Erling Blöndal Bengtsson: The Live Icelandic Recordings 1973-79

Review: TimeOut Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, op 85 1. I. Adagio – Moderato 2. II. Lento – Allegro molto 3. III. Adagio 4. IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro ma non troppo Franz Schubert Sonata ‘Arpeggione’ in A minor, D821 5. I. Allegro moderato 6. II. Adagio 7. III. Allegretto Arcangelo Corelli 8. Adagio in E minor Carl Maria von Weber 9. Rondo in D Major Frederic Chopin 10. Largo, from the Sanate for Violoncello and Piano, in G minor op.65 Sergei Prokofiev 11. Waltz, from “From for Children” op.65 no.6 (Arr. by Gregor Piatigorsky Camille Saint-Saëns 12. The Swan, from The Carnival of the Animals (1886) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 13. The Flight of the Bumblebee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1900) The Live Icelandic Recordings 1973-79 © Included on this CD is Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Lovers of English music may like to know that Bengtsson has also played the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, by Britten, as well as the concertos by Delius and Walton, the latter work written for Piatigorsky and another piece in which Bengtsson has cooperated with the composer as conductor. Elgar (1857-1934) composed his Cello Concerto during the summer of 1919, in the aftermath of the horrors of World War I. It is regarded as his last significant piece, although it is far from being his final music. The concerto is mostly restrained and contemplative, elegiac, but is underpinned by deep passion and stoicism as well as signifying the end of an era and one man’s reaction to changing times following bloody carnage as well as reflecting on his own place in society. The concerto is cast in fourmovements that are linked into two pairs. For the most part, the cellist is given eloquent and lyrical music to play, often tinged with sadness, the expression’s essential privacy rising to passionate climaxes. The second movement offers livelier contrasts, and the third is simple if heartfelt. The outer movements carry the biggest emotional burdens, the finale being the most varied in tempo and mood before the work’s opening idea returns. The coda is curt and anguished, the music’s unsettled qualities unresolved. RELEASE DATE: MAY 2012 CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 724 EAN: 5709499724002 Download BOOKLET (PDF) Related