Halffter: Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Orchestra; Parafrasis (Rostropovich, cello; Orchestre National de France, Cristobal Halffter, cond.; Erato, 57:09). Both the Penderecki (1982) and Halffter (1985 ...

Leonard Elschenbroich, who begins 10-stop solo cello tour for Music Network on November 19th, is fascinated by the effects of oppression and censorship on composers. He sees Prokofiev as fleeing to "a ...

What are the best works written for cello? Step this way for the most striking, stirring and inspiring works ever written for this beautiful instrument. These six extraordinary works tower over the ...

As with Bach’s St Matthew Passion, this disc presents an unfamiliar early version of a known masterpiece. Prokofiev wrote his Cello Concerto in the 1930s, but it failed to win favour (“grunting and ...

Naxos’s valuable and ongoing Penderecki series here couples the Second Cello Concerto of 1982 and the Viola Concerto of 1983. Penderecki made his reputation in the late 1950s as a master of striking, ...