Argentine classics compellingly reworked for cello
The Strad Issue: November 2026
Description: Argentine classics compellingly reworked for cello
Musicians: Lausanne Soloists/Xavier Phillips (cello)
Works: Piazzolla: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires; Aconcagua; Oblivion (arr. Olivier Calmel)
Catalogue number: LA DOLCE VOLTA LDV146
Cellist Xavier Phillips has come up with an unusual and intriguing concept for his debut release with the Lausanne Soloists, of which he’s been director since 2022. This all-Piazzolla disc is filled mainly with new adaptations for cello and strings of two of the Argentinian composer and bandoneonist’s classic scores: the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (originally for violin), and the bandoneón concerto Aconcagua. And together, Olivier Calmel and Phillips have created versions that not only shine new light on the originals, but are also thoroughly convincing and rewarding in their own right.
Phillips brings out the sultry smokiness in the Four Seasons’s often sentimental melodies, and he’s alive, too, to Piazzolla’s impish rhythms and switchback shifts in direction. If anything, he’s even more persuasive in a rich, characterful account of Aconcagua: he’s veiled and expressive in the exquisite slow movement, and full of spirit in a thrilling finale.
The disc is let down somewhat by some rather uncertain playing from the Lausanne Soloists, who themselves sound less than convinced by Piazzolla’s scratchy rhythms and swooping, sometimes screaming portamentos in the Four Seasons, occasionally letting ensemble or intonation slip as a result, though they’re far stronger in a crisp and confident Aconcagua. Recorded sound favours Phillips as soloist, but it’s balanced and authentic all the same.
DAVID KETTLE
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