Later today: Bohórquez’s recital

Here’s Claudio playing Prokofiev’s Ballade at the Lockenhaus-Burg festival. Andrius Zlabys is the pianist.

We’ve just begun recording a run-through of his concert this afternoon. Here’s what we have to look forward to:

Benjamin Britten – Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72
The 1960s were a turbulent decade for Britten: as well as writing a prodigious amount of chamber music, song cycles, folk settings, church parables, the War Requiem and the television opera Owen Wingrave, he also had to contend with threats to the Aldeburgh Festival, the conversion, burning-down and re-building of the Maltings at Snape; he also spent considerable time maintaining friendships with dissident composers inside Soviet Russia. Of them, Mstislav Rostropovich was an especial inspiration. It was for him that Britten wrote his Cello Sonata Op. 65, Cello Symphony, Op. 68, and three unaccompanied Cello Suites; Claudio performs the first of these later this afternoon.

The multi-movement Cello Suites are Britten’s reply to Each, whose cycle he had heard Rostropovich play. The first is strangely discomforting, as The Times’s music critic William Mann noted. His wonderfully Oscar Wilde-ish judgement was that the No. 1 was “less harmless than it first sounds”.

Astor Piazolla – Tango Etudes (arr. Bohórquez)
Astor Piazzolla’s large catalogue of works is unique in using the Tango as the basis for all of his compositions, though he developed the art to the point where you occasionally have to hunt for the dance underlying his complex, strictly classical music. Scored for flute and guitar, the Five Etudes are now becoming increasingly established in contemporary concert repertoire.

German-born cellist Claudio Bohórquez divides his time between international concert appearances, solo recitals, chamber music projects, and collaborations with visual and performance artists. You may have come across his Bach suites on this site – if not, here’s something to whet your appetite:

He came to the music world’s attention in 2000 when he recieved the top prize in the first International Casals Competition of the Kronberg Academy. As part of the award, he was granted two years to perform on Pablo Casals’ famed Goffriller cello. He has performed widely in Europe and America, working with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Sir Neville Marriner, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin and David Zinman. EMI Classics released his recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio a minor in 2005. His first recital CD was released in 2006 on the Berlin Classics label.