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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Britten: Cello Symphony, Cello Sonata & Cello Suites
A major release at the start of Britten’s anniversary celebrations. Britten’s long friendship with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was one of the most inspiring and fruitful musical collaborations in history. It led directly to the composition of some of the most important works for cello of the twentieth century. Alban Gerhardt, among the greatest living exponents of the instrument, performs this body of works in its entirety. In the Cello Sonata he is partnered by Steven Osborne, whose Hyperion recording of Britten’s Piano Concerto received a Gramophone Award. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Manze join Gerhardt for the Cello Symphony, Britten’s only substantial piece of absolute symphonic music. The astonishing music for solo cello—the three suites plus the miniature Tema ‘Sacher’—completes the set. The suites are repositories of a huge number of compositional and string-playing techniques, acknowledging their debt to Bach but also demonstrating all the imagination and emotional scope for which the composer is revered. “Strongly and sensitively partnered by Steven Osborne, Gerhardt gives a wonderfully vital performance of the Cello Sonata, alert to the cunning interplay between the two instruments...[in the Suites] Gerhardt’s playing is supple, richly coloured and articulated with the utmost finesse...These performances demonstrate a mature affinity with Britten’s highly personal style” The Telegraph, 18th January 2013 “This is the fastest version of Britten's Cello Symphony on record. From the opening chords there's a brisk vigour to Alban Gerhardt's approach that marks it out as distinctive. He seems hell-bent on grasping this sometimes awkward and ungainly beast by the scruff of its neck and finding something new in its gruff exchanges...Last but not least his reading of Britten's Sonata with Steven Osborne is utterly thrilling. A must-have set for all Britten enthusiasts.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 **** “Gerhardt makes one of the strongest cases for [the Cello Symphony] on disc since the composer’s own recording with the cellist. While his partnership with Osborne in the Sonata ...sparkles, he truly comes into his own in the solo suites, the most personal music here, inspired by the keynote works of Bach.” Sunday Times, 27th January 2013 “This poetic, virtuosic player makes a powerful case for the three unaccompanied Cello Suites on the second disc. There's no shortage of recordings of these suites...but this is as good as any.” The Observer, 27th January 2013 “[Gerhardt] has a cool-headed precision Britten would probably have admired...Given Gerhardt's fine Britten credentials, this makes a recommendable package: performances are well judged, with clean-cut rhythms and good attention to detail.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | 
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| |  | Daniel Müller-Schott plays Britten & Prokofiev
Following his recording of Britten’s Cello Suites, Daniel Müller-Schott is now exploring other areas of the repertoire opened up by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra was the first major work after the Cello Sonata of 1961 that Britten was inspired to compose when an ailing Rostropovich wrote to him to claim that only “the doctor in Aldeburgh” could bring him “back to life by composing a brilliant cello concerto”. For Daniel Müller-Schott, who spent a year studying with Rostropovich, it is very much the work’s classical four-movement design that represents a challenge that is especially rewarding for the listener, with its interplay between chamber-like ensemble and symphonic rivalry with the orchestra. In the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne under its principal conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the cellist has found like-minded partners eminently capable of bringing out the clear thematic structure of the work, including its expressionistic climaxes and its interplay between stasis and motion, all of which are traced by soloist and orchestra with breathtaking brilliance. The same is true of Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto in E minor for cello and orchestra, a piece that the composer repeatedly revised and which was taken up again by Rostropovich after Prokofiev’s death and introduced to international audiences. Daniel Müller-Schott follows in his mentor’s footsteps, demonstrating both his agility and sovereign command of every register of his instrument, mastering the changes of register and enormously difficult intervals with awesome ease. Particularly captivating is the vast range of contrasts in all three movements of the piece, which begins by striking a cantabile note reminiscent of the sound world of Prokofiev’s ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' and ending in a neoclassical set of variations of the final movement, which culminates in a positively playful dance. So irresistible is the dominant brilliance that one would like to hear both Prokofiev’s 'Symphony-Concerto' and Britten’s 'Symphony for Cello and Orchestra' performed far more frequently in the concert hall. “These two 'symphony' concertos are hellishly demanding and Daniel Müller-Schott is more than equal to the task...A protege of Rostropovich, he's also well qualified to plumb their expressive depths. Yet my enthusiasm for this recording is qualified. The hectic, driven quality of his approach can become relentless...The Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto comes over best in a heroic if slightly one-dimensional performance.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 *** “[Müller-Schott and Saraste are] inclined to approach the work as a standard romantic concerto. The tone is rich and warm, the orchestral sound founded on the strings, with wind and brass more distant. Müller-Schott makes the music sing...Saraste backs him up wholeheratedly, though the WDR Symphony Orchestra's very decent playing is short on rhythmic cut-and-thrust.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra
