Elgar: Cello Concerto, Enigma Variations Giovanni Sollima, Orchestra Filarmonica Della Calabria & Filippo Arlia

• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934):
• 1 Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, Op. 39 06:45
• Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85:
• 2 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio 07:47
• 3 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: II. Lento 04:25
• 4 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: III. Adagio 04:55
• 5 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: IV. Allegro 11:00
• Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36:
• 6 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: I. Thema 01:53
• 7 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: II. Variation I - C. A. E. 02:05
• 8 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: III. Variation II - H. D. S. - P. 01:00
• 9 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: IV. Variation III - R. B. T. 01:36
• 10 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: V. Variation IV - W. M. B. 00:33
• 11 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: Vi. Variation V - R. P. A. 02:26
• 12 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: VII. Variation Vi - Ysobel 01:19
• 13 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: VIII. Variation VII - Troyte 01:11
• 14 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: IX. Variation VIII - W.N. 02:18
• 15 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: X. Variation IX - Nimrod 05:14
• 16 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: XI. Variation X - Dorabella 02:47
• 17 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: XII. Variation XI - G. R. S. 01:09
• 18 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: XIII. Variation XII - B. G. N. 02:35
• 19 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: XIV. Variation XIII - Romanza 02:58
• 20 Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36: XV. Variation XIV - E.D.U Finale 06:40
• Total Runtime 01:10:36

Info for Elgar: Cello Concerto, Enigma Variations

From Arturo Toscanini and Sir John Barbirolli to Riccardo Muti and Antonio Pappano in our own time, Italian-heritage performers have often brought special qualities of sympathy and understanding to Edward Elgar’s (1857-1934) music. Now comes a new recording made in the ‘boot’ of southern Italy, lending Mediterranean warmth and passion to a trio of Elgarian masterpieces.

The Sicilian-born cellist Giovanni Sollima has made well-received albums for Brilliant Classics of music by Offenbach (94475) and by his father Eliodoro Sollima (96287). His latest recording, made at the Teatro Politeama in the one-time ‘lace capital’ of Europe, Catanzaro, illuminates one of the core works of the cello literature with an affecting sense of line and sensitivity to the melancholy introversion which colours every bar of the Concerto composed by Elgar in the wake of the First World War.

Twenty years earlier, Elgar’s reputation was secured with audiences across Europe and America through the whirlwind success of his “Enigma” Variations. The stoic beauty of ‘Nimrod’, the gentle wit of ‘Dorabella’ and the nervous excitement and pride of the autobiographical finale spoke directly to listeners who would never know the composer or his ‘friends pictured within’. The agitated, impassioned voice of Elgar in the Variations belonged to its end-of-Empire time and place, orchestrated with a mastery which would soon draw the admiration of Richard Strauss and many more musicians on the other side of the English Channel.

Even that quintessential expression of Englishness, the first of five marches which Elgar collected under the Shakesperean banner of “Pomp and Circumstance” and later repurposed to set ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ for the finale of his Coronation Ode, won the composer standing ovations when he conducted it in concerts across mainland Europe. Under the affectionate baton of their music director Filippo Arlia, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria interpret Elgar’s music with a sensitivity and extroversion worthy of the composer.

Edward Elgar is without doubt the most important English composer of his generation. His works are written in the idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism and are characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms.

This new recording presents two of Elgar’s most important and popular orchestral works, the “Enigma Variations” and the “Cello Concerto”, music of great and universal emotional impact and scope.

Soloist is the Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima, one of the most original and foremost musicians of his time. He has collaborated with Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Ivan Fischer, Viktoria Mullova, Ruggero Raimondi, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labeque, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Stefano Bollani, and with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Moscow Soloists, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico, Accademia Bizantina, Holland Baroque Society and Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Filippo Arlia is one of the most brilliant and versatile musicians of today. He is conductor and founder of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria.

Giovanni Sollima, cello
Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria
Filippo Arlia, conductor

Giovanni Sollima
is an internationally renowned cellist and the Italian composer whose works are most performed the world. He has collaborated with Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Ivan Fischer, Viktoria Mullova, Ruggero Raimondi, Mario Brunello, Kathryn Stott, Giuseppe Andaloro, Toni Florio, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labeque, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Patti Smith, Stefano Bollani, Paolo Fresu, Antonio Albanese and with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Liverpool Philharmonic (Artist in Residence 2015), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Moscow Soloists, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Il Giardino armonico, Cappella Neapolitana, Accademia Bizantina, Holland Baroque Society, Budapest Festival Orchestra.

He has composed music for Peter Greenaway, John Turturro, Bob Wilson, Carlos Saura, Marco Tullio Giordana, Peter Stein, Lasse Gjertsen, Anatolij Vasiliev, Karole Armitage and Carolyn Carlson.

Sollima has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Knitting Factory, Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Opera House (Sidney), Suntory Hall (Tokyo).

Since 2010 he has been teaching at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was awarded the title of Academic.

In 2012, together with Enrico Melozzi, he founded the 100 Cellos.

In 2015 he composed the sound logo of Expo in Milan and inaugurated the new museum space of Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini.

Giovanni explores different genres using ancient, oriental, electric and inventive instruments, playing in the Sahara desert, underwater, and with an Ice Cello.

His discography started up in 1998 with a CD produced by Philip Glass for Point Music which was followed by eleven albums for Sony, Egea and Decca.

He has brought to light the 18th century musician, Giovanni Battista Costanzi, of whom he has recorded the Sonatas and Symphonies for cello and basso continuo for the Glossa label.

In October 2018 he received the Anner Bijlsma Award at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam.

Giovanni Sollima plays a cello by Francesco Ruggieri (Cremona, 1679)

Booklet for Elgar: Cello Concerto, Enigma Variations