This boxed set brings together all the recordings that cellist Pieter Wispelwey (a disciple of Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma) made for Channel Classics between 1990 and 2009: 35 recordings in 20 years and an impressive diversity of repertoire. The great masterpieces of the solo repertoire, from the Bach Suites, recorded twice - an essential reference! - to those of Britten, not forgetting Reger, Kodaly, Crumb, Hindemith and Gubaidoulina, alongside all the great concertos (Haydn, Dvorak, Schumann, Elgar, Schumann, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Lutoslawski) and also a magnificent anthology of chamber music, including sumptuous Beethoven and Brahms ensembles. This anthology also allows us to appreciate the Dutch cellist's taste for instruments, on the one hand, and to rediscover his collaborations year after year with a few well-chosen partners, such as Paul Komen, Paolo Giacometti, Dejan Lazic, and the conductor Ivan Fischer, on the other.

In April of 1996, Ofra Harnoy entered the venerable Abbey Road Studios in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra to record Edward Elgar’s great cello concerto. Unfortunately, shortly after this event, the end result did not end up where it was supposed to be and was not released to the public. In fact, the whereabouts of the recording went unknown for quite some time, afterward.

In early 2022, through some diligent searching, the lost recording was located and will now be released paired with Harnoy’s remastered recording of the Édouard Lalo Cello Concerto, on the Sony Classical label. With the help of session notes from and conversations with recording producer Andrew Keener, the 1996 Abbey Road sessions were edited (Mike Herriott) and mastered (Ron Searles). The result is what will likely be lauded as one of the definitive interpretations of Elgar’s great warhorse for the cello.

Described by the New York Times as “born to the instrument”, Ofra Harnoy brings her unmatched passion and virtuoso to Elgar’s masterpiece and final notable composition. Very much influenced by Jacqueline Du Pré’s 1965 recording, and the rare opportunity afforded her to study the work with Ms. Du Pré, in masterclass, Harnoy’s own voice comes to the fore to capture Elgar’s own anguish and heartbreak.

For her new recording, entitled Or (light), cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has devised a two-part narrative, "a series of freeze frames, like incursions into time": first, Couperin's Les leçons de ténèbres or the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. Prophecies are created in the time before. Before destruction and tears: "We hear the prophet's song of lamentation, although the possibility that this might not come to pass still exists." Then comes "our time": "Vivaldi's dramatic power brings us face to face with the present. He says, 'It's here now.'" Sonia has chosen several excerpts from his operas and from two violin concertos. She transcribed most of the pieces in this programme for solo cello or two cellos, two voices that she plays herself. She also imagined bridges to other lights, those of Mahut's percussion and Marius Atherton's electric guitar and MS20 synthesiser.

Following on the acclaimed 'Where is Home' and 'Hymns of Bantu', two genre-defying albums, 'Four Spirits' is also drawn from Abel's South African roots and seeks to create a communal experience with the audience through cello concerto, percussion, singing & improvisation. His first solo cello concerto and, formally speaking, a concerto cast in four movements - each movement takes an essential aspect of township life: ancestors, children, faith and community. Selaocoe positions himself as chief storyteller, combining cello improvising with lyrics in the Southern Sotho and Zulu languages.

.. this young musketeer of the bow has been captivating all of his audiences. He is the rising star of the French cello. -LE FIGARO Recorded with Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and conducted by Michael Sanderling, Edgar's new album features a key piece in the cello repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. The short pieces with piano, here played with the brilliant David Kadouch, give opportunities to release multiple tracks on DSP's and multiply chances to get playlisted. Telerama wrote about the artists: "Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.". Moreau was awarded at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2013 and 2015, and was named an ECHO Rising Star in 2017. He has been a Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur since fall 2023. He plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711.

Once again, cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca renews artistic perspectives in relation to his instrument. With "Legacy" (V7259) released in early 2023, he questioned the notion of heritage in music, through a mirroring between the concerti by Haydn and the works of his master Porpora, not forgetting to highlight fruitful interactions with Mozart. "Wonderful World", the fruit of a collaboration with Yann Arthus-Bertrand, awakened our consciences to environmental issues (V7362, 2021).

Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and one of the most frequently performed Italian composers in the world today. His original BaRock Cello project gave new readings to Rock pieces in the intimate setting of a solo performance, matching these to little-known 17th- and 18th-century Italian composers. These improbable contrasts and surprising connections are now extended further back to their musical roots in Folk & BaRock Cello. In this Sollima takes up the tonal colours and rhythmic grooves of archaic songs from a diversity of countries and blends the common features shared by all music, whether it is globally iconic, nationally popular, or long lost amidst the dusty manuscripts of time.

The Heart of the Cello (compilation - 30th Anniversary of death: October - Jacqueline du Pre - "She clearly was born to play the cello," wrote the New York Times of Jacqueline Du Pre in 1967. Just five years later her career was cut tragically short by illness. Du Pre's recordings provide a treasurable memento of the "perfect balance of youth and maturity" that her teacher, William Pleeth, found in her music-making: "She approached each new experience with spontaneous pleasure and enthusiasm." Offering a vivid experience of her life-enhancing art, this 2-CD set of concertos, sonatas and chamber works features recordings remastered in 24-BIT / 96kHz at London's famous Abbey Road Studios.

