Steven Isserlis Faure

With this programme of music for cello and piano, Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih transport us to the world immortalized in Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu – the Parisian high society and its glittering salons. For the composers of the time these provided a perfect platform for the introduction of new works, performed by the finest musicians in France for a sympathetic, educated and rich (!) audience. And for the music-loving Proust they offered countless opportunities to meet the composers that he so admired (and others that he may have admired a bit less…)

Cello World is a wonderful collection of original works and arrangements from the repertoire of world-famous cellist Steven Isserlis. The inspired line-up of pieces includes Schumann's moving Intermezzo, Leonard's The Donkey and the Driver and Villa-Lobo's rippling Song of the Black Swan. This is the perfect volume for cellists looking for a variety of challenging repertoire.

The coherence of the program on this release by the increasingly popular British cellist Steven Isserlis may not be evident at first glance, but it's a nifty idea, and one with a weight that not so many contemporary composers can comfortably support. What Franz Liszt, Leos Janácek, Gabriel Fauré, and György Kurtág have in common is that they all influenced the last composer on the program, Thomas Adès. This gives you an idea of Adès' eclecticism, which is brought into relief when you hear the strands of music that he likes.

The English cellist Steven Isserlis has been a leading light on the international musical scene for more than three decades. His complete recordings for RCA Victor including concertos and chamber works by Haydn, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg, Saint-Saens, Anton Rubinstein, Faure, Richard Strauss, Janacek, Bloch, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and John Tavener will now be available in a 12-CD box.

Joshua Bell, a violinist widely-admired by audiences and critics, was born fortuitously in Bloomington, Indiana, home of the Indiana University School of Music, which eventually assumed a decisive role in Bell's musical development. Bell was exposed to music from an early age and began his violin studies with Mimi Zweig. Bell's talents developed rapidly; he made his debut as a soloist in performance with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra at the age of seven.