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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Elgar: Cello Concerto
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Krzysztof Urbanski Zuill Bailey is one of America’s most distinguished cellists with a fast-growing international reputation. For his sixth Telarc recording, Bailey performs Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85, the last work completed by the composer before his death. The disc also includes Vyšehrad, Vltava, and Sárka, three of the pieces that make up Smetana’s great cycle of symphonic poems “Má Vlast”. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s critically acclaimed previous Telarc recording with Zuill Bailley paired the Dvořák Cello Concerto with tone poems by the same composer. This release of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor also features music by a Czech composer in the programme, in this case the symphonic Vyšehrad, Vltava (The Moldau) and Sárka, the first three movements of Smetana’s popular six-part ode to his native land “Má Vlast (My Country)”. Zuill Bailey’s other recordings for Telarc include the disc ‘Russian Masterpieces’(CD80724); the Bach Suites for Solo Cello (TEL3197802); the Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Beethoven, with Simone Dinnerstein (CD80740); Brahms’ two Cello Sonatas and song arrangements, with pianist Awadagin Pratt (TEL3266402); and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jun Märkl (TEL3292702). “This is a real, breathing performance excitingly caught on the wing and entirely devoid of flashy thrills and spills - I warm to its keen sincerity, unvarnished honesty and total lack of mannerism. Bailey, too, is such an articulate, selfless and communicative musician that no one could fail to derive pleasure from the finished article.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 “[Bailey's] account of the Elgar concerto is distinguished by the burnished tone he draws from the 1693 Matteo Gofriller instrument on which he plays...The heart is not worn on the sleeve in the way that one finds in the classic Du Pré/Barbirolli reading (review), though Bailey and Urbański are by no means cool...I was impressed by the playing of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra throughout this disc” MusicWeb International, April 2013 | 
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| |  | Elgar & Carter: Cello Concertos
The much-anticipated album from a brilliant young American cellist marks one of the most exciting Decca Classics debuts in many years. The conductor Daniel Barenboim has been a fervent supporter of Alisa Weilerstein’s extraordinary talent since he accompanied her in Elgar’s Concerto as part of the 2010 Europa Concert in Oxford, broadcast on TV across Europe. Together, they have made a recording of searing intensity. Elgar’s Concerto is paired with a contemporary masterpiece by the doyen of American composers, the late Elliott Carter, who passed away on November the 5th at the age of 103, whose work has often been championed by Barenboim. “Weilerstein avoids nostalgia [in the Elgar] and produces instead an account that is full of passion, grief and nobility of feeling...Her interpretation [of the Carter], at once remarkably expressive and a continuous display of headlong, high-pressure virtuosity, seems to me to outrank the existing recorded versions...a thoughtfully-constructed and thought-provoking programme.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ***** “Her Elgar is not as wayward as du Pre...but it's still remarkably impressive...[in the Carter] Weilerstein, who starts on her own, as in the Elgar, brings the same immaculate tonal control to bear...Kol Nidrei is a fine vehicle for Weilerstein's gorgeous tone.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 “within the first seconds [of the Elgar], we know that Weilerstein speaks with her own voice. The muscular bowing, the sound’s depth and warmth in the opening bars: you couldn’t ask for a more characterful beginning...[The Carter] might seem as removed from Elgar as the man in the moon. Not so...with Weilerstein giving her heart and soul to Carter’s constantly evolving filigree line we’re always aware of the concerto’s singing voice.” The Times, 1st February 2013 **** “To hear an orchestra with such a distinctive central European sound playing Elgar, and relating his music so securely to the wider late-romantic tradition, is one of the disc's great pleasures. Weilerstein's approach is impressively bold and big-boned, even if she seems – for now – more comfortable with the concerto's rhetoric than its intimacy” The Guardian, 14th February 2013 **** “This is a precious disc, and certainly not in the pejorative sense. Weilerstein plays with robust vigour, but a heart-stopping moulding of phrase. She brings to the Elgar concerto... a portamento beautifully judged and asserted in a brand-new, old-fashioned way (no contradiction!).” Sunday Times, 17th February 2013 “Very ably accompanied, it is very much Weilerstein’s ascendant star which will sell this performance [of the Elgar] to you...[the Carter] is indeed a work which demands focus to appreciate, but the flow of the music has its own sense of inevitability and architectural logic, and there are plenty of magical moments to prickle the senses.” MusicWeb International, 29th April 2013  BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - February 2013 |
