Australian cellist Richard Narroway (b. 1991) is a graduate of the Julliard School, holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan and is currently Lecturer in Cello at The University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music. His debut recording of the Bach Cello Suites was released in 2017 to critical acclaim, with reviewers praising his extraordinary expressive capabilities. 

Although Narroway has taken a quite different path on Requiem, his new recording for ABC Classics, this innovatively programmed collection of Australian works will have reviewers reaching for the same superlatives. Its centrepiece is Peter Sculthorpe’s Requiem for Cello Alone (1979), a moving six-part work based on the Plainsong Requiem Mass that passes through a series of emotional states using the cello’s unique sonorities as a vehicle. But rather than presenting the movements consecutively, Narroway has paired each section with a complementary work. 

The spectacular success of this move is borne out by a richly varied program that feels seamlessly unified in style and technique, even managing to draw Narroway’s own set of variations on Waltzing Matilda