Buriedtreasure

Cellist Matthew Barley introduces three rarities from his own collection

John Adams Harmonium

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/edo de Waart

ECM 8214652

This is a wonderful choral symphony based on poems by John Donne and Emily Dickinson. The extraordinary thing about it is just the length of the build-up; there are various climaxes in the first 18 minutes or so, but it’s really after that the piece finally breaks out from where it has been going for all that time. It’s just a momentous crescendo and absolutely fabulous; a magnificent wall of sound.

HK Gruber Cello Concerto

Robert Cohen (cello) BIS BISCD1341

I never knew Gruber had written a cello concerto, which was remiss of me! I rooted out the recording and was just amazed. It starts off deceptively simple and winds itself into ever-more complicated patterns until there’s the most extraordinary cadenza. Then it unravels itself and ends with what Gruber describes as a ‘pop song’ – this very simple tune repeated in D flat major. I’ve played this piece three times and it’s an absolute killer.

Mark Anthony-turnage Ensemble Modern/peter Rundel Decca 478 9592

I bought this recording straight after I heard the concert. It was the first piece I’d ever heard that combined the sophistication of contemporary classical music with a really solid groove, and the line-up was extraordinary. Peter Erskine provides the kind of beats he did in Weather Report, Martin Robertson plays extraordinary saxophone solos and John Scofield’s on the guitar; yet there’s all of Turnage’s amazing sonorities, harmonies and rhythms over the top. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Barley’s recording of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil is out on Signum Classics