Maria Kliegel celebrates her 70th birthday in 2022 and this collection brings together some of her most outstanding recordings, personally selected by Kliegel from her vast Naxos discography. Known as ‘La Cellissima’, Maria Kliegel’s playing is characterised by a warmth, sensitivity and refinement that complements everything she performs. Combining the best from her teachers János Starker and Mstislav Rostropovich, and working alongside excellent orchestras and pianists, Kliegel’s inspirational joie de vivre radiates from all of these performances. From her GRAMMY-nominated Bach Cello Suites to a Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto ranked among the top 50 recordings of the 20th century by Scala, this collection is a major celebration of Maria Kliegel’s fluent virtuosity and irreplaceable musicianship.

There is hardly a ‘Best Of’ or important collection on the Naxos label that doesn’t include the name Maria Kliegel, and there are few musicians more deserving of a celebratory triple-disc career overview such as this one.

Each track in this selection has been chosen personally by Kliegel, for whom recordings – combined with the spontaneity of live performance – are such an important part of her artistic personality. This collection is full of surprise and contrast, being a blend of different performers, of longer and shorter, fast and slow movements, of familiar and unfamiliar cello repertoire from a variety of periods with different styles and genres.