Tim Lowe and James Baillieu, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, May 18

Cellist Tim Lowe and pianist James Baillieu played a range of full-blooded compositions – or “hearty” ones, as Tim put it – at the Pavilion Theatre on Thursday lunchtime. Their programme included lesser-known pieces by well-known composers, beginning with Felix Mendelssohn’s typically warm and melodic Variation Concertante.

The duo then gave a searing and moving account of Jean Sibelius’s Malinconia, his opus 20, an early piece which was written after the death of his baby daughter. Sibelius makes great demands on both players in what was regarded as avant-garde music in the 1890s, but both Tim Lowe and James Baillieu rose to the challenge.

In Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, the complex rhythms demand split-second timing and this duo seemed to enjoy a perfect understanding. When both instruments played sweeping or rapid phrases together, they achieved the difficult feat of making them sound spontaneous while keeping in time with each other.

The advertised programme closed with another set of variations, by Bohuslav Martinu. These quirky and whimsical variations, based on a theme by Gioachino Rossini, lasted only a few minutes but included a wide range of dramatic effects.

As an encore, the duo played a beautiful Prelude by the Anglo-Irish composer EJ Moeran, allowing the sell-out audience to hear the rich tone and lyricism of Tim Lowe’s cello playing to full effect.

As Tim pointed out, all of these pieces of music are genuine duos – the pianist is not merely accompanying but is an equal partner. Despite this, James Baillieu’s playing was sufficiently restrained, even in the loudest and most dramatic passages, not to overshadow the cello and not to overload the acoustic of this compact venue.