Brantelid plays Elgar

Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid won the hearts of Icelandic concertgoers when he played with the Iceland Symphony in 2016. One critic claimed to have “never heard the cello played so well”, calling Brantelid’s interpretation of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto outstanding. Now Brantelid returns with another masterpiece. Edward Elgar’s intense Cello Concerto reminds many music lovers of Jacqueline du Pré’s passionate interpretation of the piece. Brantelid has performed it all over the world since he was 14 years old and knows every gesture in it like the back of his hand.

December 2018 marks the centennial of the birth of Jórunn Viðar, and the Iceland Symphony will perform one of her milestone compositions to commemorate her. Eldur was the first symphonic work by an Icelandic woman and the first ballet staged in the country to Icelandic music. Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen also conducts Polish master Witold Lutosławski’s Symphony no. 3, written in 1983 for the Chicago Symphony and Sir Georg Solti. Generally considered one of the most powerful symphonies of the second half of the twentieth century, the work was enthusiastically received immediately upon its premiere and received the coveted Grawemeyer Prize in 1985.