This year marks the tenth Cello Biënnale AMSTERDAM festival. From October 31- November 10, 2024, cellists gathered from around the world to celebrate our wonderful instrument in the largest festival of its kind. Featuring “Students Around the World”, Bach and Breakfast, a cello competition, masterclasses, multiple cello ensemble concerts, concertos performances with orchestral accompaniment, recitals, and a festival marketplace in the entrance hall where instrument makers, bow makers, and everything to do with cello is displayed, it’s everything you could possibly want to hear and participate in. A plus for cellists is to be able to try new instruments and hear secrets from the makers.
Cello Biënnale AMSTERDAM festival
To name all the performers would be difficult. For ten days, 27 international cello soloists, 6 orchestras, 11 ensembles, a choir, and other musicians from 26 countries performed over 800 performances. Some of the soloists: Truls Mørk, performed Shostakovich Cello Concerto No 2, Gary Hoffman, performed Bloch’s Schelomo, Kian Soltani was featured in the seldom performed second cello concerto by Kabalevsky, Nicolas Altstaedt played a new concerto by Liza Lim “A Sutured World – Cello Concerto (Netherlands première) and Alisa Weilerstein performed Matthias Pintscher “Un Despertar” which he wrote for her in 2017. Orchestras included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Residentie Orchestra, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Other illustrious cellists such as Frans Helmerson, Alban Gerhardt, Giovanni Sollima, and Pieter Wispelwey played solo Bach, gave master classes, served as competition judges, and played in recital. (more performers named below!)
It’s a Biënnale tradition that six of the festival days begin with breakfast of fresh juice, a warm croissant or scone, and a double cappuccino, followed by one of the six Johann Sebastian Bach Suites for Solo Cello, each performed by a different cellist. Surely the way every day should start according to cellists.
This year the Biënnale honored their famous native son, Anner Bylsma, a wonderful performer and teacher, and one of my idols who played his final concert at the inaugural 2006 Biënnale. His solo Bach is imaginative and incomparable. Bylsma utilized gut strings and wouldn’t tune up to the quite high A we tune to today. Refusing to compromise the originality of Bach, he spent years intently studying the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript of the suites and adhered to it.
J.S. Bach: Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008 – VI. Gigue (Anner Bylsma, cello)
Anner Bylsma
Bylsma also performed all the standard repertoire and virtuoso pieces. Listen to this lesser-known work (except among cellists.) Belgian cello wizard and composer, François Servais is known for his caprices, but this charming Souvenir de Spa Op. 2, in the form of a theme and variations—part love song, part fantasy, and containing folk and operatic themes, is quite a show piece. Perhaps Bylsma’s remarkable cello playing was inspired by his cello— the ‘Servais’ Stradivarius cello.
Adrien Francois Servais: Souvenir de Spa, Op. 2 (Anner Bylsma, cello; Smithsonian Chamber Players)
The entire city turns out for the Cello Biënnale AMSTERDAM but audiences are able to receive a brief introduction to the festival in a series of short videos on Biënnale TV. Here’s one from 2024.
Biënnale TV 2024 – Terugblikken met Grote Cellisten
Top talents from The Netherlands and abroad, cello students of teachers from international conservatories who performed this year, presented hour-long concert programs open to the public at no cost. One of the pieces performed this year was David Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody. Popper, known among cellists for his challenging High School of Playing, 40 studies that are virtually compulsory for technique building, also wrote many lovely cello pieces including this one.
David Popper: Ungarische Rhapsodie, Op. 68 (Maria Kliegel, cello; Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia; Gerhard Markson, cond.)
Truls Mørk
A major event during the festival is the cello competition. Illustrious cello guests adjudicate the sixteen contestants in three rounds. We cellists know what it feels like to participate in a competition. Nerve-racking! The contestants had to play a new solo cello work composed for the competition and the three finalists each played Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with orchestra. The judges look for that magical combination of utmost musicality as well as excellent technique. I found it interesting that the announcement of the winning candidate began with each contestant first receiving a bouquet of flowers and positive, constructive compliments given by a jury member. The audience favorite award was announced next before the winning candidate was revealed. This year the winner was also the audience favorite.
During these ten Biënnales 80 new works have been premiered. This year world premieres feature a new work by composer Mathilde Wantenaar who wrote a triptych for cello and chorus, a work for 5-string solo cello by Wilma Pistorius, and the piece for the cello competition, by composer Matthias Bartolomey, which all contestants had to learn. Here’s a taste of these new works.
Biënnale TV 2024 #5 – Wereldpremières
Performers are developing, stretching, and expanding the cello sound. Heightened excitement and inspiration occurred daily with infusions of Mediterranean and Arabic music from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey. The instrument has such a range of expression that it lends itself to swing, funky, rap, jazz, and sometimes uncharted territory.
Biënnale TV 2024 #7 – Grenzeloos
Marie Spaemann cello & voice, and Christian Bakanic accordion are two of the inventive performers who explore further into “borderless” sounds of soul, pop, tango nuevo, and European folk music.
Marie Spaemann & Christian Bakanic – OSCAR’S DREAM
There are special events for families too—concert programs as well as workshops for children. They love building their own instrument using old instruments and waste materials like paper, cork, and plastic caps. The children create instruments in no time that actually play—a small drum or a real bow, a cello, or a unique, cool instrument.
Cello Octet Amsterdam
Established multiple cello ensembles Cello8, Cello Unlimited, and Cello Octet Amsterdam were also featured. And speaking of, there was a delicious surprise. Perhaps the most well-known cello concerto, Antonin Dvořák’s lyrical Cello Concerto, is the ultimate concerto for cellists. But I imagine you have never heard an arrangement for five cellos. Paul Handschke, the principal cellist of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich, created the arrangement during the pandemic, when orchestras couldn’t perform. Smaller ensembles scrambled to figure out how to continue to play and Handschke’s arrangement became a hit on YouTube. Five cellists perform a captivating and stellar rendition of the Dvořák—four Swiss friends with the German cellist Maximilian Hornung playing the solo. This version was repeated during the 2024 Biënnale. It’s fantastic playing.
Antonin Dvořák: Cello Concerto with 5 cellos
And what might Cello Yurt concerts be? A yurt is a portable round dome-shaped structure like a tent but more durable. Originating in Centra Asia thousands of years ago and used as dwelling, today they are handy for more upscale camping but also studios and for cello recitals! During the Cello Biënnale, a Cello Yurt is erected on the terrace of the Muziekgebouw. Festival cellists Jean-Guihen Queyras, Matthias Bartolomey, Hayoung Choi, Raphael Weinroth-Browne, Alisa Weilerstein, Boris Andrianov, Ivan Karizna, Alban Gerhardt, Quirine Viersen, and Giovanni Sollima each presented a 45-minute solo concert in the Cello Yurt. But there’s a catch: attendees who buy a ticket for one of the concerts don’t know who will play or what they will play ahead of time.
The final concert of the Cello Biënnale is a “Cello Coupé” a 90-minute-long festive show featuring all the soloists still at the festival, in a replication of a Parisian Grand Café. The musicians try to surprise the audience and each other with highlights of the Biënnale, but in unforeseen and unique combinations of music and musicians.
It’s amazing fun with something for everyone in a cheerful atmosphere. The genial group of cellists offers multiple genres of music for every taste—classical and modern, jazz and folk, improvisation and experimental, leaving a legacy for future cellists, and inspiring music lovers and all who celebrate the beauty of music.
For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter
