Pure Imagination and Happiness: Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse

by Maureen Buja  

Where is your happy place? Debussy’s 1904 work L’isle Joyeuse seems to kidnap us, fly us through the air, and deposit us in a world of warm breezes, blue skies, perhaps a fluffy cloud or two, and, of course, surrounded by all our friends.

Although those giving only a cursory look at Debussy’s biography pin this work to his elopement with Emma Bardac to the isle of Jersey (after sending his wife back to her parents in Normandy), but the work was written over a year earlier. Debussy, in writing to a performer who sought help on how to approach his music, suggested that he think of the world of the imagined faraway land, such as Watteau’s L’embarquement pour Cythère.

Watteau: L’embarquement pour Cythère, 1717 (Louvre Museum)

The picture is a blend of happiness and sadness: the three pairs of lovers shown in the right foreground, or rather the same couple in three aspects of love: New Love, Familiar Love, and the look back with regret at how it all started. This same mix of joy and regret is in Debussy’s work as well. There’s a ‘smiling ambiguity’ that besets both the painting and the music.

Debussy opens with trills and a cadenza, but it is not that which sets the key: the use of the whole-tone scale has an earlier precedent from its use in the ‘darker moments in Pelléas et Mélisande’.

The work progresses from a small, localised trill to a final gesture, much in the manner of Liszt, that encompasses the whole keyboard. It’s pure imagination and happiness, yet with a bit of a twinge.

Claude Debussy: L’Isle Joyeuse

Odette Gartenlaub

This recording was made in 1961 by the French pianist Odette Gartenlaub. She had studied at the Paris Conservatoire with the leading composers of her time, including Olivier Messiaen, Henri Busser, Noël Gallon and Darius Milhaud. She won the Prix de Rome in 1948 after having to leave the conservatoire in 1941 when the German occupiers banned all Jews from the institution. In 1959, she was a professor of piano at the Conservatoire. Her work at the Conservatoire embraced the new ideas of music practice over music theory.

Performed by

Odette Gartenlaub

Recorded in 1961

Official Website

On My Music Desk…… Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – ‘Deep River’

by Frances Wilson 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Deep river, my home is over Jordan;
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Oh don’t you want to go to that gospel feast,
that Promised Land where all is peace?
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.

African-American Spiritual

“What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk music, Dvořák for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies.” – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer  

There is something reminiscent of Brahms’ writing for the piano in the melody, harmonies and textures of Deep River, one of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 24 Negro Melodies, and if you didn’t know it was by this English mixed-race composer, you might mistake it for a lesser-known work by the great German romantic.

‘Deep River’ is a song about crossing boundaries, physical and metaphorical. Through the richness of the music’s textures, its simple yet memorable melody and its contrasting episodes – from serenity to restless drama – the composer suggests both the physical breadth and depth of a great river, and actual and ideological divides between peoples.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London in 1875 and showed early musical promise. He took violin lessons from a young age and studied at the Royal College of Music from the age of 15, initially under Charles Villiers Stanford (who also taught Gustav Holst, Rebecca Clarke, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, amongst others). He was later helped by Edward Elgar. His most significant work is ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’, a cantata inspired by the poem by Longfellow and recognised alongside Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’, but he also wrote song settings (including a setting of ‘Kubla Khan’ by his near-namesake, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and chamber works.    

© Alfred Music

‘Deep River’ is one of the best-known spirituals; Coleridge-Taylor first encountered it in a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American acapella ensemble, which he heard in concert when they visited London. Coleridge-Taylor sought to integrate traditional African music into the classical tradition, not unlike Brahms and Dvořák in their use of Eastern European and American folk music idioms in their works. ‘Deep River’ is one of 24 Negro Melodies Transcribed for the Piano, which Coleridge-Taylor published in 1905. In general, he did not use entire folk melodies in his compositions, preferring to create fantasies based on the original melody. In ‘Deep River’, the composer uses only the first four bars of the song, and dispenses with the verse-chorus-verse organisation – though fragments of the main melody return throughout the piece.

The music opens with hushed, arpeggiated chords and the timeless melody, but it quickly moves into more ambiguous harmonic territory, and at this point becomes more redolent of Brahms. The next section departs from the original in its fantasy-like treatment of the original melody, with ornamentation and considerable expressive elements. This is followed by a dramatic interlude of up-tempo octaves, almost a fanfare, before a brief return to the original melody, and a modulation into A-flat major.

The octave fanfare returns, and the music gradually subsides, in both volume and speed, before returning to the opening melody, in the original key of E major. The piece ends in a rather Lisztian fashion, with rolling E major arpeggios, marked pianissimo, and two hushed chords.

