With this reissue
of the classic recording Steven Isserlis made of The Protecting
Veil, I now have the chance to compare it directly with
a version on Telarc
I looked at a while ago; that of I Fiamminghi with France Springuel
as solo cellist. That recording, made in the vast acoustic of
the Onze Liever Vrouw church in Gent, does have a rather magical
aura, and as a production in its own right I would defend it
against all comers. The Abbey Road Studio is a special space
of a different kind, and it is the sheer waves of energy which
the performers produce which generates the kind of results which
made this a classic recording. Steven Isserlis is of course
a superlative soloist, but France Springuel gives away very
little in terms of style and technique. The Abbey Road recording
gives more of a chamber music feel to the faux-medieval sounding
passages in the second Nativity movement, and there is
a feeling of closer intimacy with the sliding glissandi and
parlando moments. This doesn’t necessarily translate into heightened
impact in the louder sections, and it is here that the Belgian
acoustic allows greater space for even the more laboured sections
i the composition to breathe and develop. This is music which
suits a large acoustic, and while it has its own effect in expanding
the dimensions of the studio, I still admire the way the Telarc
engineers preserve the sense of space in Gent without sacrificing
too much in the way of detail. In the end, Steven Isserlis’s
impassioned and articulately communicative solo in movements
such as The Incarnation, and the genuinely mournful sounding
solo of The Lament of the Mother of God at the Cross
make the Virgin Classics recording extra special.
Genuine fans of
this work should really have both versions, as the filler tracks
are complementary, with a string orchestra version of The
Last Sleep of The Virgin on Telarc, and Thrinos on
the Virgin CD, oddly subtitled ‘Romance for violin and orchestra’
and given the wrong timing of 17:37 inside the booklet; no doubt
a forgotten fag-end from a former release – someone hanging
onto the format and forgetting to delete the line. This is a
short piece for solo cello, and was written for Steven Isserlis.
An ideal companion to The Protecting Veil, this is a
slow, timeless threnody which contrasts to the impassioned playing
with orchestra, but which continues in a liturgical vein, being
more like a personal prayer after the public display of Veil.
Britten’s Cello
Suite No.3 might seem a strange choice to accompany these
works, but its content is not unconnected. It was written as a
tribute to the composer’s Russian friends Rostropovich and Shostakovich,
and uses three of the Russian folk songs previously arranged by
Tchaikovsky, plus the Russian Kontakion or Hymn for the
Departed. The music’s often contemplative and mournful character
is well in keeping with Tavener’s pieces, and while there are
of course the dedicatee Rostropovich’s own superlative recordings
of all of the cello suites available on Decca, Steven Isserlis
is a richly expressive advocate of this music. The sustain he
manages to get on those pizzicati is quite amazing, and the depth
in the recording stands witness to playing of remarkable projection
and weight. More than 15 years on, this is still very much a ‘must
have’ disc, and one of the mighty handful of those desert island
releases which can move the listener, and which still proves itself
to be a genuinely memorable listening experience.
Dominy Clements
Steven Isserlis (cello)
