Yo-Yo Ma, cello

with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Antoni Wit, conductor

Elgar: Enigma Variations

Elgar: Cello Concerto

Ravel: Boléro

The world knows Sir Edward Elgar primarily for his indestructibly regal march Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 (to which tens of millions have graduated high school), but there was much more to the brooding English composer than that one great tune. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Antoni Wit, will prove this when it collaborates here with the cellist of our time, Yo-Yo Ma. What more do you need to know? Elgar’s masterpiece may well be his beautiful, deeply affecting Cello Concerto, and it currently has no finer advocate than Ma, who recorded it as a young man and is now returning to it at the height of his career. The concerto has all the splendor of Elgar’s trademark style, but it is shadowed by a wistfulness, a poetic longing that will break your heart. He wrote it in the wake of World War I, when the world he knew (and, with it, an appreciation for his music) seemed to have been wrecked and abandoned. Hearing the concerto at NJPAC with Yo-Yo Ma – and in the company the composer’s first great success, the exuberant “Enigma” Variations – will be a poignant and illuminating musical encounter. The program also includes, for an electrifying change of pace, Maurice Ravel’s Boléro – a concert not to be missed. Presented in associaton with the New Jersey Sympony Orchestra.

Please note that there are no discounts for this performance.