Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen’s Cello Concerto no.2 written for Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg travels far in the coming months.
Two country premieres await the 23 minute piece. First in Poland, on May 12, with NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Thomas Dausgaard; then in Colombia, on September 8, with Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota under the direction of Joachim Gustafsson.
Based on Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen’s own experiences, the concerto deals with the idea of home:
Currently, I do not live in my home country but have settled in Germany, far from family and friends in order to create a home where my daughter is - a new home where there was no home before, or where the starting point the was the broken home. Perhaps the cello concerto is a metaphor? In any case, it is a personal story that creates the dynamic of the concerto, although I'm not trying to translate my life story into music. Since the personal always permeates all artistic material anyway, I might as well choose a material that contained what was most important to me personally. Hopefully the audience will find something generally human here.
The concerto received great reviews at the premiere with South Jutland Symphony Orchestra in March 2023:
Flourishing woodwinds and an idyllic sea of strings offer a pious beat in a major scale, but the stress has set in and the inevitable happens: Heavy hellish roars break out with fateful brass and intriguing strings, chiseled with distinct metal strikes. [...] “That's probably what a full-blooded romantic composer sounds like in 2023.
- Seismograf
Enjoy a selection of Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen's music
