Words by Ed King / Pic by Benjamin Ealovega
On Tuesday 17th January, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra performs at the Symphony Hall – presenting Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Walton’s First Symphony and Peer Gynt Suite No1. The concert will be conducted by Edward Gardner (OBE) with Truls Mørk playing solo cello.
Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets priced between £53-£12.50. For direct concert information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.
Leading the concert is Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Written in the summer after the final ceasefire of the First World War, as the remaining powers were signing the Treaty of Versailles, Elgar’s concerto for cello is both mournful and uplifting.
Opening with an Adagio, a bold lament, the concerto becomes more frenetic as the cello and orchestra spar and mirror. Then with crescendos, cadenzas and almost playful pizzicato chords, the piece lifts itself across its second movement, only to fall, as if in love, into its third. And just as the fate of the world was being decided the fourth movement ends with firm and considered power, as the protagonist leads the orchestra to its resolute conclusion. Considering the time it was both written and first performed, Elgar’s Cello Concerto is an incredibly pertinent composition – one that still holds meaning as we tread the boards of today’s febrile global stage.
Also being performed are Walton’s First Symphony and Peer Gynt Suite No 1 – the later written by Bergen’s celebrated composer, Edvard Grieg, who was conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic from 1880 to 1882.
Playing the solo cello will be Truls Mørk, a Bergen born cellist who has previously toured and performed with the Oslo Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Mørk has further received five Spellemannprisen awards for his work in Chamber, Orchestral and Classical music, as well as holding a Professorship at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Conducting the concert will be the Bergen Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor, Edward Gardner, who was the CBSO’s Principal Guest Conductor from September 2010 to July 2015. Arguably the man who saved the English National Opera, after becoming the company’s Music Director in March 2006, Gardner is revered as a talented young conductor – having worked with prolific orchestras and opera companies from across the world. This concert will be Edward Gardner’s Birmingham première with the Bergen Philharmonic.
Edward Gardner introduces the Bergen Philharmonic’s concert at the Symphony Hall 17.01.17
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra performs at the Symphony Hall on Tuesday 17th January, conducted by Edward Gardner with Truls Mørk playing solo cello. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, visit www.thsh.co.uk/event/bc-bergen-philharmonic-orchestra
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For more on the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, visit www.harmonien.no
For more on Edward Gardener, visit www.askonasholt.co.uk/artists/conductors/edward-gardner
For more Truls Mørk, visit www.nmh.no/en/about_nmh/staff/truls-mork
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For more from both the Town & Symphony Halls, including full event programmes, visit www.thsh.co.uk