Jonathan Harvey's Cello Concerto (1990 rev. 2005) is a luminous 20-minute movement in which the soloist is wreathed in a halo of sound from a Messiaen-like concertante group comprising tuned percussion, electric keyboard, celesta and harp. There is little trace of the usual `heroic' concerto soloist here: at once virtuoso and delicate, the cellist eschews a series of earthy outbursts from the orchestra, and is elevated to higher, more rarefied plains. Harvey was himself a skilled cellist and his knowledge of the instrument, and his skill and adeptness in writing for it, is evident throughout.

'It is a careful balancing act, which is sustained well... its working-out contains more than enough arresting sounds and soloistic intricacy to keep the ear hanging on every bar.'
Financial Times (Andrew Clements), December 1990