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Track(s) taken from SIGCD116

Cello Concerto in C minor, Op 66

composer
Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950)
1945

Jamie Walton (cello), Philharmonia Orchestra, Alexander Briger (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
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Recording details: September 2006
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Richard Sutcliffe
Engineered by Andrew Mellor & Jane Blythe
Release date: February 2008
Total duration: 26 minutes 58 seconds
 

Reviews

'This fine disc is testimony to the musicality, maturity and insight that distinguish Jamie Walton's cello playing. The coupling is an unusual one, but the two concertos he performs here with the Philharmonia under Alexander Briger prove to be particularly well matched in their expressive scope … both works have an elegiac feel to them, the ruminative atmosphere of their opening bars being recalled in the closing pages. In interpreting these two works, Walton is not someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes the atmosphere all the more poignant in the slow, mellow unfolding of the Elgar's first movement and central adagio, and in the opening lento of the Myaskovsky. There is emotional force, but it is unforced' (The Sunday Telegraph)» More

'One of the finest recordings of the Elgar. Jamie Walton has a formidable technique; his playing in the scherzo and the finale is beyond compare; and he captures the autumnal melancholy without loss of vitality. His pianissimos in the finale coda are a wonder. He has like-minded collaborators in the Philharmonia and Alexander Briger, who also support him in Myaskovsky's sombre concerto of 1945' (The Daily Telegraph)

'A freshness of approach and of sound makes Jamie Walton's reading of Elgar's Cello Concerto an appealing proposition, despite the crowded market. He sees this work not simply as an orgy of expressive indulgence; instead, he measures carefully its introspection. His approach is not distant, however, but typically balanced and unselfish. Under Briger's well-paced direction, the Philharmonia is perfectly acceptable, though its playing can lack precision. The less often recorded two-movement C minor Cello Concerto of Nikolay Myaskovsk—lyrical, nostalgic, regretful, it was composed in 1944 by this quiet but not compliant man of Soviet music—completes the disc' (The Sunday Times)
From its opening moments, Myaskovsky’s Cello Concerto in C minor Op 66 is an unmistakably Russian affair. The opening Lento’s dark, portentous opening has often been compared to the brooding ending of Tchaikovsky’s swansong Symphony No 6. This dolefulness gradually gives way to a flowering of melodious writing for the cello, subtly balanced by the odd melancholic rumination. The second and final movement, an Allegro vivace, has an initial spring in its step with further hints of Tchaikovsky, now in a chattering, more playful mood. Again the joy is but momentary: a long-spun threnody, peppered with specks of sweetness and infused with folk-like melodies, builds to a troubled orchestral climax. The concerto’s final moments are remarkable; the mood softens into the major and the predominantly dark colouring of the work lightens upwards in register and to a calm close. In comparison with Elgar’s disappointedly abrupt, Edwardian termination, Myaskovsky’s concerto closes serenely, the long and troublesome journey eventually affording a form of tranquillity—an acceptance of what is.

from notes by M Ross © 2007

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