Variations on an old Slovak song - MartinuSonata in A Op - Beethoven Sonata Op - ShostakovichIntroduction and Grand Polonaise - Chopin The young British cellist, Guy Johnston (born 1981), winner of last year's BBC Musician of the Year Competition, made his Dublin debut at the National Concert Hall last Saturday night. He's an engaging performer and a stylish one, too. One of the pleasures of the evening was the way he drew such clear distinctions between the various styles represented in his programme of Martinu, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Chopin. On Saturday, his able young partner at the piano, Tom Poster, did not always manage to gauge balances well from the listeners' point of view. Poster favoured a bright, penetrating piano tone, and exploited it in a way that frequently masked the cello. I'm all in favour of give and take between players in major sonatas. But Poster too often took a dominating role when the music seemed to demand otherwise. Johnston's less assertive and altogether more flexible manner showed a young player of intriguingly responsive temperament. I don't think I've heard a young cellist with such an awareness of his instrument's melting beauty or persuasive whispering since the early days of Steven Isserlis. And auguries for future achievements don't come much more promising than that.