For the pianist, the music has much scope for expression and generous use of rubato will only add to the emotional power of the piece. Treat it like a late Brahms Intermezzo, with close attention not only to the main melody but also the interior details, and you have a work of great romanticism and richness.

10 Greatest Piano Concerto Openings of All Time

by Emily E. Hogstad    

 

There’s something thrilling about the opening of a great piano concerto. The big instrument gets rolled onstage; the soloist and conductor stride out to applause; the pianist sits and raises their arms and nods to the conductor to begin.

Today, we’re looking at piano concerto openings that have a claim to be among the best: excerpts that are particularly striking, surprising, or spellbinding.

Of course, when it comes to ranking classical music, there is no such thing as an objective list. Today, we’ve made some subjective calls and made a countdown list in reverse order.

Keep scrolling to find out which piano concertos we think have the best openings, and which concerto nabbed the number one spot.

10. Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor  

The first movement of Robert Schumann’s piano concerto began life as a Phantasie in A minor, which he wrote over the course of four days in May 1841.

He had just married Clara Wieck, one of the great pianists of her generation, and the work was clearly inspired by her.

Robert and Clara Schumann

Clara was so taken by the Phantasie that she urged him to write two more movements to make it an official piano concerto. He did so in 1845, and she premiered the whole concerto in December 1845.

The concerto begins with a bold, unsettled statement by the soloist, followed by a sympathetic response by the orchestra.

The soloist answers the orchestra in a dreamy way, but she soon begins to brood. And with that, listeners are off to the races.

9. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor  

This concerto dates from 1868, the height of the Romantic Era, so you might expect it to begin with a lush, Romantic flourish.

Instead, Saint-Saëns begins with a jaw-dropping solo cadenza that is clearly a tribute to Baroque Era master Johann Sebastian Bach.

This unexpected homage makes for one of the most arresting openings in the entire piano repertoire.

After the soloist pounds out the gutsy tribute to Bach, the orchestra steps in with a dramatic, almost operatic response. The piano replies, beginning a dialogue between the two forces.

The work does eventually ease into a more Romantic language, but it does so while retaining a kind of aloof Baroque aesthetic…making for a fascinating tension.

8. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue  

We’re cheating a little bit by including this one, since, technically speaking, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue isn’t a concerto. However, its opening is so iconic that it had to go on this list.

Why? That opening clarinet glissando. (In fact, that entire opening clarinet solo is unforgettable.)

Amazingly, this iconic moment in music history came about by accident.

Portrait of George Gershwin

Charles Schwartz writes in his 1979 biography:

As a joke on Gershwin…[Ross] Gorman [the clarinettist at the premiere] played the opening measure with a noticeable glissando, “stretching” the notes out and adding what he considered a jazzy, humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favorably to Gorman’s whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way…and to add as much of a “wail” as possible.

This delightful accident set the stage for a work that melded the long-standing traditions of European art music with the fresh energy of American jazz.

7. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D-minor  

Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos. Only two were written in a minor key. This was the first.

This music here sounds theatrical: like the overture to an opera set on a windswept island.

As per Classical Era convention, the soloist doesn’t enter until over two minutes in. The solo part calls for a pianist to meld restraint with storminess.

6. Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major   

Franz Liszt began writing his first piano concerto in 1830, when he was 19. According to scholars, its main themes date from this time. However, he didn’t finish and premiere it until 1855.

The opening features a bold, sassy statement in the orchestra, followed by a mind-boggling display of virtuosity by a snarling solo pianist.

Legend has it that Liszt assigned sarcastic lyrics to this opening theme: Das versteht ihr alle nicht, haha! (“None of you understand this, haha!”).

Franz Liszt

This opening theme recurs throughout the work. It’s no wonder that Béla Bartók called the concerto “the first perfect realisation of cyclic sonata form.”

5. Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-minor  

The opening to Brahms’s first piano concerto has a shocking gravity to it, especially for a composer in his early twenties.

But despite his youth, Johannes Brahms had already been through a lot. One of his mentors, Robert Schumann, had recently attempted suicide by jumping into the Rhine. After he was rescued, Schumann agreed to move into an institution for his and his family’s safety.

Many people believe that the falling sensation depicted in the opening to this concerto is a reference to Schumann’s plunge into the water and the depths of incurable mental illness.

As if all that weren’t enough, Brahms was also falling in love with Robert’s wife, Clara, who was pregnant with her eighth child, and fourteen years Brahms’s senior. The two would never marry, but would be close soulmates and creative partners for decades to come.

