Alberto GINASTERA (1916-1983)
Cello Concerto No.2 Op.50 (1980) [34:32]
Cello Concerto No.1 Op.36 (1968 rev. 1977) [34:18]
Mark Kosower (cello)
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Lothar Zagrosek
rec. Bamberg Congress Hall, Bavaria, Germany, 21-25 April 2009 (Concerto No.1),
17-18 March 2010 (Concerto No.2)
NAXOS 8.572372 [68:58]
Naxos have slowly but surely built a catalogue of music by the Argentinean
composer Alberto Ginastera. Their recordings have a strong claim to be definitive.
Ever since a youth orchestra encounter with his dances from Estancia
I have been a great fan. He is the only composer whose music has made it into
both of my last two ‘discs of the year’ selections. This is why
I was delighted to have the chance to make a first acquaintance with these
two major orchestral scores. Each runs to over thirty-four minutes and makes
full use of the large, percussion-rich, orchestra that Ginastera often favours.
Cellist Mark Kosower was the player on the well-received Naxos disc of the
complete Ginastera chamber works for cello (8.570569 - not reviewed here).
I have not heard that disc but on the strength of his performances here he
is a powerful and compelling advocate of Ginastera’s art. Central to
the importance of these relatively late works is that Ginastera married a
cellist, Aurora Nátola-Ginastera in 1971, dedicated the second concerto
to her as a tenth wedding anniversary gift, and revised the first concerto
for publication with her playing in mind. Ginastera’s compositional
career is often broken down into three phases; as I wrote before in my review
of the magnificent three string quartets (8.570780):
"Objective Nationalism" (1934-1948), "Subjective Nationalism" (1948-1958),
and "Neo-Expressionism" (1958-1983). These phases chart a gradual move away
from an overtly Nationalistic/folk-based style to something more personal
although with clearly Latin-American roots. As with many composers there is
a clear sense of a refining of the musical palette, removing the extraneous
and glib and simply leaving the very essence of the music’s fibre. Not
that these are austere scores as such. At one level Ginastera uses the orchestra
with an almost profligate confidence, but at another there is a clear intellectual
rigour here that requires repeated listenings even to begin to get a sense
of the riches on offer. These are not the archetypal cello concertos with
the rich baritone voice of the soloist singing away in the midst of an admiring
orchestra. Very often I got the sense that the soloist was an intruder in
an often unsettling or at least unforgiving orchestral landscape.
Naxos have chosen to place the first concerto second on the disc but I will
deal with the pieces in compositional order. The Cello Concerto No.1 Op.36
[notice how small Ginastera’s catalogue of acknowledged works is] was
commissioned in 1968 but was revised for publication in 1977 and first performed
in the new definitive revision by the composer’s wife. To what degree
the work changed between composition and revision the otherwise excellent
note by Susan Wingrove does not make clear. However, she does explain that
the work was written in the aftermath of Ginastera’s notorious opera
Bomarzo. The opera dealt in quite graphic terms and at length with
the violent and lascivious life the 16th Century Duke Pier Francesco
Orsini. Violence is an abiding impression of the concerto too. Sometimes the
cello seems to plead for some form of reconciliation between warring factions;
at other times he seems only too eager to lead the affray. As so often in
Ginastera sequences of ‘night music’ proliferate but even here,
when marked to be played with extreme quietness, the impression is one of
latent fear-streaked darkness with a thuggee lurking in the shadows. This
is deeply unsettling music - not at all what one might expect coming from
a senior composer in his twilight years having recently found his new great
love. Wingrove points out that Ginastera makes use of motivic cells in both
works - for example B.A.C.H. is used in the first concerto’s first movement.
I have to say without the benefit of a score this has yet to leap out at me
by dint of the music alone. As a whole these are some of the knottier works
by Ginastera that I have heard. On the kind of superficial acquaintance that
a first-hearing review like this must represent the music is stronger on its
use of instrumental colour, texture and motivic development than on melody
per se.
As mentioned before the Concerto No.2 was written expressly for Aurora
Nátola-Ginastera and one imagines the piece embodies both her playing
and their relationship. Night in all its facets dominates again. Although,
in the first movement Ginastera makes play of his wife’s first name
Aurora to write music that represents the transition from night to day - the
concept of metamorphosing darkness to light is given musical form. Again Ginastera
uses pre-existing themes as a backbone of the work. In this instance the cello
solo from the third movement of the Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 but
once again it would be hard to say that in any way this dominates the score.
Again, the abiding initial impression is one of instrumental organisation
and orchestral colour over memorable instant melodic invention. Wingrove in
her notes makes the point that Ginastera worked as a composer of film scores
for some years in the 1950s when he was out of favour with the Peron regime.
Certainly, from this experience it is not impossible to extrapolate forwards
to this work where mood and atmosphere are so key to its overall effect. I
did find myself wondering once or twice how rewarding it is (or isn’t!)
for a soloist to have to perfect such complex writing which ultimately makes
its impact through effect rather than engaging the listener’s heart.
The concluding Finale Rustico is near to one of his earlier exciting
toccatas. As often in the past he uses obsessive percussion-led ostinati to
create a sound-world of riotous celebration.
The writing for the soloist in both concertos sounds terrifyingly hard so
ever more credit to Kosower for total command of instrument and idiom that
he displays. A particular skill is the way in which he is able to link sequences
of notes together which range across the entire cello seamlessly. At a technical
level this is extremely hard but is vital to allow the listener to perceive
such seemingly disjointed lines as melodic. The effect of this style of writing
is to give the music a striving expressionistic quality. Because this is not
music of instant easy beauty it requires from all the players a style of playing
that is almost super-lyrical. It might sound counter-intuitive but music like
this requires a fusion of steely precision in terms of rhythm and technical
accuracy but hyper-romanticism in regard to its expressivity. Kosower has
this aesthetic balance off to a tee. He plays on the borrowed Starker Nebula
- Janos Starker is one of his teachers. It is an instrument ideally suited
to this music and his playing. The tones are guttural and dark from the lower
strings yet are able to cut through the complex textures during the extended
passages in alt. To play these pieces with such conviction is the result
of many hours of concentrated and dedicated work.
Praise too here for the engineering and production of the disc. Ace producer
Michael Fine and his engineer Wolf-Dieter Karwatky have created a disc of
demonstration quality. There is a wealth of orchestral detail - including
extended ‘ethnic’ percussion and a vast dynamic range all of which
has been captured without excessive spotlighting of instruments. Add to that
the need to integrate the solo line believably into the sound picture and
the fact that the second concerto was recorded live - not that one is aware
of any extraneous sounds or fallible playing for an instant - and you can
see that the scale of what they have achieved is very impressive indeed. The
same can be said of the playing of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Lothar
Zagrosek. It says something about the stature of Naxos as a label that established
performers of such stature appear here as a matter of course.
This is one of those slightly curious discs that one admires very much indeed
without necessarily liking it a lot. That I put down to my current superficial
understanding of the music. Ginastera was too fastidious and sophisticated
a composer for his music not to deserve extended study. There is a full-price
version on Pierian of Aurora Nátola-Ginastera playing these works which
I have not heard. This disc must bow to that by dint of its authority alone
but I cannot imagine it being better played by soloist or orchestra or better
engineered. The Naxos disc in any event enjoys a huge price advantage. Indeed,
I would go as far as saying that this is one of the finest concerto discs
from Naxos that I have heard. On the strength of his performance here I will
look forward to hearing more from cellist Mark Kosower.
Nick Barnard
A disc that one admires very much indeed without necessarily liking it a lot
- certainly one of the finest Naxos concerto discs that I have heard.