Continuing the discussion from Best ambient music for masking conversation:
Give me your music reviews. What are the best cello recordings / cello pieces / cello performances / cellists ? I’m most interested in landing a recording on spotify that reflects the beauty and potential of the instrument. Does not have to be a solo piece.
For cellists, here’s a top 20 list:
Bonus tangent: compare and contrast the cello to other instruments.
Well, not Pachebel that’s for sure!
I’ve always like Bach’s BWV 1007 (don’t know if there’s a definitive one but first on search)
…Discourse not letting me embed for some reason…
If I’m reading this correctly, the Penguin Guide to Classical Music lists a total of 4 recordings that receive 4 stars for BWV 1007. That’s insane. I’m opting for the first entry staring Rostopovich.
Dvorak cello concerto. This is the most beautiful concerto for cello and will make anyone fall in love with the instrument. It reflects those characteristics mentioned: the cello sings plaintively, growls in the depths, dances merrily with the orchestra. It showcases everything the cello can do.
I think Jacqueline du Pre played it the best: there are several recordings (I have one with Chicago Symphony), but those are older so sound quality is not as good. You can find some of her performances on Youtube, as well as more recent ones by contemporary cellists.
I just happened to be listening to the Benedictus from The Armed Man: Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins. The version that came up for me on Youtube has a cello solo by Hauser, a relatively young cellist who’s not on the list of bests in the link above:
HAUSER - Benedictus (by Karl Jenkins) - YouTube
And here’s a great documentary featuring Jacqueline Du Pre at the peak of her tragically short career, age 24 in 1969, playing Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman and Zubin Mehta. I have it cued to where she shines, but it’s worth watching the whole video https://youtu.be/VNBiJcsnJ6M?t=2585
It is just a short traditional song, but I heard it so many times:
Still ties a knot in my thoat. They play this every time there is a memorial minute of silence before the matches at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou when someone significant has died.
Now that Bach’s Cello Suites and the Dvořák cello concerto are out of the way, let me suggest these pieces :
Cello and orchestra
Dutilleux’s Tout un Monde Lointain, premiered by Rostropovich in 1970, has already become a standard with about 15 distinct recordings by some of the greatest cellists of the late 20th-early 21st century, which saying something considering that so many post-World War II works have only a handful of recordings (and even more haven’t been recorded at all). While it is demanding music, it is far from the tuneless, arrhythmic caricature that characterizes some contemporary classical pieces. There is a very clear (albeit weird) melody woven in various guises throughout the 5 movements, the orchestration is absolutely gorgeous, and the cello’s expressive qualities are fully displayed - it sings, ponders, cries and wonders. Mysterious, oneiric, otherwordly, sensual. Rostropovich’s recording set the standard, Harrell and Mørk are worth a listen too.
Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto. Perhaps over-ambitious and over-long (40 minutes, occasionally rambling it still contains some of late Prokofiev’s best melodies and most striking orchestral writing, especially in the first movement. Check the stratospheric last minute too, I have idea how cellists can pull off that coda after such lengthy, insanely virtuosic work. Rostropovich and Mørk again, as well as Maïsky.
Cello and piano
Franck’s cello sonata. Actually a transcription of his famous violin sonata, there is evidence that he originally intended it for the cello but repurposed it for the violin as a wedding present for his friend Eugène Ysaÿe. After decades of neglect, cellists are starting to include it in their repertoire, with good reason. Intense and breathtakingly seductive. Maïsky.
Brahms’ two cello sonatas. It seems that the second one is more highly-regarded but I have a soft spot for the first one. Its first movement has two of the composer’s most beautifully moving themes, which - again - is saying something. Rostropovich and du Pré.
I played the grooves off of the Mishima soundtrack by Kronos Quartet. Joan Jeanrenaud was the cellist.
Despite being among the largest string instruments, there’s always room for cello.
I bow to your superior punmanship.
Haydn has several wonderful cello concertos. Here’s a recording of the first two, played by Lynn Harell, who’s #17 on the list of great cellists in the 1st post.
Haydn: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 : Joseph Haydn : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
I’ve been a fan of Haydn since singing his Lord Nelson Mass with a community chorale. Our choir director told us that professionals like playing Haydn: he’s a musician’s musician and makes them sound good.
Elgar’s Cello concerto was a failure when it first appeared in 1919. Casals and others recorded it, but it didn’t become a cornerstone of the cello repertoire until Jacqueline du Pre performed it in 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPhkZW_jwc0
There are loads of recordings of it on YouTube.
