Aarhus Chamber Orchestra and Jonathan Swensen: Cello Marathon
A very special experience awaits the audience when Jonathan Swensen, one of the greatest young classical musicians from Denmark, visits the Black Diamond.
Programme
J. Haydn: Cello Concerto no. 1, C major
G. Sollima: Fecit Neap 17., for solo cello and orchestra
Intermission
F. Schubert (arr. G. Mahler): Death and the Maiden, 1st movement: Allegro, for string orchestra
E. Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
In collaboration with the Aarhus Chamber Orchestra, Swensen presents no less than three solo concertos for cello and orchestra – and if you don't think that's enough, he also plays the fiery first movement from Schubert's Death and the Maiden with the orchestra's strings.
BBC Music Magazine describes Swensen as a musician with charisma and exciting physicality
, and this is particularly evident in tonight's concert: the concert's programme takes the young cellist through numerous technical and expressive recesses of the repertoire for his instrument, and pushes the usual limits of a soloist's mental and physical endurance.
Joining the stage is Aarhus Chamber Orchestra, a musical orchestral collective consisting of Aarhus' leading, professional young musicians conducted by Magnus Plejdrup. The orchestra's concerts are said to bring the audience into a particularly magical, pleasant and uplifting mood
, and as the City's Young Ambassadors for Classical Music
, it is precisely the orchestra's vision to soften the otherwise somewhat rigid framework and labels that often surround classical concerts.
Jonathan Swensen won first prize at The Naumburg International Cello Competition in 2024, and has previously won the Khachaturian International Cello Competition (2018) and the Danish String Competition (2016). He has also been awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant (2022), the Musikanmelderringens Artist Prize (2020) and the Leonie Sonnings Musikfonds Talent Prize (2017). He has played with a host of symphony orchestras worldwide and at chamber music festivals such as Chamberfest Cleveland, Copenhagen Summer Festival and Krzyowa-Music in Poland.
In September 2022, he released his debut album Fantasia, which has received rave reviews from Gramophone and The Strad magazines as well as BBC Music.
