Elgar, Walton: Cello Concertos (2006)

Rich, deep, warm, soulful, and totally as one with the music, these performances of the cello concertos of Elgar and Walton by cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are surely among the best either work has ever received. Of course, both works have received some immensely impressive recordings over the years -- for the Elgar, one thinks immediately of Jacqueline du Pré's, and for the Walton, one thinks inevitably of Gregor Piatigorsky's, the work's dedicatee -- but Müller-Schott has something to say about both works that has not ... Read More

Rich, deep, warm, soulful, and totally as one with the music, these performances of the cello concertos of Elgar and Walton by cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are surely among the best either work has ever received. Of course, both works have received some immensely impressive recordings over the years -- for the Elgar, one thinks immediately of Jacqueline du Pré's, and for the Walton, one thinks inevitably of Gregor Piatigorsky's, the work's dedicatee -- but Müller-Schott has something to say about both works that has not been said before. In the Elgar, Müller-Schott is less overtly passionate than du Pré but more intimately emotional, and his interpretation seems more quintessentially elegiac, and thus more under the skin of Elgar's final masterpiece. In the Walton, Müller-Schott is less obviously dramatic than Piatigorsky but more profoundly lyrical, and his interpretation seems more subtle and elusive and thus closer to the composer's late style. And in both works, Müller-Schott's tone, technique, and... Read Less