Ryan Bancroft, conductor

Nicolas Altstaedt, cello

Sofia Gubaidulina: Fairytale Poem

Sir William Walton: Cello Concerto

Antonín Dvořák: Symphony no. 9 in E minor ‘New World’ op. 95 B.178

Nicolas Altstaedt, the new Artist-in-Association of the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and our old friend Ryan Bancroft meet for the first time in concert. Altstaedt performs William Walton’s melodic and technically demanding Cello Concerto, written for legendary cellist Grigori Pyatigorsky in 1957. Sofia Gubaidulina, who died at the age of 94 in spring 2025, wrote a Fairytale Poem in 1971, telling the story of a piece of chalk that wants to draw castles and gardens but is doomed to scribble boring words and numbers on a school blackboard. This parable of the life of a Soviet composer gains a happy ending when the chalk breaks free from the boy’s fingers and is able to depict the beauty it longs for. Dvořák’s magnificent ‘New World Symphony’ concludes our autumn with Romantic pathos that stirs both emotions and hope.

Pre-concert talk 18:10-18:30.

Tapiola Sinfonietta 2025-2026