Andreas Brantelid (cello), Bengt Forsberg (piano), The Royal Danish Orchestra, Thomas Søndergård
Naxos · 8573690 · 73 minutes
There’s something about English cello writing from this era that feels like walking through fog on a coastline — Bridge, Elgar, and Ireland all mine that same melancholic vein, but each with a distinct shade of grey. Brantelid seems to understand that restraint is the whole point here; he never oversells the big emotional swings, letting the Elgar especially breathe without pushing it into sentimentality. Forsberg’s piano work is the quiet hero of this whole programme, tracing every harmonic shift with a kind of careful attentiveness that never once feels like mere support.
“Rich tone and immaculate precision from Brantelid, plus finely judged accompaniment from the orchestra and pianist Bengt Forsberg.”
— BBC Music Magazine, May 2026,4 out of 5 stars
Truls Mørk (cello), Håvard Gimse (piano)
Alpha · ALPHA560 · 70 minutes
There’s something lovely about hearing the Bridge and Britten sonatas sit next to Debussy’s, since you get to trace a kind of emotional lineage from English pastoral melancholy through to French astringency, all filtered through a cello that never overplays its hand. Mørk’s tone here is lean and considered rather than lush, which suits Britten’s angularity especially well, and Gimse matches him note for note without ever crowding the sound. The BBC review nails it — this isn’t the most indulgent take on these pieces, but the clarity and poise make details emerge that can get lost in more romantic readings.
Awards:
- International Classical Music Awards — 2023 — Nominated – Chamber Music
“Marginally less juicy of tone and idiosyncratic of phrasing than Rostropovich, Mørk brings a classical poise and eloquence to his phrasing and a marvellous sensitivity to detail, while Gimse…”
— BBC Music Magazine, November 2022,4 out of 5 stars
Penelope Lynex (cello), Alexander Wells (piano)
SOMM · SOMMCD229 · 72 minutes
Frank Bridge wrote for the cello the way he lived musically — starting out steeped in late-Romantic warmth and gradually drifting toward something more astringent and searching, and hearing his whole output for the instrument side by side really lets you track that evolution. Penelope Lynex plays with a rich, unforced tone that suits the early salon pieces beautifully, but she’s just as convincing once Bridge’s harmonic language gets thornier and more introspective in the later works. Alexander Wells matches her at every turn, and across 72 minutes you get a genuinely satisfying portrait of a composer too often reduced to a footnote in Britten’s biography.
Hélène Clément (viola), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Alasdair Beatson (piano)
Chandos · CHAN20247 · 61 minutes
There’s something genuinely moving about the idea that Clément is playing the actual instrument Bridge handed down to Britten, and you can hear that lineage in the warmth she draws from the lower strings especially. Britten’s viola writing owes so much to Bridge’s teaching, and hearing them side by side here makes that inheritance feel almost physical rather than just historical. Connolly’s contributions add another layer of intimacy, turning the whole programme into a kind of conversation across generations rather than a straightforward recital.
“The soul of this beautifully constructed recital is the luminous variety Hélène Clément extracts from the 1843 Giussani viola owned by Frank Bridge and passed on to his favourite pupil, Benjamin…”
— BBC Music Magazine, October 2022,4 out of 5 stars
Alexander Baillie (cello) & John Thwaites (piano)
SOMM · SOMMCD251-2 · 2 hours 9 minutes
There’s something bracing about hearing a century’s worth of cello sonatas laid out side by side, watching composers wrestle the instrument into completely different emotional shapes depending on what the moment demanded of them. Baillie plays like he’s got nothing to prove and everything to say, which is exactly the right temperament for repertoire that can tip into either cool detachment or overwrought angst if handled wrong. Two hours is a real commitment, but Thwaites matches him step for step, and by the end you get a real sense of how differently the twentieth century thought about this pairing of instruments.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — October 2013 — Chamber Choice
“These are passionate, focused, full-blooded readings without a hint of reticence or apology. Alexander Baillie and John Thwaites invest each work with the power of utter belief, and as a result…”
— BBC Music Magazine, October 2013,5 out of 5 stars
Natalie Clein (cello), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano)
Hyperion · CDA68253 · 59 minutes
Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata gets adapted for cello here, and honestly it works beautifully — that modal, folk-tinged melancholy translates so naturally to the lower register that you’d swear it was written for Clein all along. Pair it with Bridge’s Cello Sonata, a piece that keeps second-guessing its own Englishness with flashes of harmonic restlessness, and you get a program that feels like one long, unhurried conversation between two composers who clearly knew and respected each other. Clein plays the Bridge slow movement like she’s remembering something rather than performing it, which is exactly the right instinct.
“Bridge’s Cello Sonata incline more to rhapsody than rhetoric, and draws particularly heartfelt playing from Clein and Hadland in the lingeringly regretful opening of the second movement…[The…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2019,4 out of 5 stars
The Nash Ensemble: Marianne Thorsen (violin), Laura Samuel (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), Paul Watkins (cello) & Ian Brown (piano)
Hyperion · CDA68003 · 79 minutes
Frank Bridge is one of those composers who quietly reinvented himself in real time, sliding from lush Edwardian romanticism into something far more astringent and modern as the century went on, and this program lets you hear that shift happen piece by piece. The Nash Ensemble plays it with real conviction, especially Lawrence Power, whose viola tone gives the Phantasy Piano Quartet a smoky, searching quality that never tips into indulgence. What makes the disc so satisfying is the chronological ordering itself — you get to trace Bridge’s harmonic language darkening and tightening across nearly eighty minutes, which turns a chamber music collection into something closer to a character study.
“What this beautifully played and thoughtfully programmed disc has going for it are, first, that it presents these works in a chronological survey of Bridge’s chamber output…Altogether, a valuable…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2013,4 out of 5 stars
Lionel Handy (cello), Jennifer Walsh (piano)
Lyrita · SRCD-441 · 78 minutes
There’s something genuinely moving about a project that keeps digging into the same corner of the repertoire and still turns up gold, and that’s exactly what’s happening three volumes into this series. Hurlstone’s 1899 Sonata is the real find here — that slow movement lament has an ache to it that feels startlingly personal for a composer who died at 30 and never got the chance to fully arrive. Lionel Handy plays it with real conviction, and Jennifer Walsh matches him at every turn, making a strong case for music that’s spent over a century waiting for someone to care this much about it.
“The discovery for me was William Hurlstone’s very strong Sonata of 1899, with its most original slow movement lament, slightly let down by the weak melody of the finale. He was admired by Parry…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2025,3 out of 5 stars(Performance) /4 out of 5 stars(Recording)
