Guy Johnston joins the Britten Sinfonia as part of the Bridgewater Hall’s International Concert Series

On Tue 20 Feb, award-winning British cellist Guy Johnston takes to the stage with the world-renowned Britten Sinfonia for a breathtaking one-off concert featuring iconic compositions by Beethoven, Bartók and Sir John Tavener as part of the Bridgewater Hall’s International Concert Series.

Commencing at 7.30pm, the evening opens with Beethoven’s captivating, challenging and infamously enigmatic Grosse Fuge, an avant-garde arrangement which dismayed critics upon its 1826 debut but was later hailed by Stravinsky as ‘music that will be contemporary forever’. From the unusual to the unrestrained, Bartók’s blistering 1939 Divertimento for String Orchestra transports the listener to a fevered continental landscape as Europe teeters on the brink of war, before Johnston and the orchestra ascend to divine realms with Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, a soaring piece based on ‘the eight feasts or icons in the life of the Mother of God’. Both Johnston and the Britten Sinfonia have a profound longstanding relationship with the soaring, hopeful string arrangement – the former having worked directly with Tavener across several performances, while the Britten Sinfonia delivered six world premieres of his work and performed at his memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

Click here to book tickets.