Bryan Cheng Performs Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1

The Canadian cellist makes his debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in this live recording

Canadian cellist Bryan Cheng recently made his debut appearance with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, in which he played Camille Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Erina Yashima.

Born in Canada and based currently in Berlin, Bryan Cheng has been a prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth, Concours de Genève, and Paulo Violin competitions. At just 14 years of age, he sold out Carnegie Hall for his debut, pulling off a similar feat in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the age of 20.

In 2022, Cheng became the first cellist to be awarded the coveted Prix Yves Paternot of the Verbier Festival Academy, and in 2023, he was a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Virginia Parker Prize.

In the current season, Cheng will make debuts with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Prague Philharmonia, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Orquesta Reino de Aragón, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.

Saint-Saëns's First Cello Concerto was written for the French cellist August Tolbecque and first performed in 1873 at the Paris Conservatoire. Despite comprising distinctly individual sections, the work is composed as a single movement. It was one of the works that first allowed Saint-Saëns to become established among French composers of the day.

The live recording, taken from a performance at the hr-Sendesaal Frankfurt on January 17, 2025, is available to view below: