Released on Friday 15 August 2025
Listen on Amazon Music / Apple Music / Spotify / Presto Music
Warner Classics, 2025
Recorded live at the Southbank Centre with Abel Selaocoe and Bernhard Schimpelsberger in March 2025, Selaocoe’s Cello Concerto, Four Spirits, is a celebration of love and life itself.
“the tension between the instrumental and vocal elements of Selaocoe’s performance is resolved by joyfully embracing both, rather than by choosing one over the other.” (David Smith, Presto Music)
“the work draws on Selaocoe’s upbringing, with each movement devoted to one of four guiding township spirits: ancestral wisdom and belief in the values of children, faith and community. Striking sounds keep arriving, more from Selaocoe’s throat than from his fingers, while Schimpelsberger’s rhythmic fire spreads plenty of warmth of his own.” (Geoff Brown, The Times)
“The remarkable thing about this live recording is how exactly this kind of musical language and this spirit… can so infectiously and effectively inhabit a larger ensemble, as it does here.” (Sebastian Scotney, The Arts Desk)