Buriedtreasure

Cellist Laura van der Heijden introduces favourite recordings from her own collection

Songs of Orpheus

Karim Sulayman (tenor); Apollo’s Fire/ Jeannette Sorrell Avie AV2383

I fell in love with Karim’s voice in person, because he did some concerts with Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. We had a long train journey together and I listened to this album. I was completely riveted from beginning to end; I was just so taken by the inventiveness of it. It’s recorded in a really natural, energetic way. Each song has slightly different instrumentation, so you hear different relationships between the voice and the instruments.

Rebekah Cummings Our Strength, Our Song

Akemi Mercer-niewöhner (violin), Rachel Mercer (cello)

Centrediscs CMCCD27719

I came across this disc whilst doing research on pieces for cello and violin, and I was thrilled to hear so much really exciting music that I’d never come across before. This is one of those albums that ticks all the boxes for me – incredible music which is rarely played, all written by female composers and performed with intensity, richness and total dedication.

Beach Romance, Op. 23

Elena Urioste (violin), Michael Brown (piano) BIS BIS-2284

This is so good, it really grabs you. I first heard Elena playing this in concert, and have done a few times. Every time I was like ‘how can someone play the violin like that?!’ It’s a piece that I feel was almost written for her; she has this amazing old-style sound. It’s just total heart-on-the-sleeve music and it feels so natural. Every moment makes total sense, musically, and there’s no note too much or too few. The recording is amazing, I’ve played it over and over again.

Laura van der Heijden’s album ‘Pohádka’ is out on 28 January on Chandos