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| |  | Elgar: Violin & Cello Concertos
Sir Adrian Boult conducts the London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony orchestras with soloists Alfredo Campoli and Pablo Casals in Elgar’s two great string concertos. |
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| |  | Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sea Pictures & Cockaigne Overture
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| |  | Elgar: Cello Concerto
Paul Watkins is the cello soloist in a recording that showcases some of Elgar’s most popular works. He is accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, a conductor steeped in the English music tradition. Elgar studied the violin from a young age, and had some early hopes of making a career as a soloist. Consequently, he wrote for the strings of the orchestra with a special understanding and flair, not least in a handful of works for strings alone. The showpiece among these is the Introduction and Allegro, written in 1904, for the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra to be included in an all-Elgar concert. The premiere performance was conducted by the composer. Elgar started writing his Pomp and Circumstance Marches in 1901 in the wake of his national successes with the Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius. The Marches vary considerably in mood. The First March gained worldwide fame largely due to the trio melody, which Elgar considered ‘a tune that comes once in a lifetime’, and the Second displays a certain air of urgency with its brazen horn calls and jaunty trio. Also on this disc is Elgar’s intimate and restrained Elegy for Strings. The Cello Concerto in E minor, written in 1918 – 19, was the last major work Elgar completed. Its mood is often described as ‘autumnal’, and highly reflective of the ageing composer’s own state of mind. At the time of writing it, Elgar was concerned about the failing health of his wife and about his own waning popularity; he was deeply disturbed, too, by the horrors of the First World War. Paul Watkins writes of his experience of recording this work: ‘It is a privilege to have the opportunity to add my voice to the many different interpretations of this iconic work. I prepared for this recording by using my experience as a conductor: in other words, to study Elgar’s masterful score as deeply as possible, and to realise how intimately the solo cello is linked to the orchestra throughout. In this respect I feel fortunate to have been working with Sir Andrew Davis. He is the most natural and intelligent interpreter of Elgar I know.’ “Poetic pianissimos, abrupt explosions, finely tapered phrases: each of Watkins’s expressive details immediately reach the listener...There’s also perfect rapport between soloist, conductor and orchestra. Watkins’s ten years of conducting experience comes into play here...time and again the ear is moved and beguiled by Watkins’s quiet ache or varied colours or the orchestra’s sheen and fleet panache.” The Times, 6th April 2012 **** “Watkins' account seems the best to have appeared on disc for years. It has intensity, presence and warmth, which never topples over into sentimentality, and Davis and the BBC Philharmonic accompany with panache; the exchanges in the scherzo are wonderfully deft. The rest of disc is equally fine.” The Guardian, 5th April 2012 ***** “Watkins writes in the booklet that he found it “daunting” to record Elgar’s Cello Concerto...but he rises superbly to the challenge. His playing — of exceptional beauty, refinement and technical address — is all the more remarkable given that he is no longer a full-time soloist.... With Davis, one of the most experienced of all Elgarians, as his conductor, this is a valedictory account of the composer’s last important orchestral work” Sunday Times, 22nd April 2012 “Watkins plays with consummate artistry, his golden-toned and technically flawless contribution striking a judicious balance between classical poise and unexaggerated depth of feeling...Durable rewards guaranteed, then, and the same certainly holds true for Davis's dashingly articulate, meticulously observant and superbly musical handling [of the Marches]...for the two main offerings alone every Elgarian should investigate this release” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “there are times when a recording of a popular classic comes along that's so fresh, understanding and heartfelt that it demands to be approached solely on its own terms. Paul Watkins's Elgar Cello Concerto is firmly in that class. Watkins's emotional shading is individual, without it ever sounding as though he's trying to be individual.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 **** “Paul Watkins is a sensitive soloist, and he and Davis clearly have a special rapport...The BBC Philharmonic strings are richly full-blooded and rhythmically taught in the Introduction and Allegro. There is a wonderful ebb and flow to the lighter passages, which radiate warmth and geniality” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 25th July 2012 “Davis, an Elgarian of perception, understands the smallest implications in the light but beautiful orchestration, ideal accompaniment to the cello. Watkins is watchful of the detail in the heartfelt opening statement...Watkins and Davis give [the finale]...a distinct dryness of utterance. Much falls into place with this approach” International Record Review, May 2012 “Watkins does so much more than just play the tunes. His range of colour and expression is tremendous, and the instrument he uses he describes in the booklet as having a “combination of burnished woody timbres and a plangent expressivity, reminiscent perhaps of an English tenor voice.”..With stunning recorded sound, what more could one ask.” MusicWeb International, June 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Elgar: Cockaigne, Cello Concerto, Wand of Youth Suites & Elegy
