‘It’s very close to the human voice’

THIS year’s BBC Proms provides an unexpected feast of cello music. It is the first time in 126 years that the four warhorses of the concerto repertoire—Elgar, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns and Walton—have all been played in the same season, although, says Proms director David Pickard, the programming owes more to pandemic-related pragmatism than design. ‘These concertos seem to fit for the times we are in, because of the emotional languages they speak, but also the practicalities of social distancing,’ he explains. ‘The repertoire this year is dictated by the number of players on stage and it so happens all these concertos have manageable orchestral forces.

‘They are being performed by astonishing cellists