Brantelid & Weilerstein

”Had I known that one could write a cello concerto like that, I would have done it long ago.” That is what Johannes Brahms is said to have remarked on hearing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Since its premiere the work has enjoyed enormous success, and this evening it is brought to life by Denmark’s greatest cello star with an international career, Andreas Brantelid. When Dvořák was brought to the USA to teach, he helped lay the foundations of American musical life, in which this evening’s first composer, Korngold, later came to hold a central place. Korngold’s Theme and Variations contains the essence of his unique musical style, a blend of late-Romantic harmonies, Viennese classical lyricism and the great dramatic range familiar from his film music. The Thursday concert ends with Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, which he wrote in the USA, where he had fled during World War 2. It was not always easy for him to have his music performed over there, so he had to earn a living as a pianist and on tour, even though at that time he was suffering from leukaemia.

• Dirigent: Joshua Weilerstein
• Andreas Brantelidcello

LISTEN TO MUSIC BY THE CONCERT'S COMPOSERS