When cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason won BBC Young Musician in 2016, it was clear that he was an unusual musical talent, not given to showmanship and all the more convincing for that.
Since then, the 19-year-old has gone on to become a founder member of Chineke!, Europe’s first professional orchestra of BAME musicians, while his debut album topped the classical charts. He has also won a Classical Brit and played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding to an audience of billions.
Not the least unusual aspect of his career is that he often performs with siblings: as a trio with pianist sister Isata, 21, and violinist brother Braimah, 20, and here as a piano/cello duo with Isata. All three are still students and there are four younger musical siblings, so one day we may see a Kanneh-Mason Septet.
Last night’s programme was built on strong contrasts, allowing both players to slip easily between supporting and lead roles.
In terms of sheer beauty, few instruments can compete with a perfectly bowed cello, and there were moments when the piano felt somewhat earthbound in contrast with its rhapsodic companion. Sheku’s sound is full-bodied, and he showed it off to advantage in one of Boccherini’s beguiling cello sonatas.
By contrast, Poulenc’s Cello Sonata is elusive, even wayward; the Kanneh-Masons got most of it just right, their playing propulsive and dramatic. In Debussy’s Cello Sonata, Sheku seemed in a zone of calm rapture, even when the music was fidgety and frenetic.
The occasional slip and slide added to the excitement, while Brahms’s Second Cello Sonata found pianist and cellist at their most convincing, tumultuous one moment, serene the next. They make a compelling partnership, two young musicians in the process of finding their own voices.
Until December 4 (020 7638 8891, barbican.org.uk)
