![]() He re-recorded the complete Mozarts later in life with the Berlin Philharmonic, but there is something so thrillingly youthful and fresh about this account – I could listen to them all day long. Barenboim is now in his early 70s and remains one of the most superb conductors, pianists and thinkers in the world. Jacqueline du Pré’s husband was also in his 20s when he undertook this groundbreaking adventure, conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard. A performance of quite astonishing brilliance and beauty that makes us wonder what might have been.ĭaniel Barenboim’s Complete Mozart Piano Concertos (EMI) Just listen to the aching intensity of the slow movement, the bravura of the epilogue. Her early death from multiple sclerosis deprived classical music of one of its most outstanding artists – some believe she was the greatest English cellist of all time – but even if her personal narrative had not gripped the public imagination, I reckon this would stand out as the Elgar to end all Elgars. Jackie was just 20 when she recorded the Edward Elgar cello concerto with conductor Sir John Barbirolli, a conductor with whom she had a unique rapport. Jacqueline du Pr é ’s Elgar Cello Concerto (EMI) So, for what it’s worth, here are my (entirely personal) top ten classical recordings of all time, in no particular order. And when you listen to these records, everything stops you can never hear the piece in quite the same way again. Nevertheless, certain records do stand out over the years – whether for performance, ambition, quality of recording or the ground they broke. For most casual listeners, moreover, the piece itself will be of infinitely more importance than the interpretation, so the name on the sleeve is pretty inconsequential. This is mostly an absurd exercise given the vagaries and subjectivities of taste. With the abundance of recordings out there, classical aficionados inevitably spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting performances, arguing over “definitive” recordings. It’s hard to imagine more compelling proof of music’s singular power to connect humanity across time and space than to hear, say, Enrico Caruso singing an aria such as Una Furtiva Lagrima in the early 1900s only to follow it with a modern tenor such as Joseph Calleja singing it over one hundred years later and it moving us in completely different yet resonant ways. And unlike, say, classic theatrical works which are also repeated and re-imagined for each generation, so long as the musical performances have been recorded, we can continue to experience them in myriad different interpretations. One of the joys of classical over other musical genres is that the greatest pieces get recorded again and again. That trove of treasures, from Albinoni to Zemlinsky, got me thinking about what it was that makes a truly legendary recording. And so it was with a sense of renewed wonder and awe that I sat down to drop the needle on my new hoard. Nevertheless, like most people in the 21st Century, much of my musical listening is done through headphones on a small handheld device, the quality inevitably impaired. I’ve been a vinyl junkie since my teens and consider myself hugely lucky that my job entails going to live concerts on a regular basis. My greedy glee at such a generous invitation had to be tempered by the exigencies of space – unlike him, alas, I don’t have a giant garage in which to store my music – but I still drove home with no fewer than four enormous suitcases stacked full of records, mourning the gems I’d had to leave behind. If I was interested, I could come over and help myself to anything I wanted. Read more: Yo-Yo Ma on how Bach’s Cello Suite No.I recently got a phone call from my father, in which he said he’d decided to clear out his classical record collection. They are remarkable not only for the way Bach makes his solo line dance and move, but also for their human quality, with every movement feeling like an exploration and a deep emotional journey.Īll six suites are incredible, and can be enjoyed as a set – but it’s the flowing, story-telling broken chords of the Prelude to the first suite which hold a unique power over players and listeners alike. Each suite is for solo cello and comprises a prelude followed by movements based on Baroque dance forms. ![]() These six extraordinary works tower over the entire cello repertoire and are both the starting point and the musical zenith, for any solo cellist.īaroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these works between 17, at a time of great artistic happiness while Kapellmeister in Köthen. ![]() What are the best works written for cello? Step this way for the most striking, stirring and inspiring works ever written for this beautiful instrument.
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