Instrument - Cello

Pared-down forces of the ACO performed pared down masterpieces, in a brilliantly conceived programme which included works by Wagner, Strauss and Mozart.

Husband and wife join together with the Ulster Orchestra in Ulster Hall, at the beginning of a year-long féile pairing the music of two twentieth-century giants of symphonic repertoire. 

All three of these musicians are virtuosic soloists in their own right, but here they became far more than the sum of their parts – graceful, poised, and sensitive.

The Lucerne Festival audience recently celebrated a superb solo performance by cellist Kian Soltani, the 2018 winner of the annual Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, who played with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Along with Debussy and Ravel, this lunchtime programme also celebrated Lili Boulanger and young Slovenian composer Nina Šenk.

Esa-Pekka Salonen brings the Baltic Sea Festival to an end in an eclectic, risk-taking programme of music by Biber, Beethoven and himself.