These 21st-century cello concertos come from opposite ends of the stylistic spectrum – Elliott Carter (b1908) characteristically edgy and expressionist, Udo Zimmermann (b1943) remembering a more distant past, though in ways which would probably not have been possible until now. They were paired in a public concert in Munich from which this recording stems, and although it’s a pity that another work couldn’t have been found to fill out a short-playing disc, it’s still a highly recommendable release.

Carter was in his early 90s when he wrote what will probably be his last work to break the 20-minute barrier. The Concerto has an absorbing trajectory, encompassing a wide variety of moods and textures but never losing that arresting quality of pithy and deeply felt expression that is Carter at his best. This performance is not put in the shade by comparison with the reading by the work’s dedicatee, Fred Sherry, with Oliver Knussen and the BBC SO (Bridge, 4/06), and the recorded sound has a winning combination of depth and immediacy.

Udo Zimmermann’s concerto is called Lieder von einer Insel (“Songs from an Island”), an enigmatic phrase to do with various poetic sources which the booklet-notes can only discuss in outline. The first movement is an arrangement of a sorrowful song from Schumann’s Dichterliebe – “Ich hab im Traum geweinet” – and the music moves eloquently and economically forward from this with none of the coy, new-agey nostalgia that can easily afflict such enterprises. As with the Carter, performance and recording are admirable.