Virtuoso cello sounds / Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

Wed 16.09.
7.30 p.m.
Bremen
·Die Glocke

Virtuoso cello sounds

6th First Night subscription concert

Works by Mazzoli, Elgar and Brahms

Rarely has The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen played such a decisive role in a young musician’s career on more than one occasion, but Aurel Dawidiuk is an exception – honoured as a pianist at the 2019 Tonali Competition and as a conductor at the 2024 Ritter Prize Award Ceremony. He’ll now lead an ambitious programme featuring the incomparable Sol Gabetta as soloist in Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, a piece described at its 1919 premiere as having “meaningful simplicity” yet grounded in “profound wisdom and beauty.” Brahms, who spent over 20 years bringing his First Symphony to life, paid clear homage to his role model Beethoven in some places, while carving out his own style, even including a personal nod to Clara Schumann in the slow movement. Missy Mazzoli, one of today’s most celebrated American composers and a 2019 Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Composition, wrote her Sinfonia in the “shape of a solar system”.

Programme

- Missy Mazzoli (*1980)
- Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Cello concerto in E minor op. 85
- Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
- Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68

Conductor

Aurel Dawidiuk

Aurel Dawidiuk has been described in the Hamburger Abendblatt as a »rising star in the conducting world«. At the start of the 2026/27 season, he will take up his post as Chief Music Director of the Bochum Symphoniker and Artistic Director of the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr.

Highlights of his conducting career include engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bundesjugendorchester, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Bamberg Symphoniker, the Dresden Philharmonie, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the China National Symphony Orchestra. The 2026/27 season will see his debuts with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra della RAI di Torino and the Lucerne Symphonieorchester.

In 2023, Dawidiuk released the album B-A-C-H; ›Hommage à…‹ on the GENUIN label in co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Deutsche Musikwettbewerb; a collection of organ music that was nominated twice for the Opus Klassik award. His debut album ›Liszt | B-A-C-H‹, featuring piano pieces by both composers, had already been released in 2022.

Born in Hanover, Aurel Dawidiuk studied piano with Roland Krüger and organ with Martin Sander. He subsequently studied conducting with Johannes Schlaefli and Christoph-Mathias Mueller, as well as piano with Till Fellner, at the Zurich College of the Arts. His mentors include Hatto Beyerle, Gabriele Leporatti and Ulrike Adler.

Violoncello

Sol Gabetta

Sol Gabetta is as welcome a guest with the major international orchestras as in the world’s major concert halls and at the most important festivals. Highlights from recent seasons include her celebrated residencies with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Bamberg Symphoniker, her brilliant performance with Eun Sun and the Orchestre National de France and concerts with Valery Gergiev and the Münchner Philharmoniker. In 2020 she premiered the ›Concerto en Sol‹ composed for her by Wolfgang Rihm. In 2018 in her role as ›Artiste étoile‹ at the Lucerne Festival, she joined forces once again with Franz Welser-Möst and the Wiener Philharmoniker, François-Xavier Roth and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and also with Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her chamber music projects are also in worldwide demand such as in New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Rhiengau Music Festival and the Bonn Beethovenfest. A large network of eminent musicians appears at Switzerland’s Solsberg Festival, founded by Sol Gabetta and directed by her since its inception in 2006. This Argentinian cellist has received numerous awards for her outstanding artistic activities, including the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Osterfestspiele 2018 and the Opus Klassik ›Instrumentalist of the Year‹ Award 2019. Sol Gabetta has worked with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen for many years.

Conductor