Cellist Tim Lowe and Alasdair Beatson open the 2022 festival with three classic works from the cello repertoire. Tim’s playing has been described as ‘… probing, virtuosic and yielding by turns’ and he is joined by the wonderful Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson – described in ‘The Times’ as ‘artistry incarnate’.
They begin with a late work by Beethoven; frail, ill and profoundly deaf Beethoven dug deeply into his innermost soul and found a renewed creative energy, imagining strange new music of such beauty that perhaps only a broken-hearted person might write; truly finding in himself new depths as he listened to his inner voice.
At the other extreme at the age of seventeen, Richard Strauss wrote a joyous piece full of youthful passion. Richard almost completely re-wrote his original attempt, keeping only the introductory Allegro con brio. In the new version he fills his youthful Cello Sonata with passionate, vibrant sounds that foreshadow his opera Elektra.
So in this recital we have mature Beethoven, terse and pared down to essentials, contrasting with the opulence and joie de vivre of the young Richard Strauss; both pieces written in Vienna – a creative hub without parallel! Join Tim and Alasdair in the lovely, intimate surroundings of the Unitarian Chapel in the heart of York.
