Barber: Cello Concerto & Sonata Christian Poltéra

• Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Cello Concerto, Op. 22 (1945)
• 1I. Allegro moderato11:50
• 2II. Andante sostenuto06:20
• 3III. Molto allegro e appassionato08:24
• Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Cello Sonata, Op. 6 (1932)
• 4I. Allegro ma non troppo07:56
• 5II. Adagio04:06
• 6III. Allegro appassionata05:46
• Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Adagio for strings, Op. 11 (1936)
• 7Adagio for Strings, Op. 1108:25
• Total Runtime52:47

Info for Barber: Cello Concerto & Sonata

On previous recordings, Christian Poltéra has combined concertos with chamber works by composers such as Frank Martin and Arthur Honegger. The recipe proved highly successful, resulting in more rounded portraits of each composer, as well as of the performer himself: while Poltéra’s performance of Martin’s Cello Concerto was described in Gramophone as having ‘an inspirational intensity to compare with the celebrated Du Pré/Barbirolli recording of the Elgar Concerto’, the reviewer in Fanfare praised him for ‘playing with the kind of semi-arrogant, swashbuckling carefree attitude that suits Honnegger to a tee’. As he now proceeds to Samuel Barber – some twenty years younger than both Martin and Honegger – Poltéra opens his programme with the Cello Concerto, tailored especially for the Georgian-born cellist Raya Garbousova in 1945.

The 25-minute long work is one of only three concertos by Barber, and is remarkable for the way in which he balances out the natural lyric expressiveness of his earlier music with a more urgent, acerbic style, highly rhythmic and intense. That lyricism and expressivity is of course most famously heard in the enormously popular Adagio for strings, which closes the disc in a performance by the strings of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton. But before that, Christian Poltéra and his regular chamber-music partner Kathryn Stott gives a performance of the Sonata for Cello and Piano, composed while Barber was still a student, but brilliantly written for the two instruments.

“Christian Poltéra is ideally suited to this music, not least because he obtains a gloriously rich and full tone from his 1675 Guarnerius cello. Kathryn Stott, faced with a very full piano part, matches the ardour of his playing...[in the Concerto] Poltéra is a highly persuasive soloist and the accompaniment from Litton and his orchestra is first rate.” (International MusicWeb)

“Poltera meets [the Concerto's] technical demands with almost complete ease, and projects the more lyrical moments with subtle inflections of line and beautifully centred tone...Poltera and pianist Kathryn Stott bring out [the Sonata's] Brahmsian ardour and its contrasts between tranquillity and restlessness.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Christian Poltéra, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Litton, conductor

Christian Poltéra
Born in Zurich, cellist Christian Poltéra was a pupil of Nancy Chumachenco and Boris Pergamenschikov before studying with Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna. Since replacing Yo-Yo Ma performing the Elgar concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under David Zinman at the age of 17, Mr. Poltéra has steadily established himself as one of the most prominent cellists of his generation.

As soloist he has worked with eminent orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, NDR Hamburg Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna and Bamberg Symphonies, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestra Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, BBC Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Los Angeles Philharmonic under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Andrew Davis, Paavo Järvi, Donald Runnicles, as well as the leading conductors of the younger generation, such as James Gaffigan, Robin Ticciati, Vasily Petrenko and Andris Nelsons. Mr. Poltéra made his solo debut in the US in 2006 with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Upcoming highlights include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, and a three week residency with the São Paolo Symphony.

Mr. Poltéra also devotes himself intensively to chamber music, working with such musicians as Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Karen Gomyo, Leonidas Kavakos, Martin Fröst, Kathryn Stott, Lars Vogt, and Leif Ove Andsnes, as well as the Auryn, Belcea, and Zehetmair Quartets. In 2008 he joined Mitsuko Uchida in performances of Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time", at Carnegie's Zankel Hall and the Kimmell Center in Philadelphia. Together with violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and violist Antoine Tamestit, Christian Poltéra has formed a regular string trio that performs at the most prestigious concert venues as well as at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals. In 15-16 the Trio Zimmermann tours in Amsterdam, Vienna, Munich, Madrid, Bilbao, Barcelona, and Hamburg. With Juho Pohjonen and Karen Gomyo he performs in Toronto and Philadelphia in March, 2016.

In 2004 he received the Borletti-Buitoni Award and was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist. In 2006-07 he was a 'Rising Star' of the European Concert Hall Organization. He is a regular guest at renowned festivals (such as Salzburg, Lucerne, Berlin, and Vienna) and made his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2007.

Christian Poltéra's discography reflects his wide range of repertoire that includes the cello concertos by Barber, Lutoslawski, Dutilleux, Schoeck, Honegger, Martin, and Toch, as well as chamber music by Prokofiev, Fauré, Mozart, Saint-Saens and Schubert, on the labels BIS Records, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, and Chandos.

These recordings have won acclaim from the international press, and have been honored with the Diapason d'or, Gramophone Magazine's "Editor's Choice", Strad Magazine's "Strad Selection", and BBC Music Magazine's "Choice".

Now recording regularly for BIS, Mr. Poltéra's recent releases include the cello concertos by Hindemith and Walton (São Paulo Symphony Orchestra / Frank Shipway). CD releases in 15-16 include the Dvorak and Martinu Concerti with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Thomas Dausgaard.

Christian Poltéra plays the famous cello "Mara", built in 1711 by Antonio Stradivari.

Booklet for Barber: Cello Concerto & Sonata