Biography

An unerring musical instinct, intense emotionality and a natural, arresting stage presence are the defining qualities of German cellist Alban Gerhardt. Over the past decade he has established himself among the leading practitioners of his instrument. His sound is unmistakable and his interpretations of the repertory are distinguished in their originality. He has performed as soloist with many internationally-renowned orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and London Philharmonic. In 1993, Gerhardt won the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition sponsored by the University of Maryland, College Park. Reviewing his prize concert in Alice Tully Hall for the New York Times, Allan Kozinn noted that Gerhardt “played with the burnished tone, focused intonation, and technical dexterity that one expects of young soloists in these days of high-gloss conservatory training.” At the 2009 BBC Proms, he premiered a cello concerto by Unsuk Chin, which he has continued to perform around the world. Gerhardt plays a cello made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. 6th LMMC concert.

Pianist Steven Osborne is one of Britain’s most treasured musicians. He won first prize at the pretigious Clara Haskil International Piano Competition (1991) and the Namburg International Competition (1997) and was one of the first BBC New Generation Artists. Steven Osborne is Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Patron of the Lammermuir Festival and as of 2014, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. LMMC Debut.

https://albangerhardt.com/

https://www.stevenosborne.com/

Notes

Schumann referred to 1849 as his “most fruitful year.” Much of his output that year was Hausmusik   ̶  short, modest pieces intended not so much for the concert hall as to be played at home with friends and close colleagues. One of these works was the Five Pieces in Folk Style. Each piece has a distinct character and tells a story, perhaps, though that story is left to each listener’s imagination. Schumann also called 1849 his “horn” year, in which he wrote several works featuring that instrument including the Adagio and Allegro. As its title implies, it is a two-part work consisting of a slow, lyrical opening in Schumann’s dreamiest mode followed by a brilliant display of virtuosity. The cello, like the horn, has an unusually wide range, making it a logical alternative to the original scoring.

Following the death of Dmitri Shostakovich in 1975, Alfred Schnittke eventually rose to become one of the Soviet Union’s most distinguished and highly respected composers of the late twentieth century. Many of Shostakovich’s aesthetic as well as technical preoccupations played a significant part in Schnittke’s work, above all the sense of irony and alienation. In the First Cello Sonata (1978) two outer movements, both Largo, of mostly introspective, melancholic character frame a short inner movement (Presto) of blistering intensity.

Olivier Messiaen was without question one of the greatest, most original, and most influential composers of the twentieth century. Many of Canada’s composers count themselves among Messiaen’s students. Profoundly Catholic since childhood, he drew strength from a deep and unshakable faith. He was also a mystic to the core of his being. These sentiments are nowhere more potently realized than in the Quartet for the End of Time, written during Messiaen’s internment in a German prisoner-of-war camp (Görlitz, Silesia, 1940-42) for piano, violin, cello and clarinet. This deeply profound work is widely regarded as one of the monuments of the twentieth-century chamber music literature. The fifth of its eight movements is for cello and piano alone. A long phrase, infinitely slow, majestically unfolding, expatiates with love and reverence on the everlastingness of the Word of God.

Brahms wrote the second of his two cello sonatas for the virtuoso Robert Hausmann in 1886. It was tailor-made for Hausmann, who was known for his ability to project his huge sound over a piano playing fortissimo. Highly dramatic, expansive in form, and extroverted in character, Brahms’s F-major Cello Sonata stands as one of the pillars of the cellist’s repertory.

 
Robert Markow