Anastasia Kobekina – winner of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019 – is a young Russian cellist of exceptional talent who is now making her mark on the international scene. Open to multiple cultures, this young virtuoso musician with her deep and supple tone ranks among the most captivating instrumentalists of the new generation.

Accompanied by the Basel Chamber Orchestra – which we are welcoming to the festival for the first time – conducted by Daniel Bard, she will showcase the full extent of her virtuosity and poetry in Tchaikovsky's brilliant Rococo Variations, as well as in several of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, whose arrangement for cello and orchestra seems to heighten their effect tenfold!

Puccini“s rare and touching Minuets, and Brahms” sublime Serenade No. 2 complete this programme full of elegance and emotion.

Giacomo Puccini: Three Minuets for String Orchestra (arr. M. Arter)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances (excerpts, arr. for cello and orchestra)

Johannes Brahms: Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16