The tragedy and trauma of witnessing Robert’s illness, Clara’s devastation, and his own doomed love are immediately obvious in this concerto’s opening moments.

4. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G-major   

On its own, this unassuming opening might not seem particularly striking.

But here’s some important context: at the time of this concerto’s composition in 1805-1806, it was not standard for a soloist to begin a concerto.

Beethoven‘s crafting of an opening to a concerto where the orchestra didn’t state the theme first was revolutionary.

Breaking this rule encouraged later composers to create several of the other great concerto openings on this list.

3. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor   

This concerto begins with a short but monumental French horn call.

Next, the soloist accompanies a lush, wistful string theme with massive chords. The instrument practically plays a percussive role here.

Finally, the soloist takes the spotlight in a commanding solo cadenza, creating an intimidating aura of grandeur.

2. Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C-minor   

Countless classical music lovers have been drawn into the art by the dark, hypnotic opening of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto.

The opening chords in the solo part peal out like bells and lead to an equally dark, lush theme in the strings.

In under sixty seconds, Rachmaninoff creates a swirling world of passion and heartbreak.

Even today, this opening remains one of the most cinematic moments in the entire piano repertoire. (And, in fact, this concerto has been used in a number of classic films over the decades.)

But in the end, there can only be one greatest piano concerto opening of all time, and today, on this very subjective list, the prize is going to:

1. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A-minor  

Everything about this opening is unforgettable:

• The menacing, thunderous timpani roll.
• The heroic cascade of chords from the soloist, equal parts tragic and terrifying.
• The orchestra coming in with an unforgettable, folk-inspired melody.

It’s the perfect opening to a piano concerto.

Interestingly, Grieg was inspired by the first concerto on this list: Robert Schumann’s. Notably, it’s in the same key and features similar gestures in the opening…bringing this list full-circle!

Edvard Grieg, 1891

What’s your favourite piano concerto opening?

15 Career Cellists Who Became Conductors

by Janet Horvath 

To be a good conductor, you must first play a musical instrument. We professionals who’ve played in professional orchestras appreciate the conductors who have emerged from the ranks. They learn from the inside what we need from them, to name a few: Sir Neville Marriner (violin), Edo de Waart (oboe), Serge Koussevitzky (double bass), Thomas Søndergård (timpani), and Jaap van Zweden (violin – the youngest concertmaster ever appointed to the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra).

But it’s a bit rarer when world-renowned instrumentalists turn to conducting after a brilliant career as a soloist. Some extremely talented musicians do (or did) both such as Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Pinchas Zukerman, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Cellists becoming conductors seem to lead the pack. Did you know these 15 conductors were cellists in a previous life?

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) is considered by many to be the greatest conductor of all time. A perfectionist, with a phenomenal ear, an outstanding memory, and relentless intensity, his outbursts are legendary. He began as a cellist and even played the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello in 1887 at La Scala while Verdi supervised. Later, Toscanini became principal conductor at La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera (1908-1915) and the New York Philharmonic (1926-1936), as well as the famous NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937-1954, becoming a household name. He got results. Listen to him berate the orchestra, especially the bass section (scary!), and then to this sparkling interpretation of Mozart’s Cassation in G major, the “Toy” Symphony with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. 

Toscanini screaming!

Sir John Barbirolli

Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) a British cellist who became a conductor, was famous for his vibrant and expressive music making as well as his sarcastic and acerbic wit. He began his music lessons on the violin, but continually wandered around when he was practising, constantly underfoot. Barbirolli’s grandfather bought him a small cello. He couldn’t walk around playing that! Barbirolli played in theatres and cafés before joining Queen’s Hall Orchestra in 1916, becoming their youngest orchestral musician, and after World War I, he played in the London Symphony. Barbirolli succeeded Toscanini in 1936 as the music director of the New York Philharmonic (1936-1941). In 1943, Barbirolli returned to Manchester (miraculously missing being a passenger on the aircraft that was shot down with Leslie Howard on it) and rebuilt the Hallé, decimated by WWII. Later, he conducted the Houston Symphony (1960-1967), and he was a frequent guest conductor with the most important orchestras.

