Britten Mork

Cellist Truls Mørk’s profound sensitivity to musical style is once again evident as he and Les Violons du Roy, under their director Bernard Labadie, bring modern instruments and 18th century sensibilities to the cello concertos of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (third son of Johann Sebastian), in performances that give us ‘the best of both worlds’.

Cellist Truls Mørk’s profound sensitivity to musical style is once again evident as he and Les Violons du Roy, under their director Bernard Labadie, bring modern instruments and 18th century sensibilities to the cello concertos of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (third son of Johann Sebastian), in performances that give us ‘the best of both worlds’.

Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson began his career as a cellist and was the principal cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra before retiring to devote himself to composition. It's especially fitting, then, that the Scottish Chamber Orchestra plays two of his works for cello and orchestra on this CD, his Herma (1995) and Cello Concerto (2003). Hallgrímsson wrote the concerto for featured soloist Truls Mørk, who has performed it, as well as Herma, many times.

This Collector's Edition presents a challenge to reviewers. There's so much of it. I could never do it any sort of justice if I approached this as if reviewing a smaller set. This, after all, comprises 37 CDs. As it is all I have been able to do is to sample, reminisce about known recordings and write around the subject. With this caveat stated, let's make a start.
There are three principal strands of Britten recordings. These are broadly tied into and defined by record companies, artists and eras. First we have Britten recording Britten for Decca.