Bringing together Eduard van Beinum’s complete Elgar recordings for Decca, this important historic reissue presents multi-faceted sides of the composer: his sense of national pride in Cockaigne, his fondness of childhood memories in The Wand of Youth, and his profundity in the little Elegy and his masterpiece, the Cello Concerto. The Wand of Youth music actually originated as far back as 1870 when the Elgar children, at their home at Broadheath near Worcester, concocted a family playlet for which the youthful composer provided some music. He kept the music of this enchantingly innocent premise and, 37 years later, at a time when he was feeling his way into the very different world of his first symphony, looked over the sketches and decided to re-score them for full orchestra. The music was such a success when Henry Wood premièred the first suite in London in 1907 that Elgar straightaway produced a second which, conducted by him at the 1908 Three Choirs Festival at Worcester, happily took the music right back to its geographical source nearly 40 years before. The tiny Elegy for Strings written In Memoriam for an official of the Worshipful Musicians Company who had died. In 1901 Elgar’s embrace widened when he dedicated his new overture Cockaigne ‘To my many friends the members of British orchestras.’ ‘Honest, healthy, humorous, and strong but not vulgar’ was his own description of his musical portrait of London at the turn of that century, in which the pomp and high spirits of the capital are celebrated in music of a thoroughly patriotic and exuberant style. Although Elgar lived for another fifteen years, the Cello Concerto of 1919 was his last major work: the remaining years produced only occasional pieces such as the Nursery Suite and the fifth Pomp and Circumstance march and some planned projects that were never completed. He called the Concerto ‘a man’s attitude to life’ and its introverted mood stayed with him, particularly after the death of his wife the year after it appeared. Elgar’s music was one of Eduard van Beinum’s enthusiasms, and it was fascinating in the post-war period in England to be able to hear a foreign maestro’s view of Cockaigne, the Cello Concerto and the suites of the Wand of Youth music, all recorded in London. The brilliant, sure-footed playing in the Elgar pieces heard on this disc testifies to the alert, warm-hearted response he was capable of obtaining as much from the LPO as from his Concertgebouw players. The friendliness towards musicians for which he became renowned and the absolute trust he placed in them endeared him to everybody, ultimately earning both respect and devotion. All recordings are remastered from the original sources. “Spiky, rebarbative performances, idiomatically conducted by Van Beinum. Pini's Cello Concerto combines sappy tone with nerveless intonation, in a toughly argued interpretation.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 **** “Cockaigne fairly swaggers with exuberance, the LPO responding with tremendous zest and fresh-faced application for its then chief, yet there's tenderness, poetry and humour aplenty when required” Gramophone Magazine (Cockaigne) “Anthony Pini's reading of the Cello Concerto has an unaffected quality that I like very much; its reticence matches Elgar's own and … it has the quiet sincerity that eludes those who consciously strive for it.” […] [The Cello Concerto is] played with great command of its technical difficulties. I simply don't know why, when we have a player like this [Anthony Pini] on our door-step, we don't hear more of him. He may not have the big tone of his French rivals but it is a beautiful tone and he always plays with consummate skill and sympathy … The sheer poetry of the slow movement comes through” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Europa Konzert 2010 from OxfordRecorded live at Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 1 May 2010