In this new release, we present a unique group of works, including the rarely recorded Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, and one of Britten’s most popular works, the Four Sea Interludes. They are performed by the BBC Philharmonic with two exclusive Chandos artists: Edward Gardner, the music director of English National Opera and well known for his interpretations of the music of Britten, and Paul Watkins, one of the world’s leading cellists. The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra was Britten’s only substantial piece of absolute symphonic music. As the title suggests, throughout the work the soloist and the orchestra are treated on equal terms, sharing all the important melodic material. The symphony was originally written for the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich who held a unique position among the various creative partners of Britten, inspiring him to compose abstract instrumental music at a time when his heavy commitments to the operatic genre and vocal music might otherwise have left him little time or inclination for it. The work was premiered in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1964 by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic under Britten’s baton. The performance was a success, and the local students who attended the concert were so enthusiastic in their response that the finale had to be encored. The Four Sea Interludes consist of highly memorable orchestral interludes which Britten extracted for concert performance from the score of his large-scale opera Peter Grimes. The premiere of the opera famously reopened London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 1945 to such tremendous critical acclaim that the fortunes of English opera were revived almost overnight. The North Sea, both benign and savage, plays a central role in the drama and its contrasting facets are celebrated in the interludes. ‘Sunday Morning’ depicts the sun glittering on the waves and the jubilant pealing of church bells, while ‘Storm’, a ferocious orchestral tempest performed in the difficult key of E minor, symbolises Grimes’s inner turmoil and yearning for a peaceful haven. The Symphonic Suite derives from the opera Gloriana which was first performed at the Royal Opera House at a gala event in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of HM The Queen. The work depicted – perhaps unwisely in view of the audience – the ill-fated relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex. The opera’s infamously negative reception meant that the work was rarely performed again in the composer’s lifetime. Britten, however, did salvage some orchestral extracts from the opera for concert use, including the Suite featured on this disc. “this is a very good Britten disc indeed, with an interesting programme that is played with energetic commitment, scrupulous attention to detail and an obvious sympathy for the music...Gardner really seems to relish Britten's orchestral writing, and the BBC Philharmonic is on superb form throughout.” International Record Review, March 2011 “Three elements stand out: firstly, the dramatic intensity of purpose he finds in all pieces; secondly, the sizzling soloistic detail he draws from the BBC Philharmonic and, thirdly, the depth and scope of the recorded sound...Watkins is an interpreter of compelling seriousness, whose musical understanding operates at a profound level...a truly symphonic collaboration.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ***** “[Gardner's] atmospheric, emotional and musically detailed accounts of the four Sea Interludes from that great opera are a fine souvenir of his theatre performances...The BBC Phil responds excitingly and with rhythmic verve to the rarely recorded suite from Britten’s Coronation opera, Gloriana...the cod-Tudor Courtly Dances are a treat.” Sunday Times, 27th March 2011 *** “Gloriana, on the life of Elizabeth I, has never established itself in the opera house, but it’s full of wonderful music. Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic bring out the melancholy undertow and the textural subtlety lurking under the music’s ceremonial surface. The performance of the Cello Symphony with Paul Watkins is similarly sensitive.” The Telegraph, 25th March 2011 **** “Paul Watkins's performance with Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic never forgets that the work is called a symphony for good reason...In fact, all the orchestral playing is of such a high standard that one notices the other instrumental solos almost as much as Watkins's own fine-grained contributions” The Guardian, 17th March 2011  BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - April 2011 |
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| |  | Britten - Cello Symphony & Cello Suite No. 1
Britten’s Cello Symphony is at the end of a chain of works written for Rostropovich, starting with Myaskovsky’s cello sonata in 1949. Slava played the sonata at a recital at which Prokofiev was present, and Prokofiev immediately agreed to write a work for him. His Sinfonia Concertante was premiered with Shostakovich in the audience, who, in turn composed his 1st cello concerto for Rostropovich. Now it was Britten’s turn, and the composer called on Rostropovich at his hotel the next day to discuss the proposed composition. Premiered in 1963, the title of the work accurately describes the nature of the music. Although having a virtuoso solo part, the orchestra is an equal. As in a symphony the opening movement is spacious and the thematic material of the last two movements is shared, making them form an elaborate finale. Pieter Wispelwey’s 3rd recording for Onyx. Also available, Walton Violin Concerto ONYX4042, and Schubert Arpeggione Sonata and other works ONYX4046 “Pieter Wispelwey's notes to his recording suggest he has a sense of mission about performing [the Cello Symphony], and both he and...Seikyo Kim certainly go about their task with great commitment...Wispelwey is equally committed and