Work: Elegy for string orchestra, Op.58

Young German cellist Nicolas Altstaedt was at the emotional centre of the BBC Philharmonic’s all-Elgar concert in Manchester. An award-winner with a fast-developing global reputation, he made the opening four chords of the Cello Concerto exceptionally dramatic, more immediate than usual, as we were plunged into the composer’s agonised responses to the Great War.

Les Violons du Roy ont permis aux mélomanes de Québec de découvrir la mezzo-soprano britannique Christine Rice, qui a ébloui dans un répertoire allant de Purcell à Britten.