‘You get your favourites as a composer’ - Brett Dean on his Ivors-nominated Cello Concerto

Ahead of The Ivors Classical Awards results on 14 November, Australian composer and violist Brett Dean speaks to The Strad about his 2018 Cello Concerto, which has been nominated in the awards’ best orchestral composition category. The work was commissioned by a wide range of orchestras including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, who premiered it in 2018, the Berlin Philharmonic (where Dean worked as a violist for 15 years), the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestra, and under conductors including Simone Young, Marin Alsop and Daniel Harding. Dean discusses the process behind writing the piece, why it is one of his favourite compositions yet, and his and the work’s special connection to its performer, German cellist Alban Gerhardt. 

How did the Cello Concerto come about?

The instigator was Alban Gerhardt, principally. He was staying with us in Melbourne around 2008, playing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and in an interview he said that I was writing him a cello concerto. We’d talked about it as a possibility, but he bravely put it out there in the press and I thought, ‘Well, there you go, that’s one way of going about it!’ Then when it came to it, we were able to get these wonderful orchestras on board…