Rise and shine to experience the sensational talent of two up-and-coming chamber music superstars! Leland Ko, First Prize winner of the prestigious 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition, offers one of Bach’s most famous and beloved works for solo cello alongside a contemporary take on Chinese folk songs. Hailed by CBC Music as one of the “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30”, Jacques Forestier then takes center stage with two works of breathtaking virtuosity. The two then join forces for Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, an electrifying adventure in Hungarian folk music filled with Magyar-style dances and intensely heartfelt lyricism.

PROGRAM

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prelude

Leland Ko, cello

Bright Sheng: Seven Tunes Heard in China 

I. Seasons (Qinghai)
III. The Little Cabbage (Hebei)
VII. Tibetan Dance

Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 5, Op. 27 

Jacques Forestier, violin

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst:Grand Caprice on Schubert’s “Der Erlkönig,” D. 328 
+
Zoltán Kodály: Duo for Violin and Cello Op. 7

Allegro serioso, non troppoAdagio - Andante - Tempo I
Maestoso e largamente ma non troppo lento - Presto

Jacques Forestier, violin
Leland Ko, cello