Tuesday 21st June 2005 at St John's Smith Square

Guy Johnston Cello

Robin Ticciati Conductor

Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor

Mahler Symphony No. 5

Read a review of this concert from classicalsource.com.

Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor Cello Guy Johnston

Guy Johnston - winner of BBC Young Musicians 2000

Schumann's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra Opus 129 was drafted in 2 weeks in a rush of creative inspiration at his appointment as music director in Düsseldorf in 1850. He launched quickly into his 3rd symphony, the 'Rhenish', but exhaustion followed and he never heard the cello concerto performed. The first performance was 4 years after Schumann's death in 1860, but it is only relatively recently that it has achieved its place in the repertoire and become regarded as a romantic masterpiece.
 

Mahler Symphony No. 5

Mahler's 5th Symphony is an epic journey from the C# minor funeral march of the first movement to a celebratory D major conclusion. The first part opens with a solitary trumpet call before the rest of the large orchestra enters. Part 2 (the 3rd movement) has reached D major and is a scherzo based on the Austrian ländler evoking lakes and mountains with echoing horn calls. The famous Adagietto in F for strings and harp leads directly into the 'Rondo-Finale'.

Excerpt from a review of this performance of Mahler's 5th:

'Secure trumpet playing launched the great funeral march and the second movement, taken at a sensible pace, had plenty of light and shade; the quiet passage for  divided cellos was a highlight. Indeed the overall playing was so heart-felt that the work emerged without the normal gloss of superficiality that afflicts so many interpretations. The final apotheosis had a genuine feeling of triumph after so long a journey through the earlier dark terrain. It was a tribute to this long-standing orchestra to take a chance on so young and relatively little-known a conductor, one who surely has a very bright future.'

Edward Clark, www.classicalsource.com.

Orchestration