Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Third Suite for Cello, Op. 87 (1971) [20:38]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012 [30:08]
György LIGETI (1923-2006)
Sonata (1948/1953) [7:34]
Miklós Perényi (cello)
rec. November 2009, Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano, Switzerland.
ECM NEW SERIES 2152 (476 4166) [58:21]
The programme is uncompromising and the playing time ungenerous, but this
is a disc of the highest quality.
Like the two previous Suites, the Sonata and the Cello Symphony, Britten’s
Third Suite for Cello was composed for Mstislav Rostropovich. The first performance
took place in December 1974, by which time Britten was seriously ill with
heart disease. Rostropovich was the performer on that occasion, and although
he had recorded the first two Suites for Decca in 1968, he never went on to
record the Third Suite; indeed, so personal was his relationship with the
work that it was difficult for him to play it at all once Britten had died.
It is based on four Russian themes, the thematic links becoming more evident
with each hearing. As was his later manner, Britten presents the themes only
at the end. There are three Russian folk songs and, to close, the Kontakion,
a hymn for the dead that confirms the overall atmosphere of sombre reflection.
Britten’s Suites have frequently been recorded as a single collection, and
they have been lucky on record. Each one is a masterpiece, and cellists have
responded to them in many different ways. They are immensely challenging technically,
but Hungarian cellist Miklós Perényi need fear nothing by comparison. His
performance is as fine and as moving as any I have heard. There is a certain
detachment about the playing, a noble loftiness that does not spill over into
coolness, but is evident when compared to players such as Truls Mřrk (Virgin)
or Jean-Guihen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi), both cellists I greatly admire. But
this is a very fine performance indeed, and will surely encourage listeners
who don’t already know the earlier Suites to investigate them. Curiously,
the fifth bar of the Kontakion, on the final page of the work, is missing,
but this is certainly not a reason to avoid this remarkable performance.
It was apparently Rostropovich’s playing of the Bach Cello Suites that inspired
Britten to compose one of his own, so Bach and Britten together on disc seems
appropriate and logical. If I feel less qualified to comment on the Bach,
that is mainly because I find that supreme composer’s unaccompanied string
music hard going. The two slow movements of the present Suite, for example,
seem interminable, an impression compounded by the fact that double and triple
stopping interrupt the flow of the music to the point where I can’t hear the
beat. This is particularly true of the Sarabande; and the Allemande, at eight
slow quavers to the bar, frequently subdivided into hemi-demi-semiquavers
- rare beasts usually sighted only in theory books - is a particular challenge
for this listener. I persevered, however, and did come to enjoy parts of Perényi’s
reading. He makes the rhythms dance in the faster movements in a way that
certainly helps a listener such as myself make sense of the music. Rostropovich
is an inevitable port of call when sampling other versions, and he makes surprisingly
heavy weather of the gavottes here, at a slower tempo and greater weight generally.
Truls Mřrk, again, has a more wiry tone in this repertoire than either Rostropovich
or Perényi, which one can argue as being more authentic, and he certainly
imparts more of a dance rhythm than the Russian cellist chooses to do. But
having spent quite some time listening to different performances of this work
I conclude that Perényi is a most reliable guide, his subtle variety of bow
stroke only one reason why he manages to introduce more light and shade into
this highly rarefied music. It only remains to add that this performance differs
in several insignificant details from my old Peters Edition score.
Ligeti’s Sonata is more my cup of tea! The first movement, composed in 1948
as a stand-alone piece, alternates beautiful pizzicato slides with a long-breathed
melody of unmistakeable folk inspiration. The second movement was added in
1953, and is a fiendish moto perpetuo with a surprise finish on a major chord.
Little more need be said about the music, as it speaks directly to the listener.
(The same can be said about most of Ligeti’s music, but the listener must
be open-minded enough to give it a chance.) This performance is stunning,
the second movement, in particular, played with astonishing virtuosity. It
is not the only way, however: I am very attached to French cellist Emmanuelle
Bertrand’s performance on her very first recording for Harmonia Mundi. She
adds more than a minute to Perényi’s three and a half in this movement, but
hers is quite convincing taken on its own terms. There can be no doubt, though,
that Perényi’s playing is astoundingly authoritative. He plays with total
conviction, as if the work belongs to him, and we are convinced in our turn.
The booklet contains an interesting article, in English and in German, wherein
Paul Griffiths discusses the programme and Perényi’s approach to it. There
are also some black and white session photographs of the cellist. The recording
is most beautiful, the cello placed in a lightly resonant acoustic, but recorded
so closely that the slap of the strings against the fingerboard is sometimes
audible, reminding us of that titanic struggle, and its miraculous result,
when a master musician conjures heavenly sounds out of such intractable materials
as wood and gut.
William Hedley
A superb recital from a master cellist, highly recommended if the programme
appeals.
Masterwork Index: Bach Cello Suites