String instruments, they’ve been at the centre of my musical life for as long as I can remember.

Rachael Montesino Young (Photo: Stuart Wood)

Cellist Rachael Montesino Young on the influence of Jacqueline du Pré, both of whom studied with William Pleeth, and looking forward to her concerts with London Virtuosi Ensemble.

[see Robert's 2015 interview with her, 'From ritual humiliation to meditation']

String instruments, they've been at the centre of my musical life for as long as I can remember. Whether it's the soulful, human sound of the cello – my own instrument, the thrill of a virtuoso violin, the sobering and heart-warming viola or the plangent tones of a viol. Whether played as a solo instrument, as a choir of strings in a string orchestra, or the sound of the collective string sections of a great orchestra, the alchemy of string instruments in whatever form, are somehow able to express the whole range of human experience and emotion and even beyond, reaching out and hinting at other worlds beyond ours.

And in the hands of a great artist such as Jacqueline du pre, the possibilities are for expression are truly without limits. She was one who was able to create an endless possibility of colours – pale and limpid, fierce and heroic, wondrous, tender, melting, heartbreaking, romantic, heart-warming, ennobling and on and on. And for me more than any other string player I've heard, she was the supreme artist for this.

So, it's unsurprising that all my recent projects –both upcoming and newly minted, have strings at their beating creative heart. My just recently completed a cello album called The Bearable Lightness of Being collaborates with the pianist Sophia Rahman and is dedicated to my cello heroine Jacqueline du Pre.

I was very fortunate to have shared the same cello teacher as du Pre, in the late, great William "Bill" Pleeth, and so have first-hand experience of the teaching and some of the qualities Bill would have focused on developing in du Pre's playing. She was of course her own greatest teacher, as all great artists are, but it took someone of Pleeth's artistry, imagination and approach to the cello, to develop her genius to its full fruition.

The Bearable Lightness of Being takes as its inspiration du Pre's 'Recital' recording - with a few additional surprises along the way and is due for release in January 2027.

But my upcoming orchestral projects in London involve a slightly bigger beast than a cello as they are collaborations with the London Virtuosi Ensemble – LoVE.

LoVE is a string orchestra ensemble I recently founded, with an aim to continue and foster the rich and great traditions of English string playing.

I grew up listening avidly to recordings of the great chamber orchestras active in London in the 1960's,70s and 80s. Ensembles such as The English Chamber Orchestra – at that time led by the wonderful Emanuel (Manny) Hurwitz, The Academy of St Martin's in the Field – founded and led by Sir Neville Marriner and the many wonderful recordings made by string quartets - the top of my list for me being The Amadeus Quartet but there were many more.

LoVE also takes as inspiration the supreme technique and impressive ensemble playing of Russian virtuosi string orchestras from the 1960s and 70s such as The Moscow Virtuosi.

A Terrible Beauty, LoVE's debut concert is on December 1st is part of the Temple Church's, London Winter Music Festival and is a journey through pre-war, 20th century English String Music and verse written between 1900 –1939.

And It's a great honour for us all to be performing alongside two eminent and supreme actors – Dame Harriet Smith and Toby Jones, who will be performing the themed verse interspersed throughout the musical works on the programme.

The Artistic Director of the Temple Winter Festival Robert Ogden writes, "A Terrible Beauty explores the extraordinary flowering of English string music in the first decades of the twentieth century — music of radiant lyricism and haunting emotional depth, written in the shadow of a rapidly changing world. This programme brings together some of the most evocative and beloved works in the English string repertoire.

At its heart lies a profound sense of beauty touched by fragility. Composed between the final years of the Edwardian era and the uncertain decades between two world wars, these works reflect a society poised between nostalgia and modernity, serenity and upheaval. The soaring lines of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis seem to suspend time itself, while the aching tenderness of Finzi's Romance and Elgar's Elegy speaks of loss, remembrance and longing. Frank Bridge's elegant Valse–Intermezzo captures the glittering surface of a vanished world, and Michael Tippett's exhilarating Concerto for Double String Orchestra bursts forth with rhythmic vitality, yet beneath its energy lies an undercurrent of tension and unease, hinting at the uncertainties and gathering shadows of a world on the brink of conflict.

From the sweeping grandeur of Elgar's Introduction & Allegro to the luminous spirituality of Vaughan Williams, this is music of extraordinary richness and emotional power - at once intimate and expansive, deeply English yet universal in its humanity.

A compelling and atmospheric evening of string music, A Terrible Beauty invites audiences into a sound world of warmth, passion and poignancy"

LoVE's second London December concert is at King's Place on December 18th. Again, it's an evening of classical music and poetry but this time curated and themed to take the audience on a journey through the winter solstice and the reflective introversion it can evoke.

I'm particularly looking forward to collaborating with the wonderful up and coming Estonian Violinist Hans Christian Aarvik who was winner of the Neilsen violin competition 2022. He is featuring as soloist in his compatriot Arvo Pärt's evocative work Fratres. As a fellow Estonian Hans brings a depth and subtlety of understanding to Pärts music, as I've witnessed many times when he has appeared as soloist with conductor Paavo Jarvi at Paavo's Parnu Music festival.

Hans Christian Aarvik will also feature as soloist in the rarely performed Souvenir d'un Lier Cher in an arrangement for string orchestra.

So, Fratres will set the atmosphere and mood for the evening and the evening will also include evocative music from Shostakovich and Sibelius and will conclude with one of Tchaikovsky's masterpieces, his Serenade for strings.

This serenade is a rich and highly colourful work that I like to think depicts the journey between autumn & spring – a winter's journey. From the encroaching darkness, we are led into the winter solstice and on through the slow return of light that heralds spring.

We begin with the sombre, sobering, autumnal beauty of a chorale reminiscent of Russian orthodox choirs and then on through to a winter ball of the second movement, with all its elegance, gaiety and gossip. We are then taken through to a deep, reflective and introverted Elegy – Tchaikovsky at his most richly expressive using the strings to their full sonorous power and possibility. And then on to the finale which begins by evoking a scene of a freezing winter morning on the icy Steppe. The music gradually reveals a frozen winter landscape, and then we might faintly begin to make out peasants slowly waking and readying themselves for work. What follows their toil is revelry, drinking and dancing and so onwards abruptly to return to the heart-warming, ennobling embrace of the sobering, sacred chorale of the opening. The peasants have the last word however as their gaiety gradually returns growing more insistent, driving on to a triumphant and exuberant end, heralding the return of spring and the light.

If these projects and concerts spark any interest, we'd LoVE to see you! But if you can't make either of them at this busy time of the year, we are planning our debut recording in March 2027, so maybe you can catch up with our work through this recording.

We will keep you posted .....

Love Rachael Montesino Young x