Abel Selaocoe, the innovative South African cellist, composer and vocalist, announces the release of his second album, Hymns of Bantu on Warner Classics on 21st February 2025. Abel follows the acclaimed release of his 2022 debut Where Is Home (Hae ke Kae) with a remarkable new body of work celebrating his South African heritage, and tracing his ancestral path that leads into his vast influences including Western classical repertoire.

Following on the acclaimed 'Where is Home' and 'Hymns of Bantu', two genre-defying albums, 'Four Spirits' is also drawn from Abel's South African roots and seeks to create a communal experience with the audience through cello concerto, percussion, singing & improvisation. His first solo cello concerto and, formally speaking, a concerto cast in four movements - each movement takes an essential aspect of township life: ancestors, children, faith and community. Selaocoe positions himself as chief storyteller, combining cello improvising with lyrics in the Southern Sotho and Zulu languages.

Vinyl LP pressing. South African cellist Abel Selaocoe makes his debut on Warner Classics with Where is Home (Hae Ke Kae). It's dual title, in English and Sesotho, reflects the album's diverse program which draws from vibrant European and African influences: pieces inspired by South African and Tanzanian musical tradition share a space with works by J.S. Bach and Giovanni Benedetto Platti, some of which are renewed with instrumental and lyrical improvisations. The title of the album holds multifaceted significance for the Manchester-based musician: "Home is the place that empowers you; it's not only a geographical place but in people as well, where you can live a life of empowerment and not of oppression. I've learned to find my different homes through the cello." Abel Selaocoe represents Africa on the move.

Abel Selaocoe, the innovative South African cellist, composer and vocalist, announces the release of his second album, Hymns of Bantu on Warner Classics on 21st February 2025. Abel follows the acclaimed release of his 2022 debut Where Is Home (Hae ke Kae) with a remarkable new body of work celebrating his South African heritage, and tracing his ancestral path that leads into his vast influences including Western classical repertoire.

Cellist Edgar Moreau, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and conductor Andris Poga, performs two concertante works from the mid-20th century: Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Concerto in C minor (1956), and Henri Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain... (1970). Both were premiered by the great Mstislav Rostropovich, which creates a special link with Moreau: in 2014 in Paris, he won the Young Soloist Prize in the Rostropovich Cello Competition. In recent years, interest has grown in the music of the Polish-born Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who was mentored by Shostakovich. The title Tout un monde lointain... evokes a distant world, and Dutilleux's five-movement work does indeed take us to a very different place from Weinberg's, drawing inspiration from the sensuous poems of Charles Baudelaire. Praising Edgar Moreau's last Erato album, Transmission, Gramophone wrote: "His tone is beautiful, his phrasing rapt, and the intensity of his delivery is magnified in the immediacy of his presence in the sound picture."

This cello prodigy belongs in the family of the greatest artists of all time, states La Provence. Recorded with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and conductor Michael Sanderling, this album from Edgar Moreau features works from composers who have been inspired by different aspects of Jewish life, religion, and culture. It includes Bruch's Kol Nidrei, Ernst Bloch's Schelomo & From Jewish Life, Korngold's Cello Concerto, and Ravel's Deux Melodies Hebraiques. Moreau loves this repertoire and gives it a prominent place in concerts: it is essential for him to "transmit" this.

The great cellist Jacqueline Du Pre would have been 80 years old on January 26, 2025, if illness had not taken her too early at the age of 42. This LP brings together Camille Saint-Saens' famous 1st Cello Concerto with Jackie's husband Daniel Barenboim at the baton, and Frederick Delius' rarer Cello Concerto, which perfectly fits with Du Pre's playing and sensitivity (this time accompanied by Sir Malcolm Sargent). Warner re-released on LP a few years ago the 1968 EMI studio recording of the Saint-Saens Concerto, also with Barenboim (but with the New Philharmonia Orchestra). The live recording on this new vinyl was made three years later, in 1971, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in it's city, and released on CD at the end of the 90s by Teldec. It is released here on vinyl for the first time.

The young French cellist Edgar Moreau, an established Erato artist, is joined by his siblings - the violinists Raphaelle and David and the pianist Jeremie - for Dvorak's five Bagatelles op 47 and Korngold's Suite op 23. As David points out, works for the combination of two violins, cello and piano are unusual: "These are wonderful pieces that are rarely played, so this is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on them." When it comes to playing as a family, Edgar feels that "There's something that works almost instinctively," while Raphaelle explains that "We don't need to look at each other, and we breathe together in a certain way. There's something very strong about it." Completing the programme are transcriptions of much-loved operatic arias from Dvorak's Rusalka and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, performed by Edgar and Jeremie

"We can start with the celestial heights of Casals and Serkin. These discs were made at the Prades Festival concerts in 1952 and 1953, and now and then you will hear the great man Casals grunt as he attacks a phrase. Casals was 76 in 1952, and his bow arm was in less than perfect control but this performance is classic."
-– Herbert Russcol, WQXR, 1969

"Humane and wonderfully wise…a revelation of warm, human, profound interpretation."
-– Edward Sackville-West (1901–1965), novelist and music critic

"Excellent both tonally and in matters of balance. Two perfectly matched musicians operate here. For every bold stroke of the Casals bow there is an equivalently authoritative gesture from Serkin."
-– Harold Schoenberg, (1915 – 2003) author and New York Times music critic