Page 247 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

At this point Alban joins the call, and Unsuk greets him enthusiastically. “Your hairstyle is
new!”, she exclaims, but he shakes his head. “No, just less hair!”, he says, smiling. Gerhardt is
being modest, for he too looks bright-eyed and in good spirits. Talk inevitably turns to
the Cello Concerto Unsuk wrote for him, and they recall their first meeting. “We met first in
1999 in Helsinki”, she says. “It took a couple of years, but then I had some idea of how it
would be very nice to write a cello concerto for him. That was the beginning, but then he
had to wait almost seven years while I got the piece ready!”

Gerhardt was not impatient for the piece, however. “I am glad you mentioned that, because
it proved to me that you are not slow or lazy, but very respectful for the genre of the cello
concerto. I remember at first that you were very hesitant, and that’s a wonderful quality,
because these days it’s like everybody should be writing a cello concerto. One of the most
difficult tasks nowadays, with a big orchestra, is that you want to use it as a composer. But if
you use it, then you lose the cello. You were aware of that huge challenge, and you took your
time. It got postponed a few times, and at the Proms too, but I’m so happy – because this
piece works! The truth is that it was performed in Berlin by another cellist, Alisa
Weilerstein, which is fantastic. Which other modern cello concerto can you say that about,
that it was performed in the same city at 10 years difference by a top-class cellist? I’m very
happy about that!”

Chin smiles in gratitude. “You are always supporting me!” she laughs. “The first time we met
was through Lisa Batiashvili”, recalls Gerhardt, “and she is a close friend but also grew up
together with Unsuk’s husband, Maris Gothóni. I knew about Maris first, and then I met
Unsuk and was shocked by her charisma and aura, and then when I heard the Violin
Concerto I thought, “she needs to write a cello concerto!”

The concerto makes some fearsome technical demands, wasting no time in pitching the
soloist right to the core of the action – an aspect that Gerhardt applauds. “Actually, the