Martin Johnson, cello - Section Leader

When did you join the National Symphony Orchestra?

October 2000.

What do you enjoy most about being in the NSO?

The full force of the orchestra’s sound in major symphonic works like Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra and Eine Alpensinfonie.

Tell us your favourite NSO story/memory so far.

Prokofiev’s famously difficult Sinfonia Concertante with Natalia Gutman – a former student of Rostropovich – some 10 years ago. She was 70-years-old at the time but played by heart including every nuance possible from utter brutality to the sublime. During rehearsals she would bark at the conductor in Russian whilst simultaneously hammering through the piece as though it was the easiest thing on earth to deliver. I really fell in love with her playing that day and managed to persuade her to give me a lesson before the concert. It was conducted in German as she had almost no English and I have absolutely no Russian. She refused payment, but requested I drive her around Dublin on a sightseeing trip. The concert was unbelievable, her performance really fresh as though it was her first outing with the piece. I often listen to the Prokofiev and reminisce about the week I got to meet my cello hero.

What are you most looking forward to in our 2024/25 season?

Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen – music for the soul, simply impossible to play without giving every ounce of your being – and a visit from cello superstar Steven Isserlis for Haydn’s D major Concerto. Steven’s always inspiring, a story-teller of the highest calibre.

Do you have any secret talents?

My undergraduate degree is Mechanical Engineering, not music. I like numbers.

If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be, and why?

Felix Mendelssohn. He wrote so beautifully for the cello. I’d love to ask him why he didn’t write a concerto for us. Who knows how the repertoire might have developed if he had