Nicolas Altstaedt – Blackbirds

Nicolas Altstaedt’sstarting point for this recordingwas the magnificent Second Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): “On reading through the work for the first time, I immediately thought: why is this never played? Astonishing, how with just a few notes she can make a whole world appear.” Pianist and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Swedish Radio Orchestra and accompanieshis friend ina work composed two years earlier: Benjamin Britten’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, as well as a work by Morton Feldman from 1960,Durations II… Next comesa sonata by Sandor Veress, one of Altstaedt’s favourite composers, this time for solo cello: composed in 1967, this landmark work in the solo cello repertoire completes this overviewof music fromthe 1960s, which concludes with a live recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s famous Blackbird,recordedwith Thomas Dunford on lute and vocals, in a church in Portugalas