On Tour in Bristol

The evening

The quiet intensity of Edmund Finnis’ Cello Concerto paves the way for Bruckner’s monumental, visionary symphonic statement.

Austrian composer Bruckner may have left his Symphony No 9 incomplete, but it still serves as a summation of his life, heard here in its three-movement form. The overwhelming Adagio stands as the work’s emotional, even religious, heart, while the pounding Scherzo is among the most bombastic and inspiring of anything Bruckner conceived.

The concert begins with the Cello Concerto of Edmund Finnis, a former LSO Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composer. The composer describes the work as ‘the most lyrical, intense and emotionally direct music that I have written so far’. Over 20 minutes, Finnis runs the musical gamut of introspective beauty to outward, unrelenting energy.

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is renowned for playing of expressive beauty and power – ideal qualities for Finnis’ shimmering tableaux, completed by the LSO and Sir Antonio Pappano who summons the Orchestra’s full might for the symphonic second half.