A concert of Gallic music for cello and piano is taking place tomorrow in Valletta.
Starring French cellist Sébastien Hurtaud and Italian pianist Bruno Canino, the programme includes works for cello and piano by Debussy, Saint Saëns, Chopin, Fauré and Orr.
Hurtaud has been described by the Strad Magazine (UK) as “a cellist to watch, because he has his own style of performance, a high level of imagination and a combination of elegance and drive”. Fanfare Magazine (US) holds that he has “the soul of a Rostropovich and the technique of a Feuermann”.
After receiving the most important recognitions from several world-leading music schools, Hurtaud won first prize at the Adam International Cello Competition (New Zealand, 2009). Subsequently, he played various concerts as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO).
Since the age of 15, he has been concertising as a soloist and chamber musician all over the world, performing in very prestigious concert halls and international festivals in Europe, the US, Asia and New Zealand. Hurtaud has regularly performed with orchestras under the baton of Antoni Wit, Werner Andreas Albert, Arie van Beek and Edmon Colomer, among others.
His solo repertoire includes the great cello concertos (Shostakovich, Haydn, Dvorak, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, and more) as well as jazz concertos.
For over 50 years he has performed regularly with Antonio Ballista, his piano duo partner.
On the other hand, Canino has collaborated with many prominent string musicians, including Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, Salvatore Accardo, Viktoria Mullova and Uto Ughi and has played with leading orchestras such as the Filarmonica della Scala, Milan, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, the Berlin Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, with distinguished conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Pierre Boulez.
Additionally, he has also worked with many composers, including Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti and Mauricio Kagel, often giving world première performances of their works.
His recordings include Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Mendelssohn’s compositions for cello and piano and works by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
■ The concert is being held tomorrow at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta at 8pm. For more information or tickets, visit www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, e-mail bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt or call 2124 6389.