So, you’ve been in a relationship with this cello for 17 years, am I right, Mr Isserlis?

“I deny everything!” jokes the familiar figure on the other end of the Zoom link. We’re talking about a very special instrument indeed – The Marquis de Corberon cello, which turns 300 this year. One of the last instruments made by the legendary Antonio Stradivari, it was bequeathed to the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1960 and has been on loan to Steven Isserlis since 2009. To celebrate its anniversary, Hyperion is releasing a 10-disc boxset of recordings the British cellist has made with the Marquis during their long and fruitful association.

Steven Isserlis. Photo © Jacky Lepage

Their first encounter occurred many years ago when Isserlis heard a previous owner, the great Canadian cellist Zara Nelsova playing Dvořák in a Maida Vale studio. Some years later, she visited the international music school at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, UK, and played the Marquis in an open chamber music session. “I was sitting with my friend David Waterman [former cellist of the Endellion String Quartet], who’s been my bestest...