There is one alternative modern CD version of Schelomo and none of the Honegger. Indeed, the latter has not appeared on record since Milos Sadlo's account with Vaclav Neumann (Supraphon), which I much treasure. This was coupled with the ubiquitous First Cello Concerto of Shostakovich, which Lynn Harrell also offers on his Decca record of Schelomo. Neither CD account of the Bloch offers exceptional value in terms of playing time, though the Decca at 50 minutes is the better of the two. The soloist and conductor are not well known to collectors here: they are Swiss-born and hail from Berne. Ulrich Schmid studied with Tortelier and Navarra, while Dominique Roggen was a pupil of Kempe and has conducted widely in Europe as well as making appearances in Peking and Shanghai. The Bloch is nicely recorded, though not so vividly as by the Decca engineers, and though there are many musical touches, the playing needs just a bit more zest and sense of eloquence.
Schmid's reading of the Honegger Concerto is rather more leisurely and less well held together than Sadlo's and though statistics in themselves prove nothing, the divergence here is indicative of the artistic approach: the newcomer takes 18' 04'' as opposed to 14'50''. As is the case with Schelomo, the performance is a bit low voltage, and the orchestra are not quite in the Concertgebouw league. I hope it will not be long before Yo-Yo Ma or Raphael Wallfisch get around to recording this charming work.'