Essentials: Elgars Celloconcert by Vaughan Williams, Elgar, De (2023/2023), Regente Andrew Manze, Het Concertgebouw, Amesterdã, Holanda

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Vincent Verelst. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere. When it comes to bringing the music of his compatriots Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams to life, British conductor Andrew Manze is an acknowledged expert. And Elgar’s Cello Concerto is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful concertos ever written for the instrument. The soloist is Alban Gerhardt, returning to the Concertgebouw Orchestra fourteen years after his debut. The music of Ralph Vaughan Williams may be rarely heard in the Netherlands, but it is regular fare for the British. His Fantasia on a theme of the sixteenth-century English master Thomas Tallis is a brilliant work for double string orchestra, inspired by the cathedral of Gloucester, where it was first performed. Here in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw, the piece’s spatial effects really have a chance to shine!