Pieter Wispelwey - Elgar, Lutoslawski: Cello Concertos (1999)

Peter Wispelwey is the first cellist to win the prestigious Netherlands Music Prize, mastering a wide range of repertoire from the early baroque to the contemporary. On this recording he plays two works at opposite ends of the spectrum: the ultra-romantic Cello Concerto of Edward Elgar and the acerbic Cello Concerto of Witold Lutoslawski.
The Elgar Cello Concerto, one of the composer's last major works, was written in 1919. The period after the First World War was filled with depression for Elgar, and the Cello Concerto is steeped in melancholy, stepping away from the virtuoso excesses of the Violin Concerto of 1910. A truly sublime moment is the work's elegiac Adagio where the cello sings wistfully to subdued orchestral accompaniment.
The Lutoslawski Concerto was written in 1970 and is a startling work that makes enormous demands of soloist and orchestra. Lutoslawski sets the cello against aggressive orchestral accompaniment that prods, berates and teases the solo instrument. Ultimately the cello wins the battle and sings triumphantly in the finale. This is an exciting piece and only a cellist of Wispelwey's caliber could manage the rigorous solo work with such skill.