Volume 29 Issue 3 | December 2023 & January 2024

FROM THE ARCHIVES
Elgar & Lalo Cello Concertos
Ofra Harnoy
Sony Classical 19658824342 (ofraharnoy.ca)
! There’s a fascinating story behind the
release of Ofra Harnoy Elgar & Lalo Cello
Concertos. When Harnoy joined the international
artists roster of RCA Victor Red Seal
in 1987, she became the first Canadian classical
instrumental soloist since Glenn Gould
to gain an exclusive worldwide contract with
a major record label. The Elgar was recorded
with George Pehlivanian and the London
Philharmonic Orchestra in April 1996 at the Abbey Road studios,
but was never edited and released, apparently due to the ending of
Harnoy’s association with RCA/BMG, now part of Sony Classical.
After repeated enquiries and searches over the years the master
tapes were finally located in 2022. Fortunately, notes from the sessions
survived, and the original producer, Andrew Keener, was available
to advise Harnoy’s husband and manager Mike Herriott, who edited
the tapes in their own home studio. Ron Searles of Red Maple Sound
in Toronto mastered the final edit, as well as remastering the Lalo
Concerto in D Minor, a reissue of the 1995 recording with Antonio de
Almeida and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
In an interview just after the recording sessions Harnoy said that
the Elgar “is one of those pieces that just wrings me dry; I always end
up crying.” It’s a truly beautiful performance, emotionally searching
and full of warmth. There is also a direct link to Jacqueline du Pré,
with whom the concerto is inextricably associated, through mutual
teacher William Pleeth as well as Harnoy’s participation in a du Pré
masterclass.
Lalo’s Concerto in D Minor was recorded at the Poole Arts Centre
in Dorset in May of the previous year. It’s a fine addition to a significant
release.
Terry Robbins
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What we're listening to this month:
49 Around the World: Trios
For Clarinet, Violin & Piano
Ensemble Next Parallel -
Yevgeny Dokshansky, Anna
Nizhegorodtseva, Enrique
Reynosa
49 The Rule of Three
The Andrew Collins Trio
51 Ricercari
Cameron Crozman
53 Midnight Pavane
Don MacDonald
54 Myths Contested
Washington Bach Consort
56 Tendres échos
Anne Thivierge
60 Composing Israel: the
First Three Generations
Liora Ziv-Li, Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra,
Voices of Bedouin schoolchildren,
et al
Anna Hashimoto, Roderick
Chadwick
63 The Head Of A Mouse
Audrey Ochoa
67 Satyam
Vineet Vyas
50 Points of Light
Noah Zacharin
56 Lovers and Mourners
Dorian Komanoff Bandy;
Hank Knox; Elinor Frey
61 Edward Cowie: Where
the Wood Thrush Forever
Sings
67 Wanderlust
Lara Deutsch; Adam
Cicchillitti
70 | December 2023 & January 2024 thewholenote.com