Pablo Casals (1876-1973) Encores and
Transcriptions 2
Johann Sebastian
BACH (1685-1750)
Musette [Gavotte from the English Suite
No. 6] BWV 811 arr. Pollain
Komm süsser Tod from Schemelli
Gesangbuch arr. Siloti
Sonata No. 2 in A minor for unaccompanied
violin BWV 1003 – Andante arr. Siloti
Air from Orchestral Suite No 3 in D
major BWV 1068 arr. Siloti
Giovanni SGAMBATI
(1841-1914)
Serenata napoletana Op. 24 No. 2 arr.
Bouman
David POPPER (1843-1913)
Mazurka Op. 11 No. 3
Enrique GRANADOS
(1867-1916)
Spanish Dance No. 5 arr. Casals
Giuseppe TARTINI
(1692-1770)
Cello Concerto in D major – Grave ed
espressivo
Gaspar CASSADÓ
Requiebros
Antonio VIVALDI
(1678-1741)
Concerto Grosso in D minor Op. 3 No.
11 from L’Estro Armonico – Largo arr.
Stutschewsky
Luigi BOCCHERINI
(1743-1805)
Sonata No. 6 in A major for Cello and
keyboard – Adagio and Allegro
Felix MENDELSSOHN
(1809-1847)
Song without Words No. 49 in D major
Op. 109
Antonín
DVOŘÁK
(1841-1904)
Songs my mother taught me [Gypsy Songs
Op. 55 No. 4] arr. Grünfeld
Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844-1908)
Flight of the bumblebee [Tsar Saltan]
Giuseppe VALENTINI
(1680-1740)
Gavotte from Violin Sonata No. 10 in
E major arr. Piatti
LASERNA
Tonadilla arr. Cassadó
Joseph HAYDN
(1732-1809)
Minuet from Sonatina for Violin and
Viola in C major arr. Piatti
Robert SCHUMANN
(1810-1856)
Träumerei [from Kinderszenen Op.
15]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
(1770-1827)
Minuet No 2 in G major [6 Minuets WoO
10 or Violin]
Coriolan Overture Op. 62 +
Pablo Casals (cello) with variously
Nicolai Mednikoff (piano)
Blas Net (piano)
Otto Schulhoff (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra/Pablo Casals
(conductor) +
Recorded 1927-30
NAXOS 8.110976 [74.47]
Picking up from the
earlier release this is the second and
final volume in Naxos’s Casals ‘Encores
and Transcription’ series. It’s concluded
in fact by an orchestral item, Casals’
recording of the Coriolan Overture with
the London Symphony Orchestra. Casals
started his recording career in 1915,
though he always maintained he’d recorded
much earlier, around the turn of the
century. He began with Columbia, and
just before the arrival of electric
recording he switched to Victor in America
and HMV in London. As before his novel
and revolutionary vibrato usage comes
under close scrutiny and that vocalised
legato which he occasionally spun out
with such daring elasticity demonstrate
why he was the premier cellist of his
generation.
It’s not just the tonal
qualities of course; he characterises
with such individuality and personality.
Pollain’s arrangement of Bach’s Gavotte
from the English Suite No. 6, renamed
Musette, is accomplished with the most
tripping of articulation and Sgambati’s
Serenata napoletana is full of pizzicato
wit and legato depth. The Granados is
in Casals’ own arrangement and contrasts
agreeably with the arrangement for violin;
his is more meditative but the violin
versions tend to soar and are more sweeping.
When we move from Camden, New Jersey
where the recordings were quite adequate,
to Barcelona there is a distinct drop
in quality. There’s a muffled patina
to them that never obscures Casals (try
the expressive portamenti and variegated
speed of vibrato usage in the Tartini)
but does sound less attractive. Without
Casals’ leadership things such as extracts
from Vivaldi and Boccherini Concertos
and Sonatas would not have been quite
so forthcoming on disc – and the examples
here are exceptionally interesting exemplars
of romanticised phrasing and nuance.
His Bach Komm süsser Tod is very
slow and rapt – though, in violinistic
terms, no real match for Huberman’s
oratorical fervour in this arrangement.
One hears the level of his identification
with his characteristic and pervasive
grunting (he really lets loose in the
Dvořák.
The Schumann is the
more familiar and well-known London
recording (the rarer earlier one was
in the previous volume) and we end not
with an encore but an overture, Coriolan,
another striking example of Casals the
conductor – and no wonder Boult, amongst
many, valued him so highly in this role.
Most of Casals’ acoustics and early
electrics have now been collated by
Naxos and Biddulph recently and collectors
need not hesitate.
Jonathan Woolf
