English Cello Works Andreas Brantelid, Bengt Forsberg Royal Danish Orchestra & Thomas Søndergård

• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Cello Concerto in E minor:
• 1 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor: I. Adagio – Moderato (Live) 07:42
• 2 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor: II. Lento – Allegro molto (Live) 04:35
• 3 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor: III. Adagio (Live) 04:23
• 4 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor: IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio (Live) 11:17
• John Ireland (1879 - 1962): Cello Sonata in G minor:
• 5 Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: I. Moderato e sostenuto 09:04
• 6 Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: II. Poco largamente – Quasi recitativo 06:07
• 7 Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: II. Con moto e marcato 05:03
• Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941): Cello Sonata in D minor:
• 8 Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor: I. Allegro ben moderato 10:34
• 9 Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor: II. Adagio ma non troppo – Molto allegro e agitato – Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro moderato 12:29
• John Ireland: Salut d’amour, Op. 12:
• 10 Ireland: Salut d’amour, Op. 12 02:43
• Total Runtime 01:13:57

Info for English Cello Works

Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor is a cornerstone of the cello repertoire, a product of the composer’s summer seclusion in the English countryside in 1919. A masterpiece of moods, it encompasses the world-weary and poignant but also the quicksilver and passionate. Two other cello works written at around the same time proved pivotal in their composers’ careers. John Ireland’s Cello Sonata in G minor fuses brooding, terse muscularity with lyricism and bravura, while Frank Bridge’s two-movement Cello Sonata in D minor reflects pre-War Romanticism coupled with wartime melancholy and defiance.

"I enjoyed this disc very much indeed. The music has been chosen with discernment. All the performances are excellent. Andreas Brantelid impresses not only with his technical virtuosity but, just as much, with the intelligence and empathy of his interpretations. In the concerto he receives fine support from The Royal Danish Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård, while in the chamber works Bengt Forsberg is an ideal partner." (John Quinn, MusicWeb International)

Andreas Brantelid, cello
Bengt Forsberg, piano (tracks 5-10)
Royal Danish Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård, conductor (tracks 1-4)

Andreas Brantelid
was born in Copenhagen in 1987 to Swedish/Danish parents. After receiving early tuition from his father Ingemar, Andreas made his soloist debut at the age of 14 in a performance of the Elgar concerto with the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. Today, Andreas is one of the most sought-after performing artists from Scandinavia, winning worldwide critical acclaim for his ability to make the music not only sound, but both speak, dance and sing.

Highlights of recent orchestra engagements includes appearances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC Symphony, and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Yomiyuri Nippon Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Symphony, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Munich Chamber Orchestra, as well as all the major orchestras in the Nordic countries. He has worked with many distinguished conductors including Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Philippe Herreweghe, Vasily Petrenko, Thomas Dausgaard, Pablo Heras-Casado, Andrew Manze, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Robin Ticciati, and Heinrich Schiff.

Among the musicians who inspired and strongly influenced Andreas are pianist Bengt Forsberg and violinist Nils-Erik Sparf, both of whom Andreas has played with since 2002 in different chamber music formats. Andreas has also collaborated with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Joshua Bell, Vadim Repin, Nikolaj Znaider, Lawrence Power and Paul Badura-Skoda. Recently he has formed a trio with Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid and Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland. Together with Hadland he also forms the artistic direction of Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival in Norway since 2018.

Andreas Brantelid has appeared in venues such as Dortmund Konzerthaus, where he has been a ‘Junge Wilde’ artist, New York (Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall), London (Wigmore Hall), Zurich (Tonhalle), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Barcelona (Palau de la Música), Salzburg (Mozarteum) and Tokyo (Metropolitan Theatre). He also performs at festivals including Verbier, Lockenhaus, Jerusalem, Stavanger, Bergen, Risør, Kuhmo, and Wiener Festwochen, and has been a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.

His debut disc of the Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Saint-Saëns cello concertos with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra was released by EMI in 2008, and since then his discography has grown long. Most recent he released a much acclaimed CD with both Haydn Cello Concertos in 2021 with the period ensemble Concerto Copenhagen led by Lars Ulrik Mortensen and his latest release “48 Strings” from 2022 features music for 1, 2, 4 and 12 celli and pays homage to the four greatest cellists from the beginning of the 20th century. Also in 2022, he finished a remarkable project with video recordings of Piatti’s 12 Caprices available on Youtube and Apple Music.

