Icons & Anthems: Elgar & The Blue Danube

Prize-winning cellist Anthony Ross will leave his home as principal cellist of the Minnesota Orchestra to perform his compelling interpretation of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto on the stage of Whiting Auditorium. A favorite among cellists, the piece rose to wide acclaim nearly 40 years after it premiered, when celebrity cellist Jacqueline du Pré released a recording in the 1960s. FSO will bookend the concerto with iconic pieces by Johann Strauss, Jr. and Richard Strauss. Strauss Jr.’s The Blue Danube is so well loved, in fact, that Austria adopted it as a second national anthem.