Cello Music

Jacqueline du Pré is my favorite cello player ever. Get as many CDs of her as you can.

I better list some Cds for you :

Yo-Yo Ma is pretty famous.

He not only tackles regular classical, but also dabbles with folk stuff from around the world, which is interesting.

Anner Bylsma's more recent set of Bach's sonatas for solo cello is outstanding. Some will feel Bylsma's is an idiosyncratic rendition, and that his previous recording was better for that reason... well, this IS an idiosyncratic performance, but it really works. He plays a Strad here. Stunning sound. It's like he's sitting there in front of you.

Many, if not most of Yo-yo Ma's performances on the cello are worth a listen. I got to hear him live playing Dvorak's cello concerto. Awesome. I really love his playing on the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack and on the various "Appalachia" recordings he has done with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer. He is very accomplished, and from what I have gathered, a very decent human being in general.

I've personally received a great deal of enjoyment from Rostropovich playing Dvorak's cello concerto.

If you like cello, you might also like viola da gamba / basse de viole. Jordi Savall and Marianne Mueller are two of its leading contemporary exponents. The soundtrack to Tous les Matins du Monde is as good an introduction to French music for this instrument as any. It's not too hard to find and is beautifully played and recorded. It's cliche by now to describe music as haunting, but it's a good description of the sound of the gamba and much of the music written for it.

Some say you haven't heard cello until you have heard Pablo Casals. All extant recordings are pretty well low-fi, since they were made so long ago... but if you can get past that, he did leave us with an incredible legacy.

Hope you can enjoy some of these... cello and gamba are without a doubt among my favorite instruments, too.

i'll second that.

notably her Camille Saint-Saens cello concerto #1 recording is the best i've ever heard. also Sir Edward Elgar's work is quite masterfully done by her.

both are reference recordings that every aspiring cellist listens to.

funny you mention Casals... i heard some of his recordings a few weeks back on the USC radio show, The Record Shelf.

If your willing to try something a little different, there is "Cello Blue" by David Darling. Mello, with a mix of other strings and piano.

There is very little in the way of music written that features cello as lead instrument, but one of the most famous and well recieved CDs in this genre is Rostropovich's Dvorak cello Concerto/Tchaikovsky variations Rococo on mid priced DG Originals

Jorane - 16mm

www.jorane.com

Three words. Yo Yo Ma.

Bach Cello Sonatas 1-6; Rostropovich

i prefer cursive.

Rasputina. Hoho, that's a joke, don't rush out and buy it

Jeepers, Grinch, Julia Kent is a friend of mine. She can play, too, and can write dashing prose as well. She's the only studio cellist I know who has also been a journalist and editor for the Village Voice.

Best cellists I can think of at the moment:

Gregor Piatigorsky (I grew up listening to him because my mother used to teach the Suzuki method), Leonard Rose, Rostropovich, Casals, of course, Truls Mork (listen to his versions of Shostakovich), Pieter Wispelwey (listen to his version of the Bach Cello Suites -- Fournier's, too), Natalia Gutman (unsung heroine of Shost's 2nd), Janos Starker and his Montagnana (though I don't care for his Bach, he's amazing with modern pieces), Frank Miller (principal cellist under Toscanini in the States), Maria Kliegel (normally, I despise (and I mean loathe) Tschaikovsy, but Kliegel's Rococo Variations must be heard), Mischka Maisky, Reiner Ginzel (listen to him on Penderecki's Per Slava for Cello), Arto Noras (listen to his recording of Penderecki's Cello Concerto No. 2, with the composer himself conducting: convulsion-inducingly beautiful (I also like the version played by Ivan Monighetti, with the composer conducting -- I'm listening to it right now)), Chloe Hanslip and her gajillion dollar Guarneri del Gesu, Maria Kliegel, Zara Nelsova, Wang Jian, Zuill Baileys, the cellists from the LaSalle Quartet and the Alban Berg Quartet.