“Gifted duo put on fascinating recital...

This recital ... was something completely different, best described as an eye and an ear opener.

It was a combined performance by two instrumentalists on the cello and the tabla.

James Barralet is a superb cellist by any standards and Puish Kumar is probably the premier tabla player in England.

The two artistes fascinated the audience and you could hear a pin drop. Much of the music was improvised, with amazing rhythms. Puish and James kept a close eye on one another, and their rapport was wonderful.”

Dorset Echo, March 2010 (Cello and tabla concert with Puish Kumar at Weymouth Music Club)

“They began with one of Beethoven's two sets of variations on themes from Mozart's Magic Flute, and their rapport was immediately apparent... After the interval, their performance of the Rachmaninov sonata brought out the best in both players, producing waves of glorious lyrical tone alongside exhilarating excitement in the climaxes, going far beyond the demands of mere accuracy. The work is contemporary with the famous second piano concerto, and, in his entertaining introduction, Alasdair pointed out that cellists should be grateful for it. We too should be grateful for artists who can play it like this.”

Stratford Herald, February 2010 (Recital with Alasdair Beatson at the Stratford-Upon-Avon Chamber Music Society - Shakespeare Institute)

“Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, performed in its original version, proved an excellent vehicle for cellist James Barralet to demonstrate both his technical wizardry and musicianship. The spirit of Mozart permeates this work and the soloist succeeded magnificently in conveying its humour, grace and nonchalance with good support from the orchestra.”

Gloucester Echo, May 2009 (Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra at the Pitville Pump Rooms)

“This Park Lane Group concert began with two works for unaccompanied cello. James Barralet’s choices were striking – two twentieth-century sonatas, both by Hungarians of great distinction. Right from the outset – a triple-stopped glissando – Barralet’s mastery of his instrument was evident, as well as his dedicated advocacy of its matchless depth.

György Ligeti wrote the first movement of his sonata as a music student in Budapest. His girlfriend had just left him – the pain of her rejection shows. The second movement was completed five years later. Barralet’s perceptive programme note speaks of the “turbulent momentum of this sometimes furious, sometimes taunting musical outburst.”

The sonata exhibits Ligeti’s prevalent modernism, together with keen awareness of his Middle European inheritance. He respects the courtly formality of Austrian dominance and the genial music-making of Hungarian peasantry through generations. With crystalline intelligence, he marshals his notes with tension and into structures integral to his personal make-up. Barralet understood all this with direct clarity, ensuring that his rich, dark instrument spoke the same precise yet emotion-tinged language.

Zoltán Kodály, a cellist himself, took Barralet still further into the art of evoking sounds of burnished, mellow resonance. Sturdily, and with absolute clarity of intent, Barralet took us through the imposing medley of techniques and styles that Kodály enmeshed into such a striking whole – the percussion, the drone, the hurdy-gurdy, the characteristic tones of the viola, the violin, the female voice, the folksong and the peasant dance. This was distinguished playing of an imposing composition.”

Classical Source, January 2009 (Solo recital, Wigmore Hall)

“Ligeti's early cello solo sonata is clearly influenced by Kodaly & Bartok; the second of the two movements was more individual, with its melody 'buried in an unstoppable torrent of notes' which James Barralet took in his stride. Kodaly's sonata, the first solo cello work of real significance since Bach's, has held its place in this repertoire, and was as absorbing and exciting as always. Barralet has a flair and commitment which makes for strong communication with his audience to which we supporters of PLG present responded warmly.”

Musical Pointers, January 2009 (Solo recital, Wigmore Hall)

“Cellist James Barralet chose well in Edwin Roxburgh's concentrated, jolie-laide Partita (1970), Kenneth Hesketh's Britten-indebted triptych, Die Hangende Figur ist Judas (1998), and Britten's own Suite No. 3 (1974). The influence of Barralet's teacher, Thomas Demenga, was evident in his clear sound, fluent bowing, and broad dynamic range. The musical imagination was all his own.”

The Independent, January 2008 (Solo recital, Purcell Room)

“The location was St Peter’s Church at Wootton Wawen, where the young cellist James Barralet treated a packed audience to three of J S Bach’s six great suites for unaccompanied cello.

It is a tribute to St Peter’s that it should share with the rest of us its luck in having Mr Barralet on hand. And it is reassuring to know - through the greatness of Bach as performed by people like Mr Barralet - that there are still some eternal verities.”

Stratford Herald, August 2005 (Solo Bach recital, St Peters, Wootton Wawen)

"A cellist of technical brilliance and musical intelligence"

Basler Zeitung, July 2005 (Shostakovich cello concerto no. 1 with Basel Symphony Orchestra, Stadt-Casino, Basel)