Pau (Pablo) Casals

Pau (Pablo) Casals (1876-1973), one of the world’s most prominent cellists, a composer, conductor, and humanitarian, toured the world playing in the most wonderful concert halls in the world. In 1919, he founded the Pau Casals Orchestra in Barcelona, which he conducted until 1936. Casals made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1904 and his Carnegie debut as a conductor in 1922. In 1927, the centenary of Beethoven’s death, Casals was invited to play and conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. He appeared frequently in Germany, but despite invitations from Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1934 to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic, Casals refused to play in Germany again with the rise of the Nazi regime. A lifelong and staunch defender of freedom, in 1939, due to Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War, Casals fled to Prades, France, an isolated Catalan village, to protest the Spanish fascist regime. Illustrious musicians repeatedly appealed to him to change his decision to live in exile, but Casals indicated that silencing the music, “is not a matter of money; it is just a matter of morality.” A group of musicians decided they must go to him instead and founded the now famous Prades Festival in 1950. Casals moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1957 and lived there until his death. Widely credited with discovering and promoting the Bach Six Solo Cello Suites in 1890 in Barcelona, his words still inspire generations of musicians:

“Music is never the same for me, never. Every day, there is something new, fantastic, and extraordinary. Bach, like nature, is a miracle!”

Read more from ‘Pablo Casals: a total musician’.

Heinrich Schiff © Dan Porges/Getty Images

Heinrich Schiff (1951-2016), an Austrian cellist, studied with André Navarra, making his London and Vienna debuts in 1971. He is esteemed for his performances and recordings of the Bach Solo Cello Suites, Shostakovich Concertos, and the Brahms Double Concerto, featuring Frank Peter Zimmerman. Schiff was also a champion of new music. He made his conducting debut in 1986 and subsequently was appointed to the Northern Sinfonia from 1990 to 1996, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra from 2005 to 2008, and was also associated with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. Sadly, he suffered a stroke in 2008, which compelled him to relinquish playing the cello and to focus on conducting. Schiff’s notable students include Truls Mørk, Gautier Capuçon and Natalie Clein. Listen to him play the fiery second movement of Shostakovich’s Sonata Op 40.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016) was a conductor, music researcher, and pioneer of historical performance practice. Harnoncourt, a cellist in the Vienna Symphony for 17 years before he became a conductor, performed with and learning from such illustrious maestros as Herbert von Karajan, Karl Richter, Karl Böhm, and Wilhelm Furtwängler. His debut as a conductor occurred in 1972 at La Scala, featuring Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi. He held the position of professor of historical performance practice at the Mozarteum Salzburg from 1973 to 1992. In the 1990s and 2000s, he shifted to romantic music and the music of the 20th century. Here he is conducting the Kyrie from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

Mstislav Rostropovich in tutu

Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007) one of the great cellists of our time who inspired numerous composers to write for him, (nearly 200 works and many commissioned by him), possessed a commanding and dazzling technique. He championed Soviet composers, as well as the cello as a solo instrument, and he was a fine pianist. His energy seemed inexhaustible. Sometimes he said only partially in jest, “when I am tired of playing the cello, I accompany my wife on the piano, and when I tire of that, I teach.” Did I mention he regularly slept only 3 hours a night? He was outspoken in his humanitarian ideals, so much so that the Soviet regime began to penalise him for his outspoken support of fellow artists such as the writer Solzhenitsyn. Slava arrived in exile in London in 1974. Rostropovich had had the conducting bug at age 13, but his father wisely cautioned him to wait. In the west, he rebuilt his career, becoming music director and conductor of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra in 1977, a position he held until 1994. I can attest to his magnetic and effusive personality, radiating especially when he led master classes or when he conducted or performed for humanitarian causes. Perhaps you didn’t know he was a jokester?

Mstislav Rostropovich in tutu

Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert (1859-1924), best known for his composing, operettas, stage music, and musicals (Babes in Toyland), began his career as a cellist in Vienna and Stuttgart. Once he moved to the US, he was the assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic for 11 seasons, conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony (1898-1904) and then his own Victor Herbert Orchestra. He continued to perform as a cello soloist throughout the country. His numerous cello compositions include the lovely Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor Op 30.

Alfred Wallenstein

Alfred Wallenstein (1898-1983) was an American cellist and conductor. His musical family emigrated from Europe to Los Angeles in 1905, and when Alfred turned 8, his father gave him a choice between a bicycle or a cello. Fortunately for the music world, he chose the latter. Emerging as a child prodigy, he soon joined the San Francisco Symphony and then the Los Angeles Philharmonic, their youngest member. After studying with Julius Klengel in Leipzig, he was snapped up to play with the Chicago Symphony, performing for seven seasons there. Always looking to enrich himself, he auditioned for Toscanini, and in 1929, Wallenstein became the New York Philharmonic principal cello, often appearing as a soloist. In 1931, Wallenstein began to conduct, becoming the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducting major orchestras as a guest, leading music festivals, and in 1968, joining the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music.

