Octo_Russ

Elgar - Cello Concerto [Lloyd Webber/ Menuhin-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

The companion piece to the Enigma Variations i played last month [12th January 2011], these two works make an ideal pairing, and this disc has won a number of awards which it fully deserves, this disc sits just outside my all time favourite discs at 114, surprisingly this is the first time that Elgar's Cello Concerto appears in my Blog.

Julian Lloyd Webber is an English Cellist, now 59 years old, he recorded this work in 1985, 
i think the booklet front cover is tremendous, a wonderfully symmetric photo [by Richard Holt], with a bust of Elgar rightfully central to the picture, sandwiched between the Cellist and the Conductor, with wood panelling in the background, with excellent lighting showing the detail of the wood, in its many hues of browns and oranges.

The start of the first movement is such a wonderful way to start a Cello Concerto, with a cello solo! [0:00-1:06], and so dark and mysterious too [in E Minor], it's very much a sad lament, composed just after the First World War, it depicts Elgar's thoughts on that war, i like the moment further down the line where the cello starts to raise its voice [2:15-2:40], very impassioned, especially towards the end, and right after the orchestra comes in forte with the same tune [2:39-3:00], it's in these passages that the cello is certainly bleak, i like the way soon after the cello plays a few bass pizzicato notes [3:25+], and gets in a little dialogue with the woodwinds, and towards the end the opening orchestral Allegro is reprised gently on the strings [6:54+], and after a short cello figure the orchestra come in forte with the main tune [7:17+], a lovely moment of reminisce, it's a great start to a Cello Concerto, which i'm learning to understand and love more and more.

Here's Lloyd Webber and Menuhin playing the opening movement on YouTube.