Elgar & Carter: Cello Concertos

Daniel Barenboim recorded the Elgar Cello Concerto in 1970 with his then wife Jacqueline du Pré, a legendary champion of the piece. Four decades later he returned to the Concerto again, this time with the brilliant American cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Together they crafted an intensely expressive interpretation, strongly assisted by the eloquent playing of the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra. Weilerstein is poised and contemplative in the opening movement, brilliantly virtuosic in the buzzing acrobatics of the second. The beautiful slow movement is deeply considered, the finale edged with dark resignation. The American composer Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto, written in 2001, is the fascinating coupling, and a heartfelt account of Bruch’s Kol Nidrei is an added bonus.