Mats Lidström

Mats Lidström (born 1959) is a Swedish solo cellist, recording artist, chamber musician, composer, teacher and publisher. His first teacher was Maja Vogl, of the music conservatory in Gothenburg. He then went on to study at the Juilliard School (New York) with Leonard Rose whose own teaching goes straight back to Luigi Boccherini (via Felix Salmond, Bernard Whitehouse, Alfredo Piatti and Gaetano Zanetti). Lidström plays the "Grützmacher" Rocca (Giuseppe Rocca 1857).

Lidström has performed and recorded as a soloist with some of the world's major orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony, with conductors such as André Previn, Andrew Litton, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maxim Shostakovich, Leif Segerstam, Osmo Vänskä, Franz Welser Möst and Lü Jia. He has worked as principal cellist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and St Martin in the Fields of London, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, Bergen Philharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the major symphony orchestras of Sweden. Lidström gave the Scandinavian premiere of Korngold's Cello Concerto (1989) which was recorded for Swedish Radio Channel P2. Lidström commissioned and gave the world premiere of Rolf Martinsson's first cello concerto on 20 April 2005 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mario Venzago. In 1986 Lidström was invited to Moscow to play Dmitri Kabalevsky's Second Cello Concerto Op. 77 to the composer. Time was also spent with the composer in his home, sight reading Lidström’s new Tango in C major. The concerto was later recorded on a CD and conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has performed chamber music in many of the major halls, including Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y (New York City), Théâtre du Châtelet and Cité de la Musique (Paris), Musikverein (Vienna), Gulbenkian (Lisbon) and the Barbican, Wigmore, Cadogan, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival halls of London. Lidström seeks out neglected but beautiful music for the cello and has produced several highly acclaimed and award winning CDs. He appears on EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BIS, Hyperion, Musica Sveciae, Opus 3, lt=Caprice Records, as well as on his own label CelloLid. com. Lidström has appeared on TV and radio throughout Europe, Japan, the U. S (including guest appearances on Andy Warhol's TV show Interiors) and South America. He has performed at many festivals including Aspen, Kingston, Pensacola (USA), Cello Encounter (Rio de Janeiro) and across Europe, including the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain and Sweden. Lidström was the artistic director of the 2004/05 festival From Sweden in London, the greatest undertaking for Swedish classical music abroad by the Swedish government. His ancestor on his father's side, Richard Dybeck, wrote the Swedish national anthem.

Lidström was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1993 (Honorary Associate in 1998),. Prior to the Royal Academy, he taught at the Gothenburg University, Sweden. He has given master classes at conservatories in San Francisco, Cleveland and Oberlin, as well as in Australia, Brazil, Spain, South America, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, the UK and Sweden.

Lidström's compilation of orchestral excerpts for Boosey & Hawkes, The Orchestral Cellist, formed the basis for his publishing company CelloLid. com. The Essential Warm up Routine for Cellists gives practical guidance and daily warm up exercises to support all facets of cello playing. The Beauty of Scale (made possible through a research grant from the Royal Academy of Music) explores the standard scales and contains chapters on alternative scales such as pizzicato, unisons, 4ths and 7ths, and also on how to practise scales.

Compositions include Rigoletto Fantasy for cello and orchestra on Verdi's opera, Interlude for string quartet and orchestra, Maze of Love for voice, piano and orchestra, Marche Triomphale for two pianos and percussion (GSO 2012 Commission), Carnival in Venice for violin and two cellos, René Descartes in Stockholm, for solo recorder, Christmas Cookies for mezzo soprano and 3 cellos, Pigalle divertimento for two cellos.

Suite Tintin – 9 scenes from The Adventures of Tintin,. Premiered at the Wigmore Hall, London, March 2003 with Peter Jablonski. Four sets of pieces for young players (Spooky Pieces, Traffic, Ballroom Dances and Hotel Suite), a concert suite (extract from his melodrama The Stamp King, premiered at the Wigmore Hall, London December 2010), Swedish Rhapsody (for Prime Minister Olof Palme, premiered at the Wigmore Hall December 2011), Sunflowers in the night and other love songs, and Le Cygne, in honour of Camille Saint Saëns. See CelloLid. com. In addition to his original compositions and transcriptions, Lidström has published an ongoing series called If Bach was a cellist, transcriptions and adaptations based on a fantasy that Bach intended everything he wrote for the cello. Of the many transcriptions for cello as well as other instrumental combinations, composers include Rameau, Chopin, Schumann, Puccini, Debussy, Kreisler, Scriabin and Cole Porter. For his Suite de Pulcinella (cello and piano version of the 1949 orchestral score), Lidström has obtained a performance license from the Stravinsky estate.

Le Cygne – The Swan, CelloLid. com CL113
Hotel Suite for cello and piano, CelloLid. com CL103
Portraits, CelloLid. com CL108
Ballroom Dances, CelloLid. com CL104
My Heart is in the East. Raoul Wallenberg in Memoriam (for solo cello), CelloLid. com CL115
Spooky Pieces, CelloLid. com CL101
Sun Flowers in the Night and other love songs for cello and piano, CelloLid. com CL118
Traffic, CelloLid. com CL102
Mother's Day & Father's Day – two gentle pieces for cello and piano, CelloLid. com CL119
Tango, see CelloLid. com

If Bach was a cellist, Vol. 1 – Italian Concerto in F major BWV 971 for cello and piano, CelloLid. com CL100
If Bach was a cellist, Vol. 2 – Cello Concerto in A major BWV 1055, CelloLid. com CL105
If Bach was a cellist, Vol. 3 – 10 encores, CelloLid. com CL106
If Bach was a cellist, Vol. 4 – Concerto for two cellos and orchestra (piano reduction) in D minor (Double Concerto) BWV 1043, CelloLid. com CL111
If Bach was a cellist, Vol. 5 – Cello Concerto for two cellos and orchestra (piano reduction) in C minor, CelloLid. com CL114
Vivaldi Concerto in A minor for 2 cellos and orchestra (piano reduction), CelloLid. com CL110
Claude Debussy – La flûte de Pan (Syrinx) for Cello Solo, CelloLid. com CL112
Jamaican Rumba and other pieces for cellos and piano, CelloLid. com CL109

The Stamp King, (book, with artist Lars Paulsson) CelloLid. com CL107