Elgar: Cello Concerto; Sea Pictures

by Jacqueline du Pre, Janet Baker, John Barbirolli, London Symphony Orchestra

Overview

This recording, released in 1965, was named one of the 50 greatest of all time by the BBC some years ago and is available in various low-priced reissues. Its fame is partly due to extramusical factors; it features the 20-year-old cellist Jacqueline du Pré, well before her tragic illness, and the conductor is John Barbirolli, who was actually heard in the first performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, and who is still probably the greatest Elgar conductor of all. The album also marked something of a breakthrough for mezzo-soprano Janet Baker, but the triumphs are purely musical as well. Du Pré's performance has a magical youthful quality that is rare; many recordings by 20-year-olds may be technically superior but feel as though the performers have been drilled within an inch of their lives. The blooming, rather somber lyricism of du Pré in Elgar's Adagio movement must have been what Elgar had in mind for this wartime work, and Baker's sound in the Sea Pictures is likewise distinctive. This is a work for contralto sung here by a mezzo-soprano. Other singers have done so, but it wasn't a common thing in the 1960s, and Baker's reading is a standout, with bits of soprano flash illuminating the singer's close reading of the texts. This 2004 reissue from Warner Classics/Parlophone has an additional draw in the form of a festive, Cockaigne Overture, Op. 40, from Barbirolli and the London Symphony Orchestra. A classic recording that continues to draw new generations. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2017
Label:	Warner Classics
UPC:	0190295871888
Rank:	28332

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jacqueline du Pre   Primary Artist,Cello
Janet Baker   Primary Artist,Mezzo-Soprano (Vocal)
John Barbirolli   Primary Artist,Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra   Primary Artist,Orchestra

Technical Credits

Edward Elgar   Composer
Michael Kennedy   Liner Notes
Caroline Alice Elgar   Poetry,Lyricist
Elizabeth Barrett Browning   Poetry,Lyricist
Ronald Kinloch Anderson   Producer
Roden Noel   Poetry,Lyricist
Richard Garnett   Poetry,Lyricist
Lindsay Gordon   Poetry
Adam Lindsay Gordon   Lyricist
David Farrell   Photography