Review: Polo Piatti Old World Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

The piece premiered live at Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion three years ago and has finally come to recording. It is inspired both by an old world and a new, being written during the Covid pandemic with Polo looking at what went before but also at the new post-pandemic world.

The Argentinian born composer has a world-wide reputation and this is his seventh recording released in the UK alone.

The recording breathes nuance and subtlety. Unashamedly romantic music that while anchored in tradition is unafraid to shake off the shackles. It breathes, ebbs and flows, sometimes rising like a river in flood, at others flowing sweetly. But always dynamic, moving forward. The music has texture and depth, always fluent. It is as if it is telling a story we are not quite familiar with. There are frequent changes in pace and tonality that always keep the listener engaged. It flirts with playfulness before returning to intensity. Melancholy, timeless, perhaps a little Autumnal. There is so much light and shade contained within this. To summarise. This is a powerful and majestic work that needs to be heard.