Abel Selaocoe
Four Spirits
Abel Selaocoe (cello); Aurora Orchestra
Warner Classics 2173277863 41:15 mins
Abel Selaocoe is a breathtakingly vibrant artist who has a poignant understanding of the umbilical cord between music, community and spirituality. In conveying this humane message, he offers exceptional cello virtuosity moulded in Western training, but enhancing those sound worlds with a unique singing style that turns the voice into an instrument, be it a growling grooving bass, or fluttering high notes. It’s a quasi-scat style that at times recalls Ella Fitzgerald.
Add to that his absorption of his intoxicating native Zulu language and folk materials, and you have this compelling journey. In his first Cello Concerto, Four Spirits, each of the four movements looks at a different aspect of life – ‘MaSebego’, a narrative reflecting on the traditional ancestral role of healing. ‘Bana’ – the second movement – is more whimsical, exploring the playful nature of children, the cello scampering along the high registers, teasing us with playful harmonic slides and skittish pizzicatos.
What is so striking is Selaocoe's unswerving mission; he believes in music’s role to improve humanity. The third movement – ‘Tshepo’ – looks at the role of prayer. The opening cello idea reflects a Baroque inflection with fast string crossings, before the spiritual journey takes us into other realms. The underlying percussion line is brilliantly expressed by Bernhard Schimpelsberger, with the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon adding a supremely executed partnering role.
‘Simunye’ – the final movement – celebrates the communal aspect of singing as the audience join in the cello’s visionary narrative of the folk-inflected lines – inspiringly tender.