Elgar Cello Concerto discography

Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto received its first complete recording in 1928. A truncated version had been recorded under the composer's supervision, using the acoustic recording process, but it was not until the introduction of electrical recording in the mid-1920s that large orchestral works of this kind could be adequately put on disc. All the recordings up to 1963 were monaural. The first stereophonic studio recording, by Jacqueline du Pré, the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli, has remained in the catalogues continuously since its first release, and is still used by many as a touchstone.[1]

Recordings by date

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Soloist Orchestra Conductor Label Date
Beatrice Harrison Symphony Orchestra[n 1] Sir Edward Elgar HMV 1919/1920
Beatrice Harrison New Symphony Orchestra Sir Edward Elgar HMV 1928
W H Squire Hallé Orchestra Sir Hamilton Harty Columbia 1930
Gregor Piatigorsky New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra John Barbirolli Somm 1940 (live recording)
Pablo Casals BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult EMI 1945
Anthony Pini London Philharmonic Orchestra Eduard van Beinum Decca 1950
Paul Tortelier BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent EMI 1954
Pierre Fournier Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Hans Rosbaud Archipel 1955
André Navarra Hallé Orchestra Sir John Barbirolli Pye 1957
Mstislav Rostropovich Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Natan Rakhlin Revelation 1958 (live recording)
Jacqueline du Pré BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent Pristine Audio 1962 (live recording)
Jacqueline du Pré BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent Intaglio 1963 (live recording)
Jacqueline du Pré BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent BBC Legends 1964 (live recording)
Mstislav Rostropovich Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Russiandisc 1964 (live recording)
Mstislav Rostropovich London Symphony Orchestra Gennadi Rozhdestvensky BBC Legends 1965 (live recording)
Jacqueline du Pré London Symphony Orchestra Sir John Barbirolli EMI 1965
Pierre Fournier Berliner Philharmoniker Alfred Wallenstein DG 1967
Jacqueline du Pré BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir John Barbirolli Testament 1967 (live recording)
Mstislav Rostropovich London Symphony Orchestra Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Intaglio 1967 (live recording)
Vladimir Orloff Hallé Orchestra Sir John Barbirolli Doremi 1968 (live recording)
Zara Nelsova BBC Symphony Orchestra Charles Groves BBC Radio Classics 1969 (live recording)
Jacqueline du Pré Philadelphia Orchestra Daniel Barenboim CBS 1970 (live recording)
Paul Tortelier London Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult EMI 1972
Paul Tortelier BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult BBC Legends 1972 (live recording)
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Iceland Symphony Orchestra Jean-Pierre Jacquillat Danacord 1973 (live recording)
James Whitehead Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Carl Pini SAREC 1975
Ralph Kirshbaum Scottish National Orchestra Sir Alexander Gibson Chandos 1979
Robert Cohen London Philharmonic Orchestra Norman Del Mar EMI 1980
Lynn Harrell Cleveland Orchestra Lorin Maazel Decca 1981
Heinrich Schiff Staatskapelle Dresden Sir Neville Marriner Philips 1985
Yo-Yo Ma London Symphony Orchestra André Previn Sony 1985
Julian Lloyd Webber Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Yehudi Menuhin Philips 1986
Felix Schmidt London Symphony Orchestra Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Carlton Classics / LSO Live 1988
Steven Isserlis London Symphony Orchestra Richard Hickox Virgin 1988
Paul Tortelier Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Charles Groves RPO Records 1988
Rivka Golani (viola) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vernon Handley Conifer 1988[3]
Alexander Baillie BBC Philharmonic Edward Downes Conifer 1989
Mischa Maisky Philharmonia Orchestra Giuseppe Sinopoli DG 1990
Truls Mørk Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra Michel Tabachnik Lyrinx 1990
Michaela Fukačová Filharmonie Brno Libor Pešek Supraphon 1991
Robert Cohen Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Charles Mackerras Argo 1991
Maria Kliegel Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Michael Halász Naxos 1992
János Starker Philharmonia Orchestra Leonard Slatkin RCA 1992
Torleif Thedéen Malmö Symfoniorkester Lev Markiz BIS Records 1992
Colin Carr BBC Philharmonic Yan Pascal Tortelier BBC Music Magazine 1992
Françoise Groben Orchestre Symphonique de RTL Leopold Hager Banque Générale du Luxembourg 1994
Karina Georgian Moscow Symphony Orchestra Konstantin Krimets Amadis 1994
Arto Noras Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Jukka-Pekka Saraste Finlandia 1994
Shauna Rolston Calgary Symphony Orchestra Mario Bernardi CBC Records 1995
Yoohong Lee Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Yehudi Menuhin Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1995
Julian Lloyd Webber BBC Philharmonic Yan Pascal Tortelier BBC Music Magazine 1997
Kalina Krusteva Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Boris Hinchev Gega 1999
Pieter Wispelwey Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Jac van Steen Channel Classics 1999
Truls Mørk City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Sir Simon Rattle Virgin 1999
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Oslo-Filharmonien Alexander Lazarev Danacord 2000 (live recording)
Amit Peled Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra Vag Papian CTM 2004
Anne Gastinel City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Justin Brown Naïve 2004
Li-Wei Qin Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Braithwaite ABC Classics 2005
Raphael Wallfisch Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Richard Dickins Nimbus 2005
Daniel Müller-Schott Oslo-Filharmonien André Previn Orfeo 2005
Heinrich Schiff Hallé Orchestra Sir Mark Elder Hallé 2006
Tamás Varga Budapesti Filharmóniai Társaság Zenekara Rico Saccani BPO live © 2007
Natalie Clein Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vernon Handley EMI 2007
Jian Wang Sydney Symphony Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy ABC Classics 2008
Jamie Walton Philharmonia Orchestra Alexander Briger Signum 2008
David Aaron Carpenter (viola) Philharmonia Orchestra Christoph Eschenbach Ondine 2008[3]
Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt NDR Radiophilharmonie Gabriel Feltz Sony 2009
Allison Eldridge Royal Flemish Philharmonic Muhai Tang Denon 2009
István Várdai Orchestre de chambre de Genève Simon Gaudenz Ysaÿe Records 2009
Sol Gabetta Danish National Symphony Orchestra Mario Venzago RCA 2010
Paul Watkins BBC Philharmonic Sir Andrew Davis Chandos 2011
Antonio Meneses Northern Sinfonia Claudio Cruz Avie 2012
Alisa Weilerstein Staatskapelle Berlin Daniel Barenboim Decca 2012
Jean-Guihen Queyras BBC Symphony Orchestra Jirí Belohlávek harmonia mundi 2012
Zuill Bailey Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Krzysztof Urbański Telarc 2013
Li-Wei Qin London Philharmonic Orchestra Zhang Yi ABC Classics 2014
Hitomi Niikura Yamagata Symphony Orchestra Norichika Iimori Art Infini 2015
Steven Isserlis Philharmonia Orchestra Paavo Järvi hyperion 2015
Sol Gabetta Berliner Philharmoniker Sir Simon Rattle Sony 2016
Johannes Moser Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Andrew Manze Pentatone 2016
Nadège Rochat Staatskapelle Weimar Paul Meyer Ars 2016
Hai-Ye Ni Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Raymond Harvey Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra 2016
Kim Cook St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Arkady Shteinlucht MSR Classics 2016
Gary Hoffman Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège Christian Arming La Dolce Volta 2017
Wen-Sinn Yang Taiwan Philharmonic Lü Shao-Chia Oehms 2017
Marie-Elisabeth Hecker Antwerp Symphony Orchestra Edo de Waart Alpha 2018
Sara Sant‘Ambrosio Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Grzegorz Nowak Sebastian 2018
Sheku Kanneh-Mason London Symphony Orchestra Sir Simon Rattle Decca 2018
Dai Miyata BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Thomas Dausgaard Dabringhaus und Grimm 2019
Sébastien Hurtaud New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey Rubicon 2019
Inbal Segev London Philharmonic Orchestra Marin Alsop Avie 2019
Giovanni Sollima Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria Filippo Arlia Brilliant 2019

