*** Steven Isserlis Plays Schumann. Felicity Lott, soprano; Christoph Eschenbach, piano; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Eschenbach, conductor. (BMG Classics)

This fascinating disc gathers all of Schumann’s extant works for solo cello, including supporting artifacts, such as an alternative ending for the Cello Concerto, the Offertorium from the Mass in C minor (pairing Isserlis’ radiant cello with appreciably simple and direct singing from Lott) and an Adagio by one Woldemar Bargiel, half-brother of Clara Schumann and one of Robert’s students. The playing is almost effortlessly able, imposing in technique and vastly affective in interpretation--the slow movements here resonate long after the disc has been returned to the jewel box. At the piano or before the orchestra, Eschenbach accompanies with supple nobility.