Nottingham Evening Post, UK
March 21, 2007 Wednesday

He made cello sing and dance

Beethoven and Rachmaninov were both keyboard players.

Beethoven’s Sonata in A major for cello and piano has features in
common with his Fourth Piano Concerto.

And Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata, opus 19, recalls his Piano Concerto
No. 2.

But the cello writing in each work is of a high order, and it had in
the young Armenian soloist Alexander Chaushian a player who united
passion with elegance.

Versatile pianist Anthony Hewitt displayed the deftest of touches in
Beethoven, especially in the rhythmic scherzo. The early Rachmaninov
piece drew from him a suitably romantic weight of tone, and a
fluidity of pulse in keeping with the rhapsodic statement.

Chaushian seemed to make his instrument sing and dance. His phrasing
and dynamics were a delight. He opened the concert – the final in
Nottingham Music Society’s season – with the prelude and dances of
Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite. Their baroque splendour was realised with
conviction.