Steven Isserlis & Connie Shih – The Cello in Wartime (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Steven Isserlis & Connie Shih – The Cello in Wartime (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:05:38 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

The chief novelty of this release by cellist Steven Isserlis is the “trench cello” of British soldier Harold Triggs, not just a cello that was taken into the trenches, but a portable instrument that could be disassembled and packed into a box. Isserlis plays the actual instrument, lost to Triggs when he was captured by the Germans, but reunited with him in 1962 near the end of his life. There’s nothing so extraordinary about its sound, although it’s quite good all things considered, but hearing the appropriate pieces selected by Isserlis, including God Save the King and Ivor Novello’s Keep the Home Fires Burning, is undeniably haunting. (The cello on the album’s front cover is not the Triggs item, but a different homemade cello of the period.) The other works, played on Isserlis’ usual instrument, are only tangentially connected to the War, but the cello’s melancholic voice seems somehow evocative, and the defiantly French style of the Debussy Cello Sonata fits the mood. It’s also worth being reminded that the careers of Fauré and Webern overlapped. Taken in totality, the album conveys the sweep of music at the time of World War I, and that’s no small accomplishment.

Tracklist:
01. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135 : I. Prologue (04:12)
02. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135 : II. Serenade – (02:58)
03. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135 : III. Finale (03:31)
04. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata : I. Allegro ben moderato (10:42)
05. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata : II. Adagio ma non troppo – Molto allegro e agitato (12:39)
06. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 : I. Allegro (05:31)
07. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 : II. Andante (07:05)
08. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 : III. Finale Allegro comodo (06:06)
09. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – 3 Kleine Stücke, Op. 11: I. Massige Achtel (01:03)
10. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – 3 Kleine Stücke, Op. 11 : No. 2. Sehr bewegt (00:22)
11. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – 3 Kleine Stücke, Op. 11 : No. 3. Ausserst ruhig (01:38)
12. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Carnival of the Animals, R. 125 : Animals XIII. Le Cygne (The Swan) (version for cello and piano) (03:42)
13. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Jerusalem (arr. for cello and piano) (02:21)
14. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – Keep the Home Fires Burning (arr. for cello and piano) (02:10)
15. Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – God Save the King (arr. for cello and piano) (01:29)

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