Bruno Philippe & Tanguy de Williencourt

Bruno Philippe cello
Tanguy de Williencourt piano

Masterworks for Cello and Piano

We are delighted to welcome the acclaimed French duo Bruno Philippe and Tanguy de Williencourt on their first visit to Sligo. Both musicians studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and have established distinguished international careers and perform regularly together in leading concert halls across Europe. Their acclaimed recordings for Harmonia Mundi have earned widespread critical praise.The programme opens with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 2, a work that transformed the relationship between cello and piano. Composed in 1796, it brims with youthful vitality and innovation, treating both instruments as equal partners in an energetic and expressive musical conversation.

Selections from Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39 follow. Originally composed in 1840 during the composer’s celebrated “Year of Song”, these settings of poems by Joseph von Eichendorff are among Schumann’s most deeply romantic creations. The programme concludes with Rachmaninoff’s magnificent Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano. Completed in 1901 after a period of profound creative crisis, the sonata is one of the great achievements of the chamber music repertoire.