Eldbjørg Hemsing

& Amalie Stalheim

with new music by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing meets cellist Amalie Stalheim for a recital of twentieth and twenty-first-century string duos in the atmospheric surroundings of Korskirken, one of Bergen’s oldest churches. The programme’s centrepiece is a work specially written for Hemsing and Stalheim by the 2026 Bergen International Festival’s Artist in residence, Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Prayer is central to the concept of Pēteris Vasks’s Castillo interior. This deeply felt meditation on the life and faith of the saint and mystic Teresa of Ávila resembles the most solemn of hymns offered up by a violin and cello entwined.

Stone, Salt and Sky by the British composer Sally Beamish was inspired by the Orkney islands and its cultural links to Norway. The music is filled with Orkney’s distinctively wide horizons but also incorporates a Hardanger fiddle tune.

Maurice Ravel wrote his Duo for Violin and Cello – arguably the greatest masterpiece ever written for the two instruments – as a memorial to Claude Debussy. The music is ‘stripped to the bone’ according to the composer. But it has plenty of verve and elegance and even some tantalising gameplay between major and minor keys.

Image on top: Eldbjørg Hemsing. Photo: Gregor Hohenberg. Amalie Stalheim. Photo: Kristina Raitciz

Supported by

Contributors

• Eldbjørg Hemsing violin

• Amalie Stalheim cello

Works

• Pēteris Vasks (1946–)
  Castillo interior

• Sally Beamish (1956–)
  From Stone, Salt and Sky

• Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958–)
  World Premiere, title to be announced

• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
  Sonata for Violin and Cello, M.73
  1. Allegro
  2. Très vif
  3. Lent
  4. Vif, avec entrain