For over 20 years, the Berliner Philharmoniker have celebrated their foundation on May 1st with the annual Europa Konzert - this year’s concert takes place in Oxford. The orchestra, under the baton of worldwide renowned musician Daniel Barenboim, welcome cellist Alisa Weilerstein who has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines natural virtuoso command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. 'Daniel Barenboim´s programme played to the orchestra's strengths, and the sound was sumptuous. The plush strings and refulgent brass permitted him to unfold the introspective third-act prelude to Wagner's Die Meistersinger with glacial slowness, while the energy that pulsed through Brahms's First Symphony, its phrases sculpted in great expressive arcs with every detail and woodwind solo thrillingly realised, was irresistible. Between the prelude and the symphony, Barenboim conducted the young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Elgar's Cello Concerto … Barenboim's approach was refreshingly un-English, a bonus in Elgar, and the sound of the orchestra in the climaxes was overwhelming.' Guardian Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9 Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0 Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 83 mins FSK: 0 “There's no old man's regret in [Weilerstein's] performance, which is passionate and full-blooded, and shot through with grief and longing rather than any nostalgia...Barenboim has always been an excellent Brahmsian...and he rounds the concert off with a richly satisfying account of the First Symphony. No real surprises, but not far from perfection” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 ***** “The young American cellist Ailsa Weilerstein simply steals the show. Her musicianship is absolutely stunning. She captures a perfect balance between introversion and songfulness, sensitivity and whimsy, seemingly at one with the music...The filming captures the event's rapt atmosphere, if a bit busily.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 **** “[The Elgar] is gripping from the very start...[Weilerstein] never holds back and takes some impressive risks, perhaps inspired by an accompaniment that convinces me, for the time, of the Berlin Philharmonic being the finest orchestra for Elgar, as well as for everything else.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 “[In the Brahms and Wagner] the Berliners' majestic playing is deeply impressive, their timbral and intonational blend bordering on the miraculous...playing at this level of achievement still has the power to have one shaking one's head in disbelief at its sheer expertise...[Weilerstein] plays with compelling flair and understanding” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Elgar: Cello Concerto
The award winning Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta focuses her considerable talents on Late Romantic cello repertoire on her latest release on RCA Red Seal/Sony Music Entertainment. Gabetta’s sensational live recording of the Elgar: Cello Concerto is the centrepiece to a stunning new album from one of classical music’s most thrilling and successful young stars. Ms. Gabetta is joined on the works by Elgar, Dvorák and Respighi by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mario Venzago. In addition to Elgar’s concerto, Ms. Gabetta’s new release features three of Elgar’s miniatures, the introspective Sospiri and the light-hearted, romantic salon pieces Salut d’amour and La capricieuse, in new arrangements for cello and orchestra. The album also includes Antonín Dvorák’s Waldesruh and Rondo and Ottorino Respighi’s rarely recorded Adagio con variazioni. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Elgar & Britten - Cello Concertos
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| |  | Paul Tortelier
Recorded: Royal Festival Hall, London, 14 November 1972 (Elgar), Royal Festival Hall, London, 17 April 1974 (Brahms), BBC Studios, 10 February 1959 (Debussy) “This generous collection of three favourite works provides a fine portrait of the great French cellist Paul Tortelier at the height of his career in the post-war period. It is specially valuable to have his view of the Elgar Cello Concerto, which he recorded commercially at least three times. Here it comes in a live recording which gives an even warmer, more spontaneoussounding view of the piece in his distinctive interpretation.
Tortelier strongly believed that Elgar's markings should not be exaggerated, in particular the marking tenuto, at which many interpreters bring the music practically to a halt. In the second- movement Scherzo, for example, the drawing out of the tempo in two key places is markedly less here than in most rival readings.
Tortelier also felt that the portamento slides should be kept to a minimum in the first movement, something he was able to achieve thanks to his very large hands. Even so, there is no lack of warmth in the dedicated slow movement or the meditative epilogue, which are given their full emotional weight.
The performance of Brahms's Double Concerto has similar qualities, and is important too for demonstrating what a fine violinist Tortelier's son Yan Pascal is. The bright purity of his violin tone contrasts illuminatingly with the richness of his father's cello tone.
The performance of the Debussy Sonata dates from much earlier, a 1959 studio recording, which yet brings out the natural spontaneity with which Tortelier tackled this improvisational work with its many stops and starts.
Recording quality is generally good, though in the Elgar the audience is irritatingly bronchial at times.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “…a fine portrait of the great French cellist Paul Tortelier at the height of his career…[His]personality is stamped on every bar of these live performances...It is specially valuable to have his view of the Elgar Cello Concerto…in a live recording which gives an even warmer, more spontaneous-sounding view of the piece in his distinctive interpretation.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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