Elgar's Cello Concerto

Demons, seascapes and green English fields – from Elgar’s Cello Concerto, to Stravinsky’s The Firebird.

With a burst of flame and a cascade of sparks, the magical Firebird leaps into life. When Igor Stravinsky composed his great ballet, he didn’t just imagine a world of enchanted princesses, courageous heroes and green-clawed demons - he let us hear it, too. That is our final destination tonight as conductor Elena Schwarz and the RPO set out on a fantastic musical voyage that opens on the storm-tossed seas of Bishop Rock, before sinking into the embrace of Debussy’s ravishing Prélude.

Along the way, the multi-award-winning young cello virtuoso Zlatomir Fung joins us for Elgar’s autumnal-but-evergreen Cello Concerto. You may already know and love it, but you’ve never heard it played like this.

*Kindly supported by the ABO Trust’s Sirens programme and The William Alwyn Foundation.

Large print versions and digital formats of the programme for this concert are available on request for customers with accessibility requirements. Please email your request to Doran Crowhurst crowhurstd@rpo.co.uk at least one full week before the performance.