Barber: Cello Concerto & Sonata

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Poltera meets [the Concerto's] technical demands with almost complete ease, and projects the more lyrical moments with subtle inflections of line and beautifully centred tone...Poltera and pianist... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Jan 2013
Catalogue No: BIS1827
Label: BIS
Length: 54 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

February 2013

Editor's Choice

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BIS

Special offer ends: 17/07/2024

This release includes a digital booklet

BIS

Special offer ends: 17/07/2024

Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22

Work length27:25

$4.55

$7.75

$10.50

Christian Poltéra
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
Andrew Litton
Recorded: October 2009
Recording Venue: Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway

I. Allegro moderato

Track length9:01

$1.50

$3.85

$5.25

II. Andante sostenuto

Track length11:57

$2.05

$1.30

$1.75

III. Molto allegro e appassionato

Track length6:27

$1.00

$2.60

$3.50

Barber: Cello Sonata in C minor, Op. 6

Work length20:48

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Christian Poltéra, Kathryn Stott
Recorded: January 2012
Recording Venue: Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length8:34

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

II. Adagio

Track length8:04

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro appassionata

Track length4:10

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11

Work length5:57

$1.00

$2.60

$3.50

Christian Poltéra
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
Andrew Litton
Recorded: July 2009
Recording Venue: Nybrokajen 11 (the former Academy of Music), Stockholm, Sweden

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Favourites, Samuel Barber

David listens to some great recordings of Samuel Barber, one of the finest American composers of the Twentieth Century.

Cellist Christian Poltéra turns to the music of Samuel Barber. He is joined by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton and pianist Kathryn Stott.

Poltéra opens his programme with the Cello Concerto – one of only three concertos by Barber – which balances the natural lyric expressiveness of his earlier music with a more urgent, rhythmic and intense style.

Poltéra and regular chamber-music partner Stott then perform the Sonata for Cello and Piano, composed while Barber was still a student.

The disc closes with the enormously popular Adagio for strings.

On previous discs, Christian Poltéra has combined concertos with chamber works by composers such as Frank Martin (BISCD1637) and Arthur Honegger (BISCD1617).

Reviews

May 2013

Poltera meets [the Concerto's] technical demands with almost complete ease, and projects the more lyrical moments with subtle inflections of line and beautifully centred tone...Poltera and pianist Kathryn Stott bring out [the Sonata's] Brahmsian ardour and its contrasts between tranquillity and restlessness.

February 2013

There are three hits here on one CD...[Poltera] is outstanding and invariably well-supported by the Bergen players under Litton. His high positions are effortless, as are the nasty double thirds...Poltera's duet with the oboe in the slow movement is magical...A feature of Litton's Adagio is the way it creeps in fat the start from nothing. Then it's all beautifully paced, spacious and warm. Recorded quality throughout is top-drawer in a truly winning CD.

3rd May 2013

Christian Poltéra is ideally suited to this music, not least because he obtains a gloriously rich and full tone from his 1675 Guarnerius cello. Kathryn Stott, faced with a very full piano part, matches the ardour of his playing...[in the Concerto] Poltéra is a highly persuasive soloist and the accompaniment from Litton and his orchestra is first rate.

13th January 2013

The Zurich-born cellist champions — with masterly elan — the unjustly neglected concerto by the American composer...With the pianist Kathryn Stott, Poltera gives us the ideal coupling...and Litton’s excellent Bergen players round off this outstanding disc with an encore in the form of the Adagio for Strings.

17th January 2013

as Christian Poltéra's fierce, theatrical performance demonstrates, [the Concerto is] a ruggedly impressive achievement in its own right...And while we don't need another recording of Barber's Adagio for Strings, Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic's is wonderfully refined.

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Favourites, Samuel Barber

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