CelloFest: From Italy with Love

Information regarding COVID-19: In order to guarantee the safety of our audience and in following the recommendations of the Finnish Government, the following concert will be live-streamed online.

CelloFest  and the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra invite you to a duo recital with the  Italian cellist Erica Piccotti and pianist Martin Malmgren, one of  HCO's founding members. The musical journey takes us from Italy with  Giuseppe Martucci's Two Romances, via Germany and Beethoven's  light-hearted third cello sonata, up north to Norway with Edward Grieg's  powerful cello sonata. Martucci played an important role in reviving  Italian interest in non-operatic music, and his Two Romances show a  highly lyrical side of the composer. Lyricism is also a key word in  Beethoven's A major cello sonata, which by some has been described as  the first cello sonata to give the two instruments equal importance. The  recital ends with the tempestuously passionate cello sonata by Grieg,  which reminiscences his piano concerto in the same key. It was a work  that Grieg himself performed in one of his final concerts in 1906,  together with no less a figure than the emerging young star, Pablo  Casals.

The concert will be live-streamed from Temppeliaukio Church on 1.3.2021 at 19:00. This concert is kindly supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Finland.