For fans of English music, for fans of cello music, for fans of elegiac music, for fans of great music, this 2005 Nimbus recording is not to be missed. Coupling three sorrowful works for cello and orchestra by Frank Bridge,
Edward Elgar, and
Gustav Holst, this disc by cellist
Raphael Wallfisch with Richard Dickins leading the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic features performances of heartfelt intensity and unsurpassed virtuosity. In his 1930 Oration-Concerto elegiaco, Bridge mourns the dead of World War I with an overwhelming outpouring of passionate grief; in his 1919 Cello Concerto,
Elgar mourns the passing of the prewar world he knew with a stiff dose of concentrated sorrow; and in his Invocation of 1911,
Holst mourns the lose of a Buddhist world he never knew with an explosion of ecstatic lyricism. And in all three works,
Raphael Wallfisch, perhaps the finest cellist in England, plays with tremendous depth of soul and immense nobility of spirit, as if he were a cello-playing Orpheus calling out to Eurydice across an infinite gulf. Dickins and the Liverpool players are faithful partners and grant
Wallfisch the unreserved support he needs. While the small changes in the phrasing of the
Elgar concerto may be the reason hardcore fans of the composer come to this disc, the strength and sensitivity of the performances will be the reason they return to it. Nimbus' sound is full, rich, and warm.