This is an attractive
recital of mainly short pieces, many
in transcription – famous or novel –
that hews close to the Casals-Maréchal-Fournier-Gendron
lineage of programming. That French
players have excelled in their own repertoire
won’t come as much of a surprise, still
less that their Iberian affiliations
should have led to comparable excellence.
The young British cellist Jamie Walton
and his fine accompanist Daniel Grimwood
espouse the repertoire with laudable
nobility and sang froid and the cellist
adds to his enterprise with his own
transcription of Beau Soir. The recording
venue was Cadogan Hall in London, an
eccentric looking building now in regular
use as a concert venue, and the sound
is attractive and naturally warm.
One hears in Kaddisch
that Walton is not interested in spuriously
emotive playing. Tonally things are
kept within natural expressive bounds.
There’s not the hypertension of the
Russian school or, in the Pièce
en forme de Habanera, Fournier’s
oratorical projection. Walton is more
equable and limpid and spins a warmly
suggestive legato line. The Danse
Espagnole, in the Maurice Gendron
transcription, is once more equable,
firmly centred, measured. Some perhaps
may find it too reserved, not quite
extrovert enough, but others will note
his expressive little portamento in
Nana and the gauze-like humidity
he evokes. His Asturiana is leisurely
and full of clarity though an old timer
such as Maréchal married tonal
allure with quick tempi to imperishable
effect. His Fauré sequence gives
us a rather buttoned up Elégie
– fast as well – though one in its central
panel that seems to show awareness of
Du Pré’s recording. And there’s
a dry eyed Après un rêve
which for all its welcome aristocracy
of utterance does tend, for me at least,
to lack some Gallic sensuality. His
Granados Intermezzo could be
more "call to arms" and maybe
more enlivened by gestures but it’s
a consistent feature of his playing
that Walton doesn’t project in this
way. His Debussy collection is sensitively
done with some especially fine diminuendi
in the Rêverie. The biggest work
here is the Cassadò solo suite,
which Walton plays with animation and
vigour, controlling rhythm finely in
the Preludio and exploring a wide range
of tone colours in the contrastive animation
of the Sardana. The Intermezzo and danza
finale is well sprung and has a due
array of colours. This si a work that’s
gaining more and more interest – and
a recording such as this can only help
that worthwhile cause.
Released in their New
Horizons series this is an attractive
conspectus of Walton and Grimwood’s
youthful reserve in this repertoire.
As Klemperer said of Bruno Walter’s
Mahler; "I do it otherwise"
but there’s always a place for polished
reticence in an often over-heated repertoire
such as this one.
Jonathan Woolf
for details
Jamie Walton (cello) 
