Conductor: Edward Gardner
Soloist, cello: Truls Mørk


PROGRAM
Edward Elgar: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony


When one of the world's foremost cellists, Truls Mørk, plays with the Norwegian Opera's Orchestra - it is with Elgar's melancholy swan song and one of Strauss's monumental orchestral works on the programme. The music this evening moves from the depths of the trenches to the peaks of the Alps; Elgar's Cello Concerto and Strauss' Alpine Symphony. At the head of the two masterpieces is the Opera's future music director, Edward Gardner.

Truls Mørk, brings with him a cornerstone in the cello repertoire. Edward Elgar's cello concerto is like a requiem. In stark contrast to his Pomp and Circumstance (1904), there was no triumphant military march Elgar composed when England emerged victorious from the First World War. The mournful cello concerto told of a world in ruins - and a wife on her deathbed.

But there will still be timpani and trombones when the Opera Orchestra embarks on Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony. Richard Strauss is one of our greatest orchestrators, and the Alpine Symphony is a musical tour de force through the greatness of nature and its impact on man. In familiar style, Strauss resorts to the strongest means, such as a simulated wind and thunder machine in the orchestra, a so-called Donnermaschine.