Cello Biennale: Concertgebouworkest, Altstaedt & Weilerstein: the cello takes centre stage

Alisa Weilerstein and Nicolas Altstaedt

Composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher conducts a program in which cellos take centre stage. In his extremely subtle un despertar ('an awakening', after a poem by Octavio Paz), cellist Alisa Weilerstein is the soloist. Nicolas Altstaedt is the soloist in the brand new A Sutured World by Liza Lim. In Henri Dutilleux's work, cellos literally dominate; the beautiful submerged orchestral sound evokes Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night . The finale is a twentieth-century gem – in Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony , the mist slowly lifts, gradually bringing instrument colours and melodies to the fore to be performed.

Cello Biennale

With this unique programme, the Concertgebouw Orchestra will not only be performing in the Concertgebouw, but also for the first time in two major Dutch music festivals – the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam and November Music in 's-Hertogenbosch.