Basingstoke: Elgar’s Cello Concerto

Programme

The cello’s soulful tone has often been likened to that of the human voice, and nowhere does it speak more eloquently than in Elgar’s Cello Concerto. With Tabita Berglund conducting, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt takes us through the work’s deeply moving narrative – and is perfectly placed to do so: “Such was the purity and warmth of his tone, and so impeccable his rhythmic nuance, that one hung on every note as if they were the words of a master storyteller” (The Australian).

Elgar’s music is thrown into relief by two pieces that brim with joy: Mozart’s bubbling Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 – one of his most life-affirming works. Sibelius knits his rich tapestry of ideas together in a way that seems effortlessly spontaneous. The music ebbs and flows in a continuous stream, sometimes brimming over with passion, and ultimately building towards the work’s ecstatic conclusion.