Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor is a cornerstone of the cello repertoire, a product of the composer’s summer seclusion in the English countryside in 1919. A masterpiece of moods, it encompasses the world-weary and poignant but also the quicksilver and passionate. Two other cello works written at around the same time proved pivotal in their composers’ careers. John Ireland’s Cello Sonata in G minor fuses brooding, terse muscularity with lyricism and bravura, while Frank Bridge’s two-movement Cello Sonata in D minor reflects pre-War Romanticism coupled with wartime melancholy and defiance.

Tracklist
01 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio – Moderato
02 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: II. Lento – Allegro molto
03 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: III. Adagio
04 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio
05 John Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: I. Moderato e sostenuto
06 John Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: II. Poco largamente – Quasi recitativo
07 John Ireland: Cello Sonata in G minor: III. Con moto e marcato
08 Frank Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor, H125: I. Allegro ben moderato
09 Frank Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor, H125: II. Adagio ma non troppo – Molto allegro e agitato – Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro moderato
10 Elgar: Salut d'amour, Op. 12