By Lyn Bronson

 What passes for elegance in personal appearance and concert attire continues to baffle some of us in the backwaters of central California. Photos accompanying the advance publicity for cellist Matt Haimovitz showed us a pleasant-looking young man with a big, bushy halo of curly hair (sort of like Orphan Annie’s big brother, if you will). But, what we saw in person on stage was quite different. Sporting a ponytail and dressed in Armani black from head to toe, Haimovitz looked like central casting’s conception of a hit man for a Colombian drug cartel. If you were walking down the street after dark and saw such a sinister apparition approaching, you would probably cross over to the other side and reach for your can of Mace. But, then, that’s considered sartorial “cool” these days.

Of course, what was more important was how he played. The occasion was a concert on February 10 at Sunset Center in Carmel sponsored by the Carmel Music Society. Joining him in this recital was the very able pianist Lori Lack. The program for the evening consisted of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69, Debussy’s Sonata for Cello & Piano, Gyorgi Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello, and the Mendelssohn Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58.

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