Cellist Sol Gabetta’s
Cantabile collection is
based on singable music with wonderful tunes from opera arias
and songs mainly by popular composers. I was delighted by
his 2005 Munich release that featured Tchaikovsky’s
Variations
on a Rococo Theme and Saint-Saëns’
Concerto No. 1
in A minor with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under
Ari Rasilainen on
RCA (c/w
Tchaikovsky
Andante cantabile,
Pezzo
Capriccioso,
Nocturne, Ginastera
Pampeana No.
2).
All but one of the tracks on
Cantabile are arrangements
for cello and orchestra prepared by Manfred Grafe. Billed
as a bonus the final track is given in the arrangement for
cello and piano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The
art of the arranger is long established. Before performances
could be heard on record or broadcast the majority of music-lovers
had access to orchestral and operatic scores only in pared
down transcriptions. Their realm was the drawing room or
salon. Prominent examples of the art include Franz Liszt
for the piano, Heinrich Ernst for the violin and Alfredo Piatti for the cello. Liszt was the undisputed master making
hundreds of transcriptions of songs, operas and symphonies.
Liszt mainly championed the music of those contemporaries
that were in vogue or he felt deserved attention. Transcribers,
like Liszt with his Verdi and Schubert transcriptions, generally
stayed as faithful as possible to the original. Some composers
would often use a freer interpretive style with their chosen
material. Verdi acknowledged the value of transcriptions as a
way of disseminating his scores to a wider audience; serving
to popularise his operatic melodies still further and advance
his reputation.
Gabetta’s performances of these mainly sentimental and
sugary transcriptions are for the sweet-toothed listener
and are none the worse for that. I note that Classic FM have
already placed this disc on their playlist. The scores are
mainly transcriptions of late-Romantic operas. Long and memorable
melodic lines are a consistent feature.
The first track on the disc is
Je veux
vivre. This gloriously interpreted waltz is probably
the most famous aria in Gounod’s grand opera
Roméo et
Juliette. Of the two transcriptions taken from Jacques
Offenbach’s opéra
bouffe
La Périchole I especially enjoyed Sol Gabetta’s foot-tapping interpretation
of
O mon cher amant, je te
jure.
Georges Bizet’s opéra comique
Carmen is a perennially popular
staple of the repertoire. Gabetta’s
Je
dis que rien ne m'épouvante is
something of a tear-jerker and
Près des remparts de Séville comes
across as confidently swaggering and steamily provocative.
The aria on which it is based is where Carmen propositions Don
José.
Léo Delibes’s song
Les
filles de Cadix was
originally a bolero for voice and piano. Splendidly
communicated the soloist confidently brings out the flamenco-infused
rhythms.
Connais-tu le pays,
the air from Ambroise
Thomas’s opéra comique
Mignon has a particularly
enchantingly melody. It represents Mignon’s precious
childhood recollections of her home from where she was
abducted. In this piece I noted the especially fine woodwind
playing.
A master of melody, Tchaikovsky is represented
by two scores. From
the lyric opera
Eugene Onegin nothing can match Gabetta’s enthralling playing. He vividly
characterises the desperate passion of Lensky’s immaculately
written aria
Whither, Whither have you vanished?
Inspired by the Auvergne region of France, Joseph Canteloube’s
Chants
d'Auvergne is a substantial set of folk songs
for soprano voice and orchestra. The title of the particular
song from the collection is not given in the
annotation but this is certainly a warm and leisurely transcription.
A homage to J.S. Bach, Reynaldo
Hahn’s song
À Chloris,
is taken from
the second volume of his collection of
Mélodies. Gabetta’s
interpretation of the Hahn song is evocative of
a bucolic idyll of shepherdesses and nymphs. Next
comes a gloriously serene rendition of the
Pavane,
Gabriel Fauré’s stately and hauntingly beautiful score. At 0:45 I
noticed what sounded like an untidy edit. Surely this couldn’t
be a flaw in Sol Gabetta’s playing … could it?
Referred to as a ‘bonus’ track the final score on the disc is Figaro’s aria
Largo al factotum from Rossini’s opera buffa
Il barbiere di Siviglia.
It differs from the other scores on this release in that
it is not one of Manfred Grafe’s transcriptions for cello
and orchestra but a transcription prepared by Castelnuovo-Tedesco
for cello and piano, and recorded at a different location. Gabetta
plays with confidence and vivacity in this imaginative Rossini
arrangement complete with its exhilarating conclusion.
The release is let down by the ineffectual
booklet notes that tell the reader virtually nothing about
the music although it does mention arrangements of works
that are not included. Composition dates are not provided;
a task that took me only around ten minutes to find most
of them. Can some one tell me why the final track Figaro’s
aria, presented as a ‘bonus’ track, is a bonus? As the disc
only lasts an ungenerous 53 minutes anyway, surely the label
was not going to give even less playing time.
Private funding has given Gabetta the opportunity to
play a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello from 1759. Although
we are not told which cello is used on this release
I was struck by the luxuriant and deep tone of the marvellous
instrument. Sol Gabetta is one
of those rare instrumentalists who can consistently communicate
personality. Her sparkling and intelligent playing of these
sweet and highly attractive cello transcriptions makes this
an appealing acquisition that will provide enjoyment.
Michael
Cookson
Sol Gabetta (cello) 
