RFK Cello Concerto: In Conversation with Mats Lidström

On Friday 6 June, the OPO will be performing the world premiere of the
RFK Cello Concerto composed by Mats Lidström.

As an international soloist and chamber musician Mats Lidström has gained a reputation for performances of great insight and virtuosity. He has been a member of the Royal Academy of Music since 1993 and is currently Solo Cello with the Orchestra. Mats has recorded as soloist and chamber musician for Hyperion, EMI, DECCA, BIS, and Deutsche Grammophon.

Composition highlights include Rigoletto Fantasy for cello and orchestra on Verdi’s opera, Puccini Fantasy for cello and orchestra, Maze of Love for voice, piano and orchestra, Marche Triomphale for two pianos and percussion (gso.com 2012 Commission), Carnival in Venice for violin and two cellos (EMI), My Heart Is In The East, and Raoul Wallenberg In Memoriam for solo cello (performed at the Swedish Parliament and to members of the US Congress as part of the centenary celebrations as well as a ballet performed at the Cadogan Hall). 


We caught up with Mats to chat about his process in composing this work.

Give us a short summary on the inspiration behind the piece.

It’s very much a classic concerto, a work in three movements, the usual. I think the fact that I’m also a cellist, a performer, of all sorts of repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, has been a leading star.
I have never had the inclination to be different, but to stay focused on the executing musician and the audience while, hopefully, one is talented enough to produce something that has meaning.

‘All great composers are daily companions, anyway. They are part of my day, part of my daily thoughts and emotions.’

Tell us a little about your compositional method. Did you start with the cello line and build out or did some of the orchestra parts come first?

Like Bruckner (!), I do most of the composing by the piano. Sometimes something comes to me while playing the cello. A passage, maybe. Which still needs to be developed and harmonised by the piano. I don’t follow a method, so I couldn’t say that I ‘start’ with the cello line. Sometimes I like a certain chord progression. Then the melodic line may enter my mind afterwards.

What aspect of writing this piece felt most challenging?

I cannot say anything constituted a ‘challenge’. But I know more about piano and string writing than that of timpani, bass clarinet and singers. So, it was important to consult these musicians to double-check that I hadn’t written anything technically unsuitable.

Has any specific composer inspired you for this composition?

Not really. All great composers are daily companions, anyway. They are part of my day, part of my daily thoughts and emotions. Then, of course, one has favourites, even temporary favourites.
I always have to watch out for not sounding too close to Korngold, for instance – but if I do, well, that does make me feel good!

We’ve heard there are a variety of soloists, alongside the cello. What made you come to that decision?

I would stress, they are not. I have written a concerto for one soloist. But I did have very early on a sound vision for the piece. I knew what kind of opening I intended, a long unison section. I knew I wanted a bit of marching, like in Frank Bridge’s masterpiece Oration, and I did I want the presence of the timpani because of Prokofiev’s 6th symphony. The piano because of its striking contrast to the rest of the score – or because my youngest son is a pianist? In case of the singers, they were always needed since I had texts I intended to use, all relating to the Senator.

Do you use any extended techniques in the piece?

The phrase used by many contemporary composers, ‘exhausting the possibilities of the instrument’ is tedious to me. I seek no innovation like that in my own works, no odd sounds from playing behind the bridge, no whizzling harmonics, no micro intervals or ultra complex rhythms that won’t carry across the hall, anyway. You can equally exhaust possibilities from entering the realm of a D major scale. Or see which inversion of a B flat minor chord that would modulate the most beautiful.

Tickets are still available – book now.