Good morning Amsterdam!

Lovely publicity for Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch residency at Amsterdam’s perfect Concertgebouw.

Pick of the week!

Raphael Wallfisch photographed, to rapturous applause, at the end of his performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by David Hill at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

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“Soloist Raphael Wallfisch’s performance eschewed the usual head-tossing abandon; instead it was contained, as if always holding something in reserve, and none the worse for that”  Evening Standard

Never (yet) performed! Weigl Cello Concerto

Raphael Wallfisch and the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Milton have been busy recording Karl Weigl’s Cello Concerto. The work, despite its composition in 1934, has never been performed.

Wallfisch’s performance will appear in a series of recordings with Classic Produktion Osnabrück (CPO) of cello music by Jewish composers who lost their voices in exile.  Many of the composers to be included in the series — Weigl, Hans Gál, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Berthold Goldschmidt, Franz Reizenstein, Robert Starer, and Ernest Bloch — had a connection either to Wallfisch’s parents, who were exiles themselves, or to his teacher Gregor Piatigorsky.

For more on the project see http://nickythomasmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Raphael-Wallfisch-Berlin-Recording-project-press-release.pdf

New release: British concertos

When I first listened to Raphael Wallfisch playing the Gerald Finzi Cello Concerto, in this two-CD re-issue by Chandos (to be released in North America on May 27, 2016), I thought to myself that it was amazing

The full review is available here