Concerto for cello and orchestra in E minor, Op. 85 (1919) [29:17]
Elliott CARTER (1908-2012)
Cello Concerto (2001) [22:17]
Max BRUCH (1838-1920)
Kol Nidrei Op. 47 (1881) [10:49]
Alisa Weilerstein (cello)
Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim
rec. 2, 3, 5 April and 15, 18 September 2012, Philharmonie, Berlin
DECCA 478 2735 [62:27]
This recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto has had its period
of gestation, with Alisa Weilerstein and Daniel Barenboim already having
performed
the work together a few years before working on this release. Riding
high in the classical charts and having been applauded far and wide, my
little contribution to this disc’s history already comes in the wake of
considerable success. Having not so long ago had Paul Watkins’ excellent
Chandos label Elgar to review
my first musings were as to which I might prefer. Paul Watkins and Sir
Andrew Davis are genuinely superb in this piece, and Chandos’s SACD recording
is pretty spectacular as well. By comparison, Alisa Weilerstein makes
Watkins sound more reflective that I had remembered, her more impassioned
playing closer in nature to Jacqueline du Pré’s in some ways, though Weilerstein
is less inclined to linger on the notes, and her timings are always just
a shade shorter.
Weilerstein and Barenboim are very good, though in general I don’t feel
quite the sense of character from the orchestra as I do from the BBC Philharmonic
on Chandos. There is lovely wind playing from the Staatskapelle Berlin
and Barenboim lifts out plenty of the dynamic shading from the score,
but there is something else in the atmosphere created by the BBC players.
Take that weighty, almost leaden tread from the orchestra around the six
minute mark in the first movement. In the run up to the big top note from
the cello just before the seventh minute with this Decca version these
make little impact, where with Davis they convey a real sense of world-weariness
– Elgar the elder, his walking shoes pacing the tread of the lost souls
of World War I.
Very ably accompanied, it is very much Weilerstein’s ascendant star which
will sell this performance to you. She is highly effective in the big
solo which opens the second movement, and while you might prefer Watkins’
playfulness with the opening of the movement proper once can but admire
her technical prowess and sense of contrast amidst all that onward pushing,
Elgar generating extra urgency with all those repeated notes. The Adagio
ticks all the boxes, Weilerstein using subtle restraint in her tone to
sing above the orchestra. The final and longest movement is imbued with
all of the poignant and tragic emotion you could wish for, with that sense
of fin du siècle regret never far from the surface, even where Elgar puts
on his jaunty face. If we’re going to compare with Jacqueline
du Pré/Barbirolli then this is an interesting point to do so, with
the classic EMI recording delivering potently in terms of nobility and
defiant passion, but taking us less far down that road of vulnerability
and sense of personal sadness than Weilerstein/Barenboim. That moment
towards the end of the movement where the Adagio theme returns
is genuinely transcendent from Du Pré, the face turned towards the heavens
and lifted beyond earthly cares. With Weilerstein this story is more personal,
the voice continuing to sing but becoming lonelier and lonelier, agonisingly
slipping from our grasp rather than being raised onto a higher plane.
Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto is a remarkable piece, with a
sparing and pointillist orchestration which dramatically responds to and
allies itself to the cello part, creating as Alisa Weilerstein says, “a
one-on-one conversation”. I fear that many who have this CD may try this
work once, decide it is not for them and never play it again. It is indeed
a work which demands focus to appreciate, but the flow of the music has
its own sense of inevitability and architectural logic, and there are
plenty of magical moments to prickle the senses. Indeed, there is a good
deal of humour and wit in the character of this piece, with Webernesque
interjections turning themselves into figures which muse, mutter, jeer
and whoop from the sidelines as the cellist pours out her heart. I’ve
found Elliott Carter ‘difficult’ myself in the past, but his Cello
Concerto is one of his more easily appreciated pieces even from just
an initial introduction. There is an alternative recording on the Bridge
label with Fred Sherry and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver
Knussen which is also very good (see review).
As a ‘bonus’ we have the not insubstantial addition of Max
Bruch’s brilliant Kol Nidrei, in which the cello in part plays the
role of a chanting Aramaic prayer. This is a gorgeous and impassioned
performance which seals the deal as to whether this is an attractive proposition
or not. To sum up, this an excellent disc; deeply compelling on all levels
and worth every cent of its asking price.
Dominy Clements
Another Elgar? Yeh, why not: gwaaannn …
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