Steven Isserlis
Prominent cellist Steven Isserlis has a distinctive sound, created partly by the use of gut strings, and often performs Baroque and Classical-period music. He has written several books about classical music for children.
Born in London on December 19, 1958, Isserlis was the grandson of Russian composer and pianist Julius Isserlis; the elder Isserlis, on arriving in Vienna in 1922, was rejected for an apartment rental because a previous tenant -- Beethoven -- had the habit of spitting on the floor, and the 102-year-old landlady therefore did not want to rent to a musician. Isserlis is also related to Karl Marx and Felix Mendelssohn. His two sisters are both musicians, and family music-making was an important part of home life. After studies during his teens with Jane Cowan at the International Cello Centre (now the Edrom Casals Centre), Isserlis attended the Oberlin College Conservatory in Ohio, studying with Richard Kapuscinski and graduating in 1978. By that time, he had already launched his career, making his London debut in 1977. His recording debut came in 1985 with an album of the Brahms cello sonatas. That album appeared on the Hyperion label, for which Isserlis has continued to record over his entire career despite ventures into the catalogs of other labels.
Isserlis has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, including the London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He has often appeared with period-instrument ensembles as well, using a modern instrument (his cello has gut strings) but rehearsing with a period bow. An enthusiastic chamber music player, Isserlis has performed in a trio with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Olli Mustonen, in a duo with pianist and fortepianist Melvyn Tan, and with other partners, including pianists Stephen Kovacevich and Stephen Hough, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and violinist Pamela Frank. In addition to music from earlier periods, Isserlis has a strong commitment to contemporary music; John Tavener's The Protecting Veil was written for him, and he has recorded and frequently performed the work. Other composers who have written music for Isserlis include Wolfgang Rihm, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Thomas Adès.
A unique feature of Isserlis' career is that he has written books about classical music for young listeners; these include Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (2001), Why Handel Waggled His Wig (2006), and Robert Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians: Revisited by Steven Isserlis (2016). He has also written children's stories that have been set to music by Anne Dudley. In 2017, his recording of the Haydn cello concertos was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2021, Isserlis published a book for adults, The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion; his recording of those suites won the Gramophone Award for Best Instrumental Recording in 2007. Isserlis' programming concepts are varied and original; his 2022 recording A Golden Cello Decade, 1878-1888, featured works by Richard Strauss, Dvořák, and such lesser-known composers as Luise Adolpha Le Beau, Ernst David Wagner, and Isaac Nathan. By that year, Isserlis' recording catalog comprised well over 50 items.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Beethoven: The Complete Works for Cello and Fortepiano
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 2 Jan 2014
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Golden Cello Decade, 1878-1888: Dvořák, R. Strauss, Bruch, Le Beau
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 4 Nov 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Cello Concertos; C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto
Steven Isserlis, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Sep 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104; Cello Concerto in A Major
Steven Isserlis, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Harding
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 29 Sep 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: Cello Concerto - Walton: Cello Concerto
Steven Isserlis, Philharmonia Orchestra, Paavo Järvi
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 26 Feb 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn, Grieg & Hough: Cello Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 31 May 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, Handel & D. Scarlatti: (Viola da) Gamba Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, Richard Egarr
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Aug 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich & Kabalevsky: Cello Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, Olli Mustonen
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Feb 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lieux retrouvés: Music for Cello & Piano – Liszt, Fauré, Janáček, Kurtág, Adès
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Sep 2012
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Cello Sonata – Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Sep 2018
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cello Suites 1-6, BWV 1007-1012
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 May 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rebecca Dale: Night Seasons
Tenebrae, Steven Isserlis, Guy Johnston
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 8 Mar 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Piano Quintet in F Minor, FWV 7 (Live from Verbier Festival / 2014)
Marc-André Hamelin, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Nobuko Imai, Steven Isserlis
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 24 Jul 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
British Solo Cello Music: Britten Suite No. 3, Walton, Gardner, Merrick & Adès
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Oct 2021
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Cello Sonatas 1 & 2
Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Cello Concerto, Op. 58 - Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Steven Isserlis, Paavo Järvi
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 2 Mar 2015
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Cello Concerto; Fantasiestücke; 5 Stücke im Volkston; Bargiel: Adagio
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 15 Jul 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saens: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; La Muse et le Poète; Suite, Op. 16; Prière: Classic Library Series
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 14 Mar 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tavener: No Longer Mourn for Me & Other Works for Cello
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 30 Oct 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations, Andante cantabile, Pezzo capriccioso & Nocturne - Cello Works by Glazunov, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov
Steven Isserlis, The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 10 Feb 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Cello Concertos No. 1 in C Major & No. 2 in D Major; Symphony No. 13 in D Major; Sinfonia Concertante in B-Flat Major - Sony Classical Masters
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo