Matthew Sharp and Johnny's Midnight Goggles

Matthew Sharp is a critically acclaimed cellist who has performed with the likes of the Royal and London Philharmonic orchestras. According to convention, Sharp should content himself with straight recitals like any other virtuoso, classically-trained musician. But he is not bound by convention, and this is not a conventional show.

The first half of the performance is indeed a cello recital. Sharp begins with Suite for Solo Cello by Paul Patterson – a four-part work based on Russian themes. Sharp peers at his sheet-music with a look of controlled mania, while his fingers make their agile dance up and down the neck of the instrument; but the piece is rather too abstract for me. Next comes a newly commissioned piece, Soliloquies of Solace by Jason Yarde: I found this one a little more accessible, even lush in parts. Before starting, Sharp tells us that the second part of this piece will be “juicy … like a mozzarella and tomato salad”, and I find myself agreeing. This is unusual though: he talks – Sharp’s verbal explanations are an unexpected, though not unwelcome, part of the recital.

The third piece is Benjamin Britten’s 1st Suite for Solo Cello. For me, this was the highlight of the recital – the piece moves across an incredible range of sounds, moods, and even techniques. Every imaginable variety of pizzicato is employed, while other parts demand that Sharp strikes the cello percussively with the bow. This is something like a cello version of Jimi Hendrix, and I half expect Sharp to start plucking the strings with his teeth.

After the interval, the show takes a very strange turn into musical theatre. Sharp begins telling us a story, Johnny’s Midnight Goggles, while accompanying himself on the cello, and at times breaking into song. The story tells of magical goggles that grant access to the mythical land of Takrilakistan. The shady rulers of Takrilakistan are trying to destroy our world, and the narrator has to save us. Things get stranger as it goes on, and I lose the thread of the plot, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Sharp is hugely entertaining, changing voices and characters as he goes, bursting with energy, flawlessly able to do two or three things at once.

The second half of the show is pretty remarkable, and I would rather have seen more of this, and less traditional recital. In the first half Sharp tries to help us find the narrative in the solo pieces by explaining to us beforehand how they should be interpreted. But this reaching for narrative was pale in comparison to Johnny’s Midnight Goggles, where he is truly able to make both his cello and voice the instruments of an unfolding story.

John Mansfield (Unverified), 03/11/08

---