Advantages: Highly burnished, engaging, musically intelligent and emotionally mature playing; beautiful tone is never saccharine. Disadvantages: Nil.
musical phrasing, wisely varying her dynamics (volume) and never abusing her rubatos (elasticity of tempos). All are employed solely at the service of the music. She presents a beautifully realised whole from finely sculpted parts that, while carefully thought-out and constructed, never sound fastidious or prissy. There's a depth of feeling for the music that I fail to get from other prominent cellists of the day who shall remain nameless.
The CelloConcerto was Elgar's response to the gloom that enveloped him and his generation after World War I. Even in the work's brief, lilting passages there lies an undercurrent of melancholy, evincing the composer's profound sense of loss after the Great War. The cello's mournful sound is used to great advantage, especially in the moving, Wagnerian slow movement (III: Adagio), and the soloist ...
Advantages: The Best Recording Ever Disadvantages: None
exceptionally low notes here- I wish my voice were low enough to have stab- I have to keep jumping up and down to an adjacent octave. I’ve put this one on repeat. One minor criticism though; Elgar should have finished this with a minor chord…
5. The Swimmer. There’s an expectant start. It’s classic Elgar, yet operatic at the same time. I’m not so keen on this one, as it’s a bit patriotic sounding. It would probably sound better in a large concert hall with good acoustics, as Baker has some big notes belted out and she goes up quite high for a low voiced woman. It’s a pity for a great CD to end on an inferior piece, but it makes me reach for the “play” button immediately so I can get another dose of the fantastic first movement of the CelloConcerto, so perhaps it’s not such a bad thing ...
Advantages: It is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written Disadvantages: How dare you ask of any disadvantges!?!
, and wrote a melody in 9/8 time. In May, Elgar, his wife Alice, and daughter Carice went to their summer residence of Brinkwells, a cottage in Sussex, for some rural relaxation and healing (Elgar loved the countryside). Finally, in August, he suddenly was attacked by a great surge of creativity. He had his piano taken out of storage and wrote a Violin Sonata in E minor, Op.82, which was soon followed by the String Quartet in E minor, Op.83 and Piano Quintet in A minor, Op.84. This sudden surge showed a new streak of creative development in Elgar's music that was more elusive, economical and a million miles away from his bombastic past. The three works were premiered in May 1919, after which Elgar set out on his great summation of this new style (as well as career): the CelloConcerto in E minor, Op.85.
There is not much documentation ...
![Chopin; Loewe: Piano Concertos No 2 [SACD]](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/229/Chopin_Loewe_Piano_Concertos_No_2_SACD__6197229.jpg)
