‘Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov & Gabetta’

Intense, endearing and introspective. Interpretations by Jacqueline De Pré, Pierre Fournier and Yo-Yo Ma have given Elgar’s Cello Concerto mythic status. The British composer – shocked by the horror of the First World War – wrote a farewell to the old world order in 1919. The Argentinean cellist Sol Gabetta is the musician you absolutely want to hear playing this phenomenal piece right now. Bozar seems to have a magnetic attraction for her, as she will be appearing no fewer than four times this season. Dvorák’s celebratory Carnival overture and the expressionist ballet Le Sacre du Printemps by Stravinsky contrast with the Cello Concerto like fire and water, as if the Czech Philharmonic and their conductor Semyon Bychkov wanted to serve up all the possibilities of the Belle Époque on a silver platter.