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.Aurora Orchestra returns to the Elbphilharmonie with a memorised performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
The South African cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe has an irrepressible energy and stage presence that has taken him from a township near Johannesburg to the top of the music world. Together with London’s Aurora Orchestra, whose Elbphilharmonie debut was hailed by the press as a “courageously creative orchestra” with an “extravagantly sparkling interpretation”, the result is a guaranteed explosive evening.
Selaocoe crosses genre boundaries with ease in his cello concerto. He combines Western music from classical to soul with the sounds and traditions of his homeland – which include intense, throaty singing, which plays just as important a role in the concert as the cello.
In the second half of the concert, the Aurora Orchestra presents its trademark: a large symphonic work, played entirely from memory without sheet music. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which the composer himself described as “a sheer expression of joy, happiness and the affirmation of life,” seems to be tailor-made for the enthusiasm of the young orchestra.