“With the first half of the concert that featured a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Six Studies in English Folk Song, Leoš Janácek’s Pohadka, and Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, the duo throughly displayed an impressively synced execution, amid tight phrasing, distinctly in-tandem dynamic shifts and compelling fluidity and expression.
The second half’s performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano featured such a strong musical connection between the two instruments that it often seemed as though phrases spiralled in galaxies of note solar systems: the piano and cello orbiting nearby each other and yet never adversely affecting each other with their gravitational pulls — only benefiting in their complimentary presence.
The immediate standing ovation that Djokic and Jalbert received at the concert’s end was certainly warranted, as Jalbert’s overall rhythmic precision and expressive touch at the keyboard combined with Djokic’s flamboyant flare and technical prowess on the cello make them a truly delightful performance duo to hear as a unified musical force.” (The Guardian, 18 July 2014)