Steven Isserlis Cello Recital

A cellist of unmistakable sound and depth

British cellist Steven Isserlis appears regularly with the Berlin, Vienna and London philharmonics, among other major orchestras around the world. His recordings span the majority of the cello repertoire, earning a Gramophone Instrumental Album of the Year award for the Bach cello suites. The revered musician has given world premieres of compositions by Tavener, Adès and Kurtág, written a companion volume to the Bach suites, as well as presenting documentaries for BBC Radio.

Known for his warm, nuanced playing, and equally at home in Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary repertoire, Isserlis brings to each work a reflective musicianship matched by precise technique—every phrase shaped with care yet never sounding calculated. As he has written: “Our aim should not be that the listeners think of us, but that they hear the music speaking for itself.”

The programme moves from the wit and grace of Beethoven—a set of variations on an aria from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, followed by his third cello sonata, the most lyrical of the composer’s five sonatas for the instrument—through Schumann’s tender Three Romances, Op 94, originally composed for oboe and piano, into the folk-tinged world of Czech music: Janáček’s Pohádka, a work inspired by a Russian fairytale and Martinů’s rhythmically driven first cello sonata. Pianist Connie Shih, Isserlis’ longstanding duo partner and Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, joins him for the recital. Hailed by The Strad as “utterly mesmerising”, the pair’s recordings together include pieces from the golden decade of Romantic cello composition, wartime cello works and music from Proust’s salons.

Advance Bookings will start at 10am on 7 October 2026