world's orchestras. As a soloist, his appearances in concertos and chamber music continue to excite audiences and this evening was no different.

In William Walton's bittersweet Cello Concerto (1957), composed for the great Gregor Piatigorsky, Qin brought to bear his years of experience to give a totally compelling reading with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) conducted by Jason Lai. In the first movement's hushed and subdued atmosphere, the tone he coaxed from his 1780 Joseph Guadagnini was warm and transcendent, yet keeping on a cloak of melancholy and unease.

He let it rip in the scherzo-like central movement with biting wit and an edgy sense of irony. Sparks flew in this fleet-fingered romp, which included double-stop pizzicatos and all manner of slaloming runs. The finale provided impassioned soliloquys in two cadenzas, moments of true catharsis before a return to the opening's lament and a final descent into depths of silence.

Qin, whom the audience warmed to, generously offered three encores by David Popper (Etude), Giovanni Sollima (Alone) and Prokofiev (March For Children), which displayed different vistas of his virtuosity.

From this most eloquent voice, could one hope for local premieres of Britten's Cello Symphony or Frank Bridge's Oration?