Love, hate and undiscovered worlds

A Brett Dean premiere is guaranteed to leave critics grasping for words and images. ‘A whole series of weird, wonderful landscapes culled from the imagination of science fiction … surprisingly moving’, was one reaction to his new Cello Concerto, and for its UK premiere we’ve got the cellist for whom it was created: Alban Gerhardt. That’s merely the centrepiece of a whole evening of musical exploration, opening with a loving tribute to a friend by a great French master, and ending with the first UK performance of the emotionally-charged On Love and Hatred: a major new work by Sofia Gubaidulina, arguably the greatest living Russian composer.