Andreas won first prizes in the 2006 Eurovison Young Musicians Competion, the 2007 International Paulo Cello Competition and, in subsequent years, received music awards and fewllowships including the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2008, the BBC’s New Generation Artist 2008-2011, The Europan Concert Hall Organization “Rising Star” tour in the 2008/09 season. In 2015 he received the Carl Nielsen Prize in Copenhagen and since 2022 Andreas has been teaching at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Andreas plays the 1707 ‘Boni-Hegar’ Stradivarius, which has been made available to him by the generous support of Norwegian art collector Christen Sveaas. Andreas Brantelid lives with his wife and four daughters in Nærum near Copenhagen.

Bengt Forsberg
is one of Sweden’s leading pianists and is particularly esteemed as a recital accompanist.

He pursued courses at the Royal Academy of Music in Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden, training to become a church organist and cantor, but by the time of his graduation in 1978 had shifted to piano, in which he obtained his diploma. He then continued his training with Peter Feuchtwanger in London and Herman D. Koppel in Copenhagen.

He has become known for his wide repertory and his constant interest in finding neglected music. In 1999, he performed Nikolai Medtner’s Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, played as part of the multi-piano recitals in performances of Stravinsky’s The Wedding and George Antheil’s Ballet mécanique in Copenhagen, and the solo part in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety Symphony with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. His repertory includes piano solo works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Charles Alkan, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Kaikhosru Sorabji, and his recordings include compositions by Godard, Boëllmann, Koechlin, Pierné, and Alfvén.

Forsberg may be the most esteemed and in-demand accompanists. Among the artists he regularly accompanies are cellist Mats Lidström and violinist Nils-Erik Sparf. With the well-known mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter he has maintained a long-standing partnership resulting in many recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label, including a Gramophone « Record of the Year » Award for 1995 for their program of songs of Edvard Grieg. He and von Otter also collaborated in the BIS label’s ongoing complete Sibelius project. Forsberg also records for Hyperion when partnering with Lidström, and has several releases on the Caprice Records label.

He has a strong interest in French music of the 1800s, and in 1999 began a Saint-Saëns series for Hyperion. He continues to keep a relationship with church music as the director of the chamber music series of the All Saints Church in Stockholm.

Thomas Søndergård
is the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBCNOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in Europe, such as Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bayerische Staatsoper; Akademiekonzert series, Bamberger Symphoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and City of Birmingham, Orchestre National de France, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique Du Luxembourg and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

He is also a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Danish Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic.

Following his acclaimed debut for Royal Danish Opera (Poul Ruders : Kafka’s Trial), he has since returned regularly to conduct a broad repertoire, ranging from contemporary to Die Walküre, Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohème, Cunning little vixen and Il viaggio a Reims.

His Stockholm productions of Tosca and Turandot (both with Nina Stemme) led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut, conducting main season and Opera Festival performances of Turandot with her. At Staatsoper Stuttgart he has conducted Tosca and Luisa Miller. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut with the World premiere of Scartazzini’s Edward II and has since returned for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet.

Overseas appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Houston and Seattle, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, as well as Sydney Symphony and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Highlights this season for Thomas with the Minnesota Orchestra include a diverse range of programmes leading the Nordic Composers Festival, concert performances of Puccini's Turandot, and projects with leading soloists such as Yunchan Lim, Isabelle Faust, Julia Bullock and Bruce Liu. With Royal Scottish National Orchestra he will perform Mahler's epic Symphony No. 2 and close the season with a celebration of the music of Dmitri Shostakovich.

This is not to mention his debut with Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin (Elektra), Den Norske Opera (Peer Gynt), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Thomas will also lead a project with the Aarhus Symfoniorkester celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city of Holstebro - his home town.

In January 2022, Thomas was decorated with a Royal Order of Chivalry – the Order of Dannebrog (Ridder af Dannebrogordenen) by Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark.

And in January 2023 he received the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl Nielsen Foundation Honorary Award as recognition for his outstanding contribution to Danish musical life and as a support to continue his distinguished development as a conductor.

Booklet for English Cello Works