British cellist Steven Isserlis is featured in this premiere recording of two works for cello by John Tavener, The Protecting Veil, for cello and strings, and Thrinos, for solo cello, as well as in Britten's Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87. The Protecting Veil is essentially a concerto in which the cello almost continuously plays, although it differs from a traditional concerto, in which the opposition between the orchestra and the soloist heightens the musical drama. In this case, conflict and drama are minimized; the solo cello ...
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British cellist Steven Isserlis is featured in this premiere recording of two works for cello by John Tavener, The Protecting Veil, for cello and strings, and Thrinos, for solo cello, as well as in Britten's Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87. The Protecting Veil is essentially a concerto in which the cello almost continuously plays, although it differs from a traditional concerto, in which the opposition between the orchestra and the soloist heightens the musical drama. In this case, conflict and drama are minimized; the solo cello is a serene, meditative voice, sometimes floating, sometimes soaring over the entirely supportive accompaniment of the orchestra. While it is idiomatically far removed from the works of Messiaen, its sense of ecstasy lost in timelessness and its supreme indifference to western conventions of musical development, reveal Tavener to be a spiritual cousin of the French mystic's. Britten's three Cello Suites are arguably the most significant contribution to the literature for solo cello...
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