Ginastera: Glosses on themes of Pablo Casals Opp 46 & 48

Variaciones Concertantes Op 23 London Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra/Gisele Ben-Dor Naxos 8.572249 ****
If you're fascinated by directors' cuts, original versions and forgotten reworkings, this is the disc for you.

Alberto Ginastera, Argentina's leading composer of the 20th century, wrote two works celebrating the great Catalan cellist Pablo (Pau) Casals – a Glosses sobre temes de Pau Casalsfor string quintet and string orchestra, and a full- orchestra version, written for another great cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich, to conduct. The stylistic reachseems cornucopian in the larger version by comparison with the original. The fine performances here offer Ginastera's breakthrough, Variaciones Concertantesof 1953, as the rich coupling. www.naxosdirect.ie