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Before we fall, the new cello concerto for Johannes Moser by composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir will have its UK Premiere on August 13 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Eva Ollikainen. Commissioned by San Francisco Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and BBC Radio 3, this will be the second performance following the World Premiere in San Francisco in May of this year under the baton of Dalia Stasevska. Thorvaldsdottir’s music was first heard at the Proms with the 2019 UK Premiere of Metacosmos, with Edward Gardner and musicians from the Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard School. In 2022, the Proms saw the World Premiere of ARCHORA with the BBC Philharmonic and Ollikainen.
Thorvaldsdottir writes of the piece, “The core inspiration behind Before we fall centres around the notion of teetering on the edge, of balancing on the verge of a multitude of opposites… The cello, both alone and deeply connected to the orchestral elements in its expression, generates the atmospheric progression of the world it inhabits, yet continuously on the verge of falling outside the reality it is building for itself.”
In the 2025-2026 season, she will join the Helsinki Philharmonic as Composer-in-Residence, where Jukka-Pekka Saraste will conduct the Finnish Premieres of Before we fall and AERIALITY. The season also includes CATAMORPHOSIS conducted by Pekka Kuusisto and AION conducted by Eva Ollikainen.
