Cellos on the Rocks

The scroll, tuning pegs, nut, neck, fingerboard, sound holes, bridge, tailpiece, top, bout, back and end pin: These are all important components of a cello. Nor may we forget the four strings, tuned to C, G, D and A at pitches ranging from 65.48 to 221 Hertz, which are made to sound by using a bow strung with horsehair. In its comfortable playing positions, the instrument’s compass extends from a low C to the G on ledger lines above the treble clef, thus covering over four octaves. The A above the aforementioned G can also be played using harmonics. Just like the violin, the cello’s complicated resonance characteristics mean it has irregular partials and pronounced formants – these are peaks in the instrument’s acoustic spectrum that occur independently of pitch.

These physical, technical characteristics are what give the cello its distinctive cantabile, singing character that makes it so popular. The warm, deep voice of the cello is able to touch us deeply and charm our hearts with its gentle, flowing sound. Its occasionally sultry tones suggest grace and pride – it’s no coincidence that Camille Saint-Saëns used it to portray the swan in his Carnival of the Animals, thereby creating a veritable monument to the instrument itself. But the cello can do far more than glide gracefully over imaginary ponds. It is renowned for its beauty, versatility and expressive power, and all these qualities will be amply demonstrated in this concert with the eight cellists of the Swiss Orchestra.

This is just what Giovanni Sollima calls for in his work Violoncelles, vibrez! (“Cellos, resound!”). And indeed they resound with beauty, intensity and virtuosity in this one-movement work: at first inwardly, quietly, then moving towards a brilliant climax, only to fall silent gradually again at the close. Sollima is not the only composer on our programme to incorporate elements of jazz in his composition, for the Argentinian grandmaster of the tango, Astor Piazzolla, similarly fuses influences from jazz, Baroque music and tango in his The four seasons of Buenos Aires, conjuring up a fascinating cityscape in sound as the seasons move before our ears from one into the next: we hear Buenos Aires shifting from tranquillity to excitement and shimmering heat, marked by transience and melancholy. Our programme also features Fabian Müller’s Swiss suite, in which he features various folk songs, and an arrangement of music from the James Bond film Casino Royale.