accomplished in the first of Britten's three cello suites” The Guardian, 17th June 2010 *** “The sensibility is relentlessly astringent, the writing shot through with a dark, Dowlandish melancholy, even though the textures are transparent and even expressionistically vibrant...The balance between soloist and orchestra seems on a continuous knife edge, but Wispelwey and the conductor, Seikyo Kim, maintain a fierce control. It’s a captivating account” Sunday Times, 13th June 2010 *** “Peter Wispelwey's refined tone makes a virtue of the work's uncertainties, negotiating its vacillations between introspection and display. The Flanders Symphony Orchestra and Seikyo Kim provide intelligent support” The Independent, 27th June 2010 “Pieter Wispelwey's intelligent, penetrating musicianship and lyrical commitment will surely give [the Cello Symphony] a new lease of life, especially with the precise, sharp support of the Flanders Symphony Orchestraled by Seikyo Kim. Alongside it, the solo suite makes a dramatic story, well told.” The Observer, 27th June 2010 “it's thrilling to find a recording that shines a light into [the Cello Symphony's] aqueous depths: here is a reading of wonderful precision, colour and vitality...[Wispelwey] brings an innate understanding of Britten's voice, liberating both its power to shock and to sing with virile energy, finesse and a seemingly elastic bow.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 ***** “Wispelwey has risen to the challenge...His tone's capacity for dark malevolence, shown to such effect on his previous disc of Walton's Cello Concerto, is exercised here to the full...[Suite No. 1] is bursting with contemplative beauty, instinctive phrasing, full-toned radiance, and sure technique.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk “[Wispelwey's] appreciation for Britten's idiom is impressive and both these performances...are deeply considered...The performance of the Cello Symphony is pensive, brooding, cast in sombre colours...As one might expect, the Cello Suite No. 1 is played with similar maturity.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Elgar & Britten - Cello Concertos
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| |  | Britten & Elgar: Works for Cello and Orchestra
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“The Cello Symphony, written in 1963 as part of a series for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, was the first major sonata-form work written since the Sinfonia. The idea of a struggle between soloist and orchestra, implicit in the traditional concerto, has no part here; it's a conversation between the two. Rostropovich plays with a depth of feeling that has never quite been equalled in other recordings and the playing of the English Chamber Orchestra has great bite. The recording, too, is extraordinarily fine for its years.
From the opening drumbeat the Sinfonia employs a sonata form with dramatic power, although the tone is never fierce or savage; it has an implacable tread and momentum. The central movement, 'Dies irae', however, has a real sense of fury, satirical in its biting comment – the flutter-tongued wind writing rattling its defiance.
The closing 'Requiem aeternam' is a movement of restrained beauty. The New Philharmonia play superbly. The Cantata misericor-dium was written in 1962 as a commission from the Red Cross. It takes the story of the Good Samaritan and is scored for tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, string quartet and orchestra. It's a universal plea for charity and receives a powerful reading. A must for any Britten enthusiast.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Johannes Moser plays Shostakovich & Britten
The charismatic young virtuoso Johannes Moser performs two 20th century masterworks. Each new release from this artist has received critical acclaim and rave reviews. “…a most impressive achievement that can only enhance this gifted cellist’s growing reputation.” Gramophone (HAEN93257 Bax, Bridge, Britten Sonatas). “both these virile, confrontational works benefit from [Moser's] terrific energy and impetuous attack. He slices into the Shostakovich at speed...His ringing, acrobatic cadenza and urgent Allegro make this an exciting performance, the equal of any. The WDR Symphony Orchestra have two vital ingredients to bring to the Britten Cello Symphony: fabulous horns and lively timpani.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ***** “[Moser is] a truthful guide, hitting timings very close to the composer's own, and keeps a judicious balance between discipline and feeling. In the long cadenza he typically finds time for thoughtful expression, not just a display of technical skills. The darker resonance that envelops this performance comes largely from the more mellow orchestral playing” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012 “Moser's formidable technique surmounts every obstacle with apparent ease...but conductor Pietari Inkinen is seldom convincing...Moser's reading of the Shostakovich cello concerto is again tautly argued and concise, with classy orchestral support and an especially good solo horn player” International Record Review, June 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Shostakovich & Britten - Cello Concertos
Jamie Walton's second disc with Signum promises to follow in the formidable footsteps of his first release with the Philharmonia, where he played Elgar and Myaskovsky.The critical reaction to this disc has been phenomenal, from both mainstream papers and musical journals. Jamie's performance of the Elgar has also received a large amount of airplay support from Classic FM and much interest has already been expressed in this new recording. “Walton is a superb and unflashy exponent - there's no ego here, just consummate musicianship, excellently backed by the Philharmonia under Alex Briger, sensitive and biting in the Shostakovich, formidable and powerful in the Britten.” The Times | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Britten: Cello Symphony & Suite from Death in Venice
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