"I particularly love the Elgar concerto," admits Sol Gabetta in an interview in 2023. The colours, the vocalism - the wit and the liveliness that always flash up in surprising ways: For the star cellist, everything is just right here.
Yet the work had a very bumpy start to its musical life: A badly rehearsed premiere in 1919 damaged its reputation, which was only overwhelmingly restored in 1965 by the very young cellist Jacqueline du Pré. Incidentally, Elgar's Cello Concerto shares the fate of success "at the second attempt" with the second major work in the Czech Philharmonic's Heinersdorff programme. Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps also initially experienced a resounding scandal as a ballet before embarking on its triumphal march on the world's concert stages.
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Sol Gabetta, conducted by Semyon Bychkov
Antonín Dvořák: Carnival op. 92, Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor op. 85, Igor Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (Source: KTK Heinersdorff)
