Artists
 

Terje Tønnesen artistic director
Alban Gerhard cello

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Programme
 

Julian Anderson

New commissioned work for cello and orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven 

String Quartet No. 13 in B-major Op. 130 'Grosse Fuge'

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The artistic director of the NCO, Terje Tønnesen has long been working on the arrangements of Beethoven's string quartet for string orchestra. In celebration of the composer's 250th anniversary, we present one of his last quartets, Op. 130 this evening. 

The last movement of this monumental work, Grosse Fuge, towers both as an individual work and also as a part of the original quartet. It originally served as the final movement of Op. 130 written in 1825, but Beethoven's publisher urged him to replace the fugue with a new finale. In Terje Tønnesen's arrangement, we present it in its original form, as the quartet's last movement. 

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The audience is in for a breathtaking ride as we follow this rollercoaster of music with Julian Anderson's commissioned work for cello and orchestra. British composer Anderson is among the most esteemed composers today and produced an impressive body of orchestral works for the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic orchestras to name a few. 
The cello concerto is written for tonight' guest soloist Alban Gerhardt and is a co-commission by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra alongside four other European orchestras and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. 

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