Zlatomir Fung (cello), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Ariane Matiakh

Debussy Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (1894)
Osborn Sun Sundered Head (2026) [World Premiere]
Brahms Symphony no.1 in C minor Op.68 (1876)

Cadogan Hall, London
Wednesday 21 October 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest concert at Cadogan Hall paired two very different classics, just 18 years apart, with a new work by one of the UK’s most significant younger composers and what proved a notable debut with this orchestra by one of France’s leading conductors.

Laurence Osborn’s profile has grown incrementally this past decade and Sun Sundered Head is among his most significant premieres. Inspired by one of Guillaume Apollinaire’s typically oblique poems, the trajectory of his nocturne for cello and orchestra (to quote the composer) ‘‘from dusk, to the dead of night, to dawn’’ is one of a mounting anticipation and dissipating activity, to a central cadenza that is eventful for all its inwardness, then rapidly accumulating energy as makes ever more virtuosic demands before the most heart-stopping of conclusions.

The sheer intricacy and dexterity of orchestral writing would be a challenge for any soloist to negotiate, but from which Zlatomir Fung duly emerged with keen appreciation of his being a focal-point in proceedings. Music, moreover, that reinforces Osborn’s involvement with the musical past as often provocative while always engaging to a degree communicated to those present. Following on from the TOMB!, the first album dedicated to this work, this has been an auspicious year for a composer with a great deal to say and resourceful ways of saying it.

Something similar may well have been said about Debussy after the premiere of Prélude à l’ Après-midi d’un faune, his musical evocation of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, that opened tonight’s programme. Relatively slow if never sluggish in unfolding, with its sensuous allure never in doubt at climactic moments, this was an approach that played to the strengths of the RPO (not least among them flautist Emer McDonough) and reminded one of just how game-changing this music felt as the 19th century drew – not a little uncertainly – towards its close.

Not too long before, Brahms’s First Symphony must have seemed the vindication of a very different aesthetic and it was to Ariane Matiakh’s credit that this performance evolved with unforced conviction and not a little spontaneity. Suitably implacable, the first movement’s introduction segued into an Allegro trenchant but never dogged in forward motion with no lack of impetus in its development or repose in its coda. Eloquently rendered, the ensuing Andante drew felicitous playing from the RPO woodwind as not the least of its attractions.

Poised unerringly between a wistful intermezzo and a playful scherzo, the third movement afforded ideal breathing-space before a finale that carried all before it. From its speculative introduction then radiant horn melody, Matiakh had the measure of a movement which can easily become discursive or even prolix, but here never lost focus through to an apotheosis whose resplendence never felt overbearing. Whether or not Brahms consciously emulated Beethoven in this work, his re-energizing of the symphonic genre could hardly be denied. A memorable evening which ought to lead to a continued association between the RPO and Matiakh. She is currently recording the symphonic works of Charles Koechlin for Capriccio, and it is to be hoped that one of these impressive pieces may yet achieve a UK performance.

To read more about the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2026/27 season, visit the RPO website. Click on the names to read more on cellist Zlatomir Fung, conductor Ariane Matakh and composer Laurence Osborn

Published post no.3,056 – Friday 23 October 2026