Elgar & Bridge: Cello Concertos
Gabriel Schwabe (cello), ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Ward
Schwabe’s tone is sinewy, his tuning consistently excellent, and conductor Christopher Ward draws sharply proactive playing from the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra...In short, Schwabe’s...
Elgar & Bridge: Cello Concertos
Gabriel Schwabe (cello), ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Ward
Purchase product
Schwabe’s tone is sinewy, his tuning consistently excellent, and conductor Christopher Ward draws sharply proactive playing from the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra...In short, Schwabe’s...
About
These two masterpieces are shadowed by the events of the First World War. Elgar’s Cello Concerto, an intensely poignant, reflective and individual musical statement, has enjoyed unflagging popularity among musicians and listeners for over 100 years. By contrast, Frank Bridge’s Oration (Concerto elegiaco) remained unperformed for decades after its early hearings. Yet it shares spiritual affinities with Elgar’s work and serves as a funeral address of huge solemnity and narrative power in its outcry against the futility of war.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
February 2022
Schwabe’s tone is sinewy, his tuning consistently excellent, and conductor Christopher Ward draws sharply proactive playing from the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra...In short, Schwabe’s performance is a must for any follower of Elgar’s music on record.
July/August 2022
[Bridge] Schwabe’s rendition is superb on all counts. The fifth movement, a cadenza, is excellently performed with requisite fluidity and savage attack that is called for at times while his tone remains solid and enjoyable. This is a wonderful recording on all counts.
February 2022
Schwabe’s incendiary performance demands to be heard, and in his impassioned rhetoric he makes a compelling case for the importance of Bridge’s title in coming to an understanding of this deeply moving score.
28th November 2021
[Schwabe] is no less eloquent than British interpreters Julian Lloyd Webber and Steven Isserlis. Among countless accounts of Elgar’s valedictory orchestral work, Schwabe — with the VRSO under Christopher Ward — can hold his head high too.
26th November 2021
hugely impressive, full of finely realised detail, and lacking in bombast…Some may prefer the heart-on-sleeve approach of more celebrated recordings, but Schwabe makes his own quietly eloquent case for Elgar’s work, just as he is a superb advocate for Bridge’s.
