Lieux Retrouvés Steven Isserlis (cello), Thomas Adès (piano)

Hyperion CDA67948 *****

“I don’t know why it is,” says Thomas Adès, “that the cello of all instruments makes one dream of Elsewhere when one hears it. Perhaps because the colours are so rich and wide-ranging, one can dream and find oneself in a different place.” His own Lieux retrouvés (2009) is placed last on this disc, and the route to it is exclusively through some of the Elsewheres of the cello repertoire by Liszt, Janacek, late Fauré and Kurtág.

The connections are all explored in Steven Isserlis's wide-ranging note. The Elsewheres of Lieux retrouvés are a kind of everywhere – its four movements correspond to water, mountains, fields and city – and the manner is extravagantly virtuosic. Isserlis understandably refers to "mind-and-body-boggling demands". The performances are all you could wish. url.ie/4qdb