Getting blown-away by incredible musicians is an honoured tradition but experiencing Simone Young and firebrand wunderkind cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a world class musical privilege. His undeniable artistry and compelling musical presence has transcended the hype of playing at the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle to secure his place among the apex of echelon performers. The Elgar Cello Concerto one of the best-loved classical works, has become one of his signature works.
It is a credit to Simone Young’s role as Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra that we can enjoy the fusion of these loved professionals.
Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 (1919)
Compared with the rich opulence of his Violin Concerto and Symphonies, Elgar’s Cello Concerto is simple and economical, while being a deeply moving lament for a world, and life, utterly changed by war and age. It is four movements, each pair alternating slow with fast music, but even the fast sections are tinged with grief. It appeared in 1918, the year that saw the Treaty of Versailles, Mussolini’s founding of the Fascist movement in Italy, and Kieth & Ross Smith complete the first England to Australia flight.
Listeners tend to hear the first and second movements, though the work is laid out in four, played without break, as a single span. Elgar sets his cello soloist in a more intimate frame. The brief opening Adagio is crisp with lyricism. The violas announce the dreamy, much loved main theme, its rocking rhythm Elgar’s characteristic pastoral lilting. The winds introduce the airy contrasting theme, which the Cello sets about varying. The Cello melody gives the uncanny impression of a dialogue between two separate voices, higher and lower, each merging in and out of the countermelodies of the supporting strings. Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s playing was extraordinary. Watching the rhythmic batonesque of Simone Young’s conducting is a spell that is a heartening experience as is the magic of the full orchestra of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
After interval, there was Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, lOp.64 (1911-15) Strauss’s hour-long work for 137 musicians, most of them horn players depicts a day in the life of a mountain through the eyes of a mountaineer, who sees night give way to a spectacular sunrise, and the various natural features as they change while gaining altitude.
The summit gained, the view superlative, the weather sometimes terrifying before the descent and the return of night. It appeared in 1915, the year that saw the first photograph of Pluto, women’s suffrage in Denmark and the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli. Strauss composed this work in Garmisch, where he could gaze out over the Zugspitze.
The form of An Alpine Symphony is spectacular, whereby the listener is drawn into the of ascending and descending of a mountain. The predictability of the descent is offset by one of the most graphic storms in musical literature. Some of the highlights include the exhilarating depiction of spray at the waterfall. Strauss uses cowbells to give a yodelling-land impression.
This was a master-class performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the ebullient Simone Young .
This performance took place at the Concert Hall Sydney Opera House on August 1 2026