Critical opinion

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The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

  • 11 February 1984, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
    • Jacqueline du Pré (1965)
  • 27 April 1991, reviewer, Jerrold Northrop Moore:
    • Julian Lloyd Webber
    • Steven Isserlis
    • Beatrice Harrison
    • Paul Tortelier (1998)
  • 14 February 2004, reviewer, Richard Morrison:
    • Jacqueline du Pré (1965)
    • Truls Mørk (1999)
    • Yo-Yo Ma

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008, gave its maximum four star rating to the 1965 du Pré/Barbirolli recording of the concerto. It awarded three stars (representing "an outstanding performance and recording") to the recordings by Casals, Gastinel, Harrell, Harrison, Isserlis, Ma, Mørk, Noras, Rostropovich (1964), Schiff (2006), Thedéen, and Tortelier (1972, studio).[4]

Notes, references and sources

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Notes

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  1. ^ Most of Elgar's acoustic recordings employed an orchestra billed simply as "The Symphony Orchestra"[2]

References

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  1. ^ March, p. 424
  2. ^ Notes to Music and Arts CD set CR-1257
  3. ^ a b version with solo viola, arr. Lionel Tertis
  4. ^ March, pp. 424–26

Sources

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  • March, Ivan (ed). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008, Penguin Books, London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-103336-5