Ennio Bolognini © alchetron.com

Ennio Bolognini (1893-1979) a cellist, guitarist, composer, conductor, a professional boxer and pilot, hails from Argentina. He was the principal cello of the Chicago Symphony for one season. Bolognini conducted at Grant Park and later founded the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra (not to be confused with the orchestra today). Here’s an anecdote: One day, when Casals, Piatigorsky and Feuermann were together, Feuermann said, “Pablo. It is not you, nor Grisha, nor I who is the greatest cellist in the world. It is Ennio Bolognini.” He was quite a character. Ennio, as a young teenager, played the Swan with Saint-Saëns and the Sonata of Richard Strauss with the composer. Here is a lovely example of one of his cello bonbons played by cellist Christina Walevska.

Read more from ‘Legendary Cellists Christina Walevska and Ennio Bolognini’.

Frieda Belinfante

Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995), the Dutch cellist, conductor, and Nazi-resistance fighter, was invited by the Concertgebouw management in Amsterdam in 1937 to form and direct a chamber orchestra, a position she held until 1941—the first woman to conduct a professional ensemble in Europe. Belinfante also appeared with the Dutch National Radio and other orchestras of Europe as a guest conductor. After the war, she joined the music faculty of UCLA in 1949 to teach cello and conducting, and she became the music director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Read more from ‘Forgotten Cellist, Conductor, Heroine and LGBTQ advocate: Frieda Belinfante’.

Susanna Mälkki

Susanna Mälkki (1969-) is a Finnish conductor who won first prize at the Turku National Cello Competition. From 1995 to 1998, she was principal cello of the Gothenburg Symphony. Currently the Chief Conductor emeritus of the Helsinki Philharmonic, she was their Chief Conductor from 2016 to 2023, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2017 to 2022. Mälkki has been in demand as a guest conductor worldwide in opera houses and with orchestras including the Wiener Symphoniker, Berlin Philharmoniker, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Boston, and London Symphonies. Meet Susanna Mälkki in this short video.

Conductor Susanna Mälkki on Her Met Opera Debut 

Han-Na Chang © Luciano Romano

Han-Na Chang (1982-), a South Korean conductor and cellist, began playing the piano at age 3 and the cello at the age of 6. She studied with Mstislav Rostropovich, winning the First Prize at the Fifth International Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris in 1994 at the age of 11. Her recording of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Saint-Saëns Concerto is with her mentor conducting. She is now the chief conductor of the Trondheim Philharmonic. Chang is travelling widely, appearing with orchestras the world over. She recently made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Tatjana Vassiljeva-Monnier, first principal cello, as soloist, playing the role of the noble knight, and principal viola Santa Vižine playing the role of Sancho Panza—three women artists featured together!  

Nicolas Altstaedt

Nicolas Altstaedt (1982-), the compelling French-German cellist, has performed widely as a soloist from Berlin to Seoul, and Detroit to London, and he has performed chamber music with illustrious collaborators. As a conductor, he has worked with the Scottish and Munich Chamber Orchestras and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In 2015, Adam Fisher chose him to succeed him as the artistic director of the Haydn Philharmonie through 2022. He has not been idle for a minute during the 2024/25 season, which included several recordings, impressive debuts as a cellist, and conducting debuts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, and Kyoto Symphony. Hear him play a work of fellow conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, 2 Fragments for Lockenhaus: Ritual and Pentatonic Chain.

Eric Jacobsen

Eric Jacobsen (1982-), an American conductor and cellist, is the artistic director and co-founder of the chamber orchestra The Knights and the music director of the Virginia Symphony. He is in his 10th season as Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic. As a cellist, he and his brother founded the String quartet Brooklyn Rider, and he performed often with Yo-Yo Ma as a member of the Silk Road Ensemble.

Klaus Mäkelä © Marco Borggreve

Klaus Mäkelä (1996-) At age 31, Finnish conductor will be the second youngest chief conductor of the Concertgebouw ever when he takes on the role in 2027, and he has recently been appointed Music Director Designate of the Chicago Symphony, once again the youngest to lead the orchestra. He currently holds positions with the Oslo Philharmonic, with whom he has made several recordings, and four seasons with the Orchestre de Paris. As a cellist, he’s performed at the famed Verbier Festival (including this summer), and he is in demand as a guest conductor with orchestras including the London Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Berliner Philharmoniker, among others. Hold on to your seats. Here he is conducting the Infernal Dance from Stravinsky’s Firebird. 

And for a contrast a sublime ending to Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam this year.  

Are you convinced? Cellists are a unique bunch who may have extraordinary communicative abilities in addition to their cello-playing gifts.

*inspired by a social media post of the Concertgebouw