ASMF & Sterling Elliott
24 June 2027, 19:30
Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
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24 June 2027, 19:30
Thursday
Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
Programme:
Haydn L’isola disabitata (The Desert Island): Overture
Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129
-interval-
Dvořák Silent Woods, B.182
Brahms Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn Op.56a
‘He is a star cellist who has risen beyond hopeful promise to astonishing maturity. If you see his name on an upcoming venue, take the leap, and hear what he is up to, no matter what the program offers.” – The Millbrook Independent
Cellist and BBC New Generation Artist Sterling Elliot joins the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in a programme that celebrates the expressive voice of the cello in music by Schumann and Dvorak.
First, Haydn takes us to ‘The Deserted Island’ with his overture to L’isola disabitata, which conjures a world of solitude and searching, yet also playful with the adventure of being cast-away on an unknown island.
Out of that landscape steps Sterling Elliott to take us on an intimate and inward musical journey with the emotional Cello Concerto by Schumann. Written during a turbulent period in Schumann’s life, he gives the cello an almost unbroken singing line throughout the concerto.
Elliott also performs Dvořák s dreamy romance Silent Woods, a short work originally for piano that Dvořák reimagined for cello & orchestra, it evokes a Bohemian forest at dusk in which the long-breathed melody sits perfectly on the cello.
Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Haydn brings the concert full circle and to a close with one of the great acts of homage in the orchestral repertoire. The theme, borrowed from Haydn, appears manipulated and transformed throughout the eight variations, before it is celebrated in the final passacaglia.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields is the principal orchestral partner of the St Martin-in-the-Fields